The Federal Government has deployed 16 Nigerian teachers to Liberia under the country’s technical aid volunteer scheme.
The 16 teachers will be departing Nigeria on Friday, September 22, under the Technical Aid Corps (TAC), the Director General of the agency, Dr Yusuf Buba Yakub, said while speaking at the pre-departure programme for the volunteers in Abuja on Wednesday.
He said their deployment followed a request from the Liberian government.
According to him, the teachers will spend two years in Liberia before returning to the country.
“For the avoidance of doubt, this group of volunteers has evolved from a long range of processes that include, response to adverts, shortlisting of qualified applicants, interviews, selection as well as other processes.
“My emphasis on the above bears directly from the important activities and processes that we have undertaken to ensure that the next two years for the volunteers will be a period of serious commitment to the task ahead of them in furtherance of our bilateral ties and friendship with the recipient country, in this particular case, the Republic of Liberia.
“As part of the commitment of the volunteers, there is a tripartite agreement and commitment between us as the Federal Republic of Nigeria and you as volunteers on one hand and, again, between us as a Government and the recipient country, on another. We must not fail in any of these.
“For us here, our business is to continue to facilitate the recruitment and orientation of Nigerian professionals in diverse fields of endeavour for deployment to recipient countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific where their professional ingenuity is highly needed.
“This is what our nation has continued to do since 1987 when the Directorate was established and was perfected by an Act of Parliament No 27 in 1993,” Dr Yakub said.
He charged the volunteers to be guided by patriotism, discipline, commitment to service, obedience to primary authority and commitment to the agreements made.
Speaking on the benefits of the scheme to Nigeria, he said it is an instrument of soft power diplomacy, adding that: “It is better to make friends through diplomacy than to coerce nations through the instrument of war”
“So, Nigeria has chosen to make friends, to share its talents with other countries through this soft power diplomacy. And there are a lot of benefits to the nation because when you make friends, they will always be there for you in terms of need.”
Join Daily Trust WhatsApp Community For Quick Access To News and Happenings Around You.
