By Maureen Okon

The Federal Government on Wednesday deployed 20 volunteers to Liberia under the Nigerian Technical Aid Corps (NTAC) programme.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that, at the ceremony held in Abuja, 14 volunteers who returned from the same country after their two-year service to humanity and Nigeria were debriefed.

Speaking at the event, Dr Yusuf Yakub, the Director-General (D-G) of NTAC said the volunteers had been doing exploits in their host communities and raising Nigeria’s flag high.

He admonished the new volunteers to be worthy ambassadors of Nigeria and maintain the reputation of their predecessors in their host community.

Yakub specifically lauded the retuning volunteers for making a huge impact in their host community, especially in books publication, among other notable achievements.

He recalled the significant impacts of TAC volunteers in their assignment in African, Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) countries.

The NTAC D-G gave the example of the previous batch sent to the Gambia.

According to him, two of the volunteers were appointed by the Gambian President to fill the position of Vice Chancellor and Deputy Vice Chancellor in one of that country’s universities.

“Before that set, we also had some set of volunteers who were also appointed as vice chancellor and deputy vice chancellor. in their host country’s University of Technology.

“I encourage the volunteers going out today, to also fly our flag high, so that they will serve humanity, the blacks in Africa and portray the image of Nigeria very well out there,’’ he said.

Yakub thanked President Bola Tinubu for giving special attention to the initiative immediately he came into power.

“This initiative is working not only for Nigerians but for all blacks in Africa in the ACP countries.

“In Nigeria we have great people with great population of over 250 million,’’ he said.

Also speaking, Zakari Usman, the Director of Programme, recalled when NTAC officials visited the volunteers in Liberia early in the year, and some of the volunteers had authored some books.

He underscored the great impact the volunteers had made in that country’s educational sector.

Usman also admonished the new volunteers going to Liberia to be worthy Ambassadors of Nigeria.

Adeleke Roland, a Physicist and the Team Lead of the retuning volunteers from Liberia thanked the federal government for the opportunity given to them.

“The 14 of us had made significant contributions to Liberia’s education system in our respective fields of endeavour.

“Liberia witnessed notable improvements in West African Senior School Certificate Education results due to our efforts,’’ he said.

For his part, Ismail Babatunde, the Team Lead for the deploying volunteers, promised that they would showcase their skills and abundance of the human resources that Nigeria has in their host community. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Rotimi Ijikanmi