The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has challenged political leaders to see nation building as a long term investment that will survive them.

The minister said this in Cairo after a tour of Egyptian pyramids – ancient masonry structures – and Khafre’s Valley temple, both built in Egypt about 5,000 years ago.

He said the pyramids built as tombs for Pharaohs and the temple had become major tourist destinations, attracting millions of people to Egypt annually and contributing more than 30 per cent to their Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“Five thousand years ago, some people sacrificed to build this pyramids, laboured for their country to build the magnifiieent structure.

“Today, millions of people come here yearly on tourism and this is really profound.

“At every epoch we are called upon to make our contributions to our country, those contributions and those sacrifices, we may not necessarily reap them,, but our children and great grand children will do.

“Therefore, governance is not cash and carry, it is a long term investment and as leaders we must see nation building as a long term investment that will survive all if us.

“When the kings and the people of Egypt were sacrificing to build all these 5,000 years ago, they did not expect these would be major revenue earners.

“Today, the structures have put Egypt on the global map because you cannot talk of pyramids and not talk about Egypt,” the minister said.

Quoting the tour guide, Mohammed said it took the Egyptians 20 years to build each pyramids and the people in obedience and love for the king sacrificed three months to work at the sites.

You can imagine the level of size and the level of imagination five thousand years ago when these were built

“We were told that the pyramids and the temple were built with local stones, granite and limestone.

According to our tour guide, the granites were brought from Aswan which is about thousands of kilometres to this place, what a sacrifice,” he said.

The minister who crept to get to the inside of the pyramid and the tomb, said he was amazed with the architectural design and glad to have taken the tour.

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He thanked the Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Dr Khaled El-Anany and the Nigerian Ambassador to Egypt, Malam Nura Rimi for arranging the tour for him and his entourage.

The Director-General (DG) of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Yakubu Ibn Mohammed, who was in the entourage of the minister underscored the need for nations to protect their heritage like the Egyptians did.

Similarly, Dr Mansur Liman the DG, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, described the pyramids and the temple as one of the seven wonders of the world.

Also speaking, Malam Balarabe Ilela, the DG National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), also stressed the need for Nigeria to develop its tourism potential to attract tourists and generate fund for the country.

The team also took a tour of the Egyptian museum in Cairo. (NAN)