Nigeria Sends 15 Academics To Uganda

Under the Nigerian Technical Aid Corps (NTAC) scheme, fifteen (15) academics from various fields will leave the country to study at Ugandan universities.

Speaking at a ceremony to provide pre-departure orientation to Volunteers selected from tertiary institutions across the country, Rt. Hon. Yusuf Buba Yakub, Director General of the Nigerian Technical Aid Corps, praised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government for its continued commitment and support to the provision of technical manpower to countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific regions.

The former lawmaker, who was represented at the event by Amb. Zakari Usman, Director of Programmes at the Agency, also stated that the Federal Government’s efforts were aimed at ensuring that development among the ACP nations was evenly distributed, and he urged the Volunteers to consider themselves fortunate to have been chosen from among the thousands of applications the Agency received when it called for the same late last year.

Buba challenged the Volunteers to view their recruitment to the TAC Scheme as a humanitarian effort aimed at improving humanity’s ability to face the daily challenges of life, including those posed by his environment.

He stated that the Scheme was a national call to action that promotes national interest and warned the Volunteers not to engage in any actions or activities that could jeopardise the Scheme’s spirit and intent.

Earlier, while thanking the Federal Government for the opportunity to represent the country in their new capacity, Clement Gboyega Afolabi, a Professor of Plant Pathology at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, and Team Lead of the latest batch of Volunteers, spoke for the group and expressed delight at the processes they had gone through to arrive at the day’s event, promising not to let Nigeria down in their host country.

Afolabi also praised the transparency of the exercise’s processes and thanked the Nigerian Technical Aid Corps’ management and officials for their professionalism and dedication to the Corps’ mission.

Other Volunteers who fielded questions with journalists, including Dr. Usman Bature Isyaku of the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, and Dr. Peter Chika Uzomba of the Department of Economics, Federal University, Lokoja, applauded the TAC Scheme, while noting that the Scheme was in tandem with the three cardinal objectives of their responsibilities as academics, which Uzomba described as: Teaching, Research, and

Among those present at the event were Amb. Mohammed Shehu Kangiwa, the day’s Resource Person and former Director of Programmes at the Agency; Mr.Lawandy Bala, Special Assistant on Protocol Matters to the TAC DG; and Mr. James Dung Pam, a Senior Counsellor at the Corps, among many other Agency officials and staff.