Before we continue this week with the second and concluding part of the discourse, I find it relevant to bring to readers knowledge one of the few reactions received from the audience of the column. The reaction in its unedited form is as follows: “Salam alaikum Mr. Ndagi. I read your article on the above subject, a very interesting article. My concern on the subject matter is your claim that nothing of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) properties that we used to see on the social media is true. The museum tour guide may not be knowledgeable enough to know if those things were available in other museum (sic) or not. It’s your duty as a journalist to make your own research before coming to conclusions. Based on historical fact there was a time a lot of items belong to the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and other Islamic artifact were transported to Turkey. We your readers will like to know all the stories you are feeding us are facts based on your research. Thanks for enlighten us on the difference between our mode of doing things in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. Regards. Yours sincerely. Ibrahim Yusif (+234 7060764440)”.
Our previous discourse continues with a recount of our visit to the King AbdulAzeez Library Complex located in the Riyadh city center. It’s a digital library that has a section that preserves currencies used at various historical stages of the Muslim World including those of the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties. The day of our visit to this complex, Tuesday March 14, 2023 was also observed in the Kingdom as Saudi National Flag Day. In the library, we were shown pictorial exhibitions of the stages which the country’s National flag had passed through.
The next point in our itinerary of visits was the Neom Company that will execute “The Neom Project”. This gigantic tourism project is all about the creation of a model city where nature is 95 percent preserved. The capital-intensive project, which is designed to accommodate 9 million people, is expected to gulp 4 trillion Saudi Riyals. The project is one of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 development agenda. Work on the 15-year project actually began in 2016 and is expected to be completed in 2030. The site of the project begins from the mountains of NEOM through the Red Sea in the west; following a single perfect straight line that is 170 km long, 500 meters high and 200 meters wide. It is for this strategic straight line that the project is also code-named “The Line”.
It took the tour guide about two hours to take us round the various sections of the architectural models of the city; giving us detailed explanations of how the model city would look like when completed. In the words of the Neom’s CEO, Nadhmi Al-Nasr, “The heart of Neom is ‘The Line’. I believe when we share this with the world, the reception will be ‘This is a revolution.”
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Highlights of the Neom’s environment include the fact that it extends over three regions with different ecologies that make them ideal for different purposes; consisting of coastal desert, mountains, and valleys. According to the designers of the project, The Line offers zero cars and carbon emissions, 2-minute access to nature, and 5-minute walk to all amenities. Apartments have been designed in modules that would accommodate up to 80,000 people in close proximity to work , leisure, education, education, and health services; enabling them to attain a good work-life balance.
The tour-guide explained that the true wonder is not the incredible city, but in what it offers. A city with no cars means no traffic gridlocks, which also means “more time to spend with loved ones”. Our articulate guide further said, as a city with diverse collection of open spaces suspended on multiple levels, residents are only 2 minutes far from nature; adding that a city that creates no pollution and uses only 100 percent renewable energy can provide nothing but clean air. With a group photograph at the end of the sightseeing session, the guide concluded that “the pioneering solutions to the challenges of urbanization offered by The Line would not only help to change the future for its citizens but for everyone.”
Moving away from the Neom or The Line, this writer would like to share few apparent differences he observed between Saudi Arabia and Nigeria and between citizens of the two countries. In the few days I stayed in the city of Riyadh, not once did I hear any siren blared by any VIP convoy of vehicles. If convoy of vehicles were to determine rank or status among people, it would be difficult in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to know who is rich or poor as no one attempts any show-up, whether in the use of siren or in the number of convoy vehicles. Even in their dressing, everyone (the rich and the poor) wears a long white robe with a reddish headscarf to match. But after my arrival at the Abuja airport, and within 15 minutes of driving between the Bill Clinton Drive and the Umaru Musa Yar’adua expressway, I heard 8 different siren noises meant to probably alert road users that a governor, a senator, a Rep member, a minister, a political party chieftain, a traditional ruler, or a heavyweight business mogul was coming. The privilege offered by the use of siren is so irritatingly abused in Nigeria that local government chairmen, councilors, village heads and even some nonentities fix the device on their vehicles and use it at will. At all the events we attended in Riyadh, not once did I also hear anyone been addressed as the guest of honour, the special guest of honour, the keynote speaker, etc. But here in Nigeria, it’s unusual to attend an official event without hearing of these designations. I also didn’t hear anyone say “I stand on existing protocol.”
Unlike Nigeria where flights are frequently rescheduled or delayed for long hours, my return flight to Nigeria with the Turkish airline did not suffer any delay at any point; neither at Riyadh nor the Istanbul airport. The trip was, indeed, an experience that offered living memories. May Allah guide Nigeria to reposition her museums to become a viable tourism source, amin.