Technical Aid Corps screens 430 volunteers

The Technical Aid Corps (TAC) on Wednesday commenced the screening and recruitment of potential volunteers to be posted to two African countries on an exchange programme.

Director of Administration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Ringim, who disclosed this in Abuja, said that the volunteers been recruited are academics with doctorate degree who will be posted to Rwanda and Gambia as university lecturers.
Ambassador Ringim said that applicants been screened are medical doctors, scientists, lawyers as well as experts in the social sciences and the arts.

He revealed that the applicants were chosen from the six geo-political zones of the country, adding that the successful applicants will take part in an orientation programme during which the number of those to be posted overseas will be pruned.
“There is no age barrier for interested volunteers, as we are looking for the best out of the best.
“Recipient countries will provide reasonable accommodation, pay utility bills, provide transport and medical aid to volunteers, the Nigerian government takes care of 90 per cent of the burden,” he said.

The diplomat informed the volunteers undergoing the two-day screening that their participation in the exercise doesn’t automatically translate to recruitment, but that the agency will forward the curriculum vitae of screened volunteers to the recipient universities who will thereafter recommend to the Nigerian embassies in their respective countries the names of preferred volunteers based on their areas of need.

The ambassador advised successful volunteers to be of good conduct and desist from engaging in acts inimical to the image of Nigeria, even as he warned them against participating in political activities in their host countries.
Sanctions, he added, will be meted on erring volunteers who violate the code of ethics for volunteers.

“The narration should be on how Africans through the volunteers developed Africa, and away from the axiom postulated by renowned European writer, Walter Rodney on how western countries under-developed Africa during the colonial era.

Emmanuel Iriogbe, Abuja