By Zainab Rauf The Director General, Nigerian Technical Aid Corps, (NTAC) Mr. Yusuf Yakub, says the Corps is transforming into...
By Zainab Rauf
The Director General, Nigerian Technical Aid Corps, (NTAC) Mr. Yusuf Yakub, says the Corps is transforming into a revenue generating agency, given the activities rendered by the volunteering personnel to foreign countries.
Mr. Yakubu, who stated this in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital at the deployment exercise of forty Volunteers of TAC Scheme to Tanzania, also noted that the TAC scheme is creating job opportunities, thereby solving the problem of unemployment.
“The Jamaican government has now applied for 400 experts from Nigeria that they will fully pay for. Apart from transforming into a revenue-generating agency, we are solving the issue of unemployment. All of us know that we have millions and millions of unemployed Nigerians who are resorting to what we call JAPA, going out of the country to seek for something to do through illegal migration. But with what we are doing today, countries have started to ask for our expertise for a fee, and that will generate revenue for our country and it will eliminate unemployment. The process is at its advanced stage today. The Attorney General of the Federation is working on the new agreement. And I am sure in a couple of weeks, Nigeria will start exporting its labour with dignity to all parts of the world. And so the issue of unemployment will start to diminish until we will not have a problem with unemployment anymore”, he said
The Director General, also stressed that, Nigeria being a big brother country and a superpower in Africa, and in the spirit of South-South cooperation, there is need Nigeria continue to extend a hand of fellowship with fellow blacks all over the world.
He further charged the Volunteering Personnel deployed to serve in Zanzibar, Tanzania to be good ambassadors of the nation in the course of their service to the foreign land.
“They are volunteering to go out there to serve humanity briefly and come back to their place of work in Nigeria. Nigerians are hard-working people. Today in some countries, our volunteers are taking up leadership positions. Like in Gambia, we have vice chancellors of universities and we have deputy vice chancellors and we have judges in other countries and so on. We are calling on our volunteers to make sure that they put in their best to see that they portray the name of Nigeria out there. The main target is to portray our name and our image. That is soft power diplomacy
“Nigeria is a big country and a superpower in Africa, and in the spirit of South-South cooperation, and in the spirit of Pan-Africanism, we will have to continue to share with our fellow blacks all over the world. If you watched your television yesterday, you will see where the president of Gambia was appreciating the Federal Republic of Nigeria, specifically President Bola Tinubu, for bringing Africa to the limelight. And you cannot achieve that until you share what you have. If you travel within Africa today, it’s very difficult to connect, because the level of businesses amongst ourselves is very low. But with this spirit and with this initiative of the 4D foreign policy initiative of Mr. President, I think Africa is becoming stronger and we are becoming united. And with this gesture, Africa will come on top among the committee of nations”, he noted
Mr. Yakubu, disclosed that the Scheme always sends out the best, with the target of portraying the image of Nigeria to the rest of the world, which is yielding a positive result.
“We have professors in different fields. And they are even taking charge of the administration of different universities in that country. We also send out artisans. Like in Jamaica, one of our volunteers has exported adiré, our popular attire, to Jamaica. And today the Jamaican government has established a factory or an industry or a textile producing adiré. And the name has even changed to Jadiré. We send out artisans, we send out professors in different fields. And the plus there is that we are not only impacting the life of those countries, but when you expose your citizens to the other environment, they come back with knowledge too. They come back with experiences”, he added
For his part, the Team Lead for the Volunteer group, Mohamed Jawad Jaffa, a Pediatric Nurse, commended the government for giving them the opportunity to serve humanity in a foreign land, pledging not to let the nation down.
“We give glory to God for this opportunity. And our prayers are that let us do the needful and do as the task requires. And for sure, one thing that is not negotiable is to let us be good ambassadors of our country. And this is what we are going to make sure that we keep to it. And to give a good name for our country, Nigeria, through this programme”.
Also, another Volunteer, Mary Jane Okeze, has this to say about the programme: “Our job here is to help the sick. And this is a very big opportunity for every one of us. And we really appreciate what the government is doing for us. We will make sure we do our best and represent our country properly as we are supposed to do”, she said
The Technical Aid Corps (TAC) Scheme is aimed at strengthening the diplomatic and cultural ties between Nigeria and other recipient nations of the TAC scheme services.
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