The newly appointed Director-General of the Technical Aids Corps (TAC), Dr. Pius Osunyikanmi, has charged volunteers on secondment from the country to the Republic of Uganda to correct any misconception about Nigeria in their country of primary assignment.
Osunyikanmi gave the charge yesterday at a fare-well ceremony organised to send forth the first batch of seven volunteers out of about seventy selected to serve as lecturers in the Islamic University of Uganda.
He said: “As you go out there, may I charge you to be good ambassadors of Nigeria, you are volunteers selected on merit and you must be volunteers for and of merit. As you go about there, you must do Nigeria proud. You must carry the banner of Nigeria, must be able to sell Nigeria, project the image of Nigeria, and must be able if any to reverse the misconception that is held about Nigeria. Anywhere you go in the Republic of Uganda, you will be carrying the image of Nigeria. We expect very good conduct from you, excellence from you and also expect that you will comply with all the terms of your engagement.
“As you know, this is a volunteer job, it is not the emolument that is of interest to you but the zeal to offer service to needy countries and the need to key into the federal government policy. It is almost in a way, another form of national service and I must commend you for offering yourself for this service. Let me place on record that the Directorate will not hesitate to apply the big stick where there are cases of departure from acceptable standard of conduct. This was made clear to you at the orientation exercise and you have signed up to a commitment of good conduct.”
He said he met a lot of rot in the agencies upon assuming office told participants that “On our part, we will be concerned with your welfare, from your allowances to your day to day activities and would from time to time interact with you, our officials will visit you to listen to your problems, encourage you, commend you when you are making giant strides. You must know the Republic of Uganda places high hopes on you. You are like part of the hope for future development. You must strive to live or even surpass that expectation and by the grace of God at the completion of your course we should be able to award you certificates of honour.”