…two Nigerians appointed VCs in Gambia universities
Director General of the Nigerian Technical Aid Corps (NTAC), Yusuf Buba Yakub, has pledged to enhance diaspora remittances in the coming years through a structured legal pathway for exporting the nation’s human capital—an initiative aimed at addressing the rising Japa syndrome.
Yakub revealed that two Nigerians currently serve as Vice Chancellors in separate universities in The Gambia, while two others hold Deputy Vice Chancellor positions in the same country.
Speaking at a weekend press briefing to mark his second year in office, following his appointment by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in August 2023, Yakub said NTAC has broadened its scope, opening new frontiers in Nigeria’s soft power diplomacy.
He disclosed that the Corps has deployed 396 volunteers from diverse professions to various countries over the last two years.
He said, “One of the new policies I came in with is to turn Nigeria Technical Aid Corp into a hub for the export of our manpower, not just for free, but also for money.
“And so, side by side with the soft power diplomacy export to support our brothers in Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific, and also to serve humanity, and in the process expose our experts.
“We have introduced the sale of our manpower to discourage JAPA, to also discourage our citizens dying out there in the deserts and in the ocean, and most importantly, to create employment for our citizens.”
He explained further, “Because every year, we graduate thousands from our National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, we graduate thousands from our universities and polytechnics, and so we have millions of unemployed experts on the ground. And so I discussed this with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and immediately we sent an agreement, a proposed draft agreement for this new initiative, because this is going to be a new initiative.
“And I remember when I was in secondary school, our teachers were Indians and other nationals. And so export of labour is as good as export of crude oil.
“And since we are blessed with this labour, the Nigerian Technical Aid Corps has come up with this initiative. And very soon, by the grace of God, we will start exporting labour. And we are also talking with the international organisation on migration and other international organisations to see how this export of labour will not only be restricted to Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific, but it will be all over the world.”
He said that the ministry of Justice has drafted a working agreement and “immediately, we conclude on signing that agreement, we will start exporting our labour with dignity to all parts of the world. And in the process, we will be generating revenue for the country, and we will be eliminating unemployment amongst our citizens, and also increasing the remittance that the diasporas use to remit on their own back home, because we will be sending out more experts to work with dignity with their families out there all over the world.
“And this initiative is not only with the countries we are dealing with, because for the countries we are dealing with, they have already tested the expertise of our volunteers, they have known that Nigerians are people of integrity, high integrity, and so they have trusted us to say, okay, please, we want to start importing labour from your country,” he assured.
He also cited Jamaica that made requests for additional manpower, saying, “And I said, well, we will give what we have, but if you want more, we have abundant human resources, we can give you but you pay for it.”
He said the government of Jamaica has agreed to and has made a request for 400 Nigerians under the new initiative.
He explained that Jamaica will be picking the bills of the experts to be deployed unlike under the NTAC arrangements.
“There are countries that depend on export of labour, so many countries like the Philippines and so on,” he further explained.
He also said the agency has opened relationships with four new countries who are in need of the country’s human resources- Grenada, which is in the South Caribbean; Equatorial Guinea, South Sudan and Zanzibar.
“And there are some other countries that have also opened up relationships, but we have not yet deployed,” he added
Yakub also said he has been able to go round the challenge of funding for the agency.
He also disclosed that all outstanding debts have been cleared including four months allowances owed volunteers and over N300 million air fare owed travel agents.
And despite inheriting a lot of unpaid volunteers allowance, a lot of tickets, money not paid, in the hundreds of millions, by the grace of God and with the support of Mr. President, today we have cleared all our debts. We are not owing a dime. We have paid all our volunteers”.
Yakub also stressed, “The Nigerian Technical Aid Corps essentially is established to deploy soft power diplomacy to Africa, Caribbean, and the Pacific part of the world.
“So today as I speak to you, NTAC has received back over 200 or something volunteers that we have been serving out there. They are all back home. And they all came back intact. And as I also speak to you today, we have over 300 volunteers that we have deployed recently.
“They are out there. And by the end of the year, we will be meeting our budget by 90-something percent. Because by the end of October, we will be deploying over 400.
“We will have over 450 volunteers out there. So despite the slight differential in exchange rate, we are going to meet our budget by 90-something percent, by the grace of God, at the end of the year. And the redeployment has been on. And before now, it was, as I said earlier, almost suspended. Now, we are making a lot of impact all over the world. For example, our volunteers that have been deployed to Gambia, the ones I deployed, the two sets I deployed to Gambia, have been appointed as vice chancellor and deputy vice chancellor in the University of Technology in Gambia.
“One lady volunteer has been appointed by the president of Gambia as the vice chancellor and another professor as deputy and two other directors. And just two days ago, the last set of volunteers we deployed to Gambia, to the University of Education, two of the professors were also appointed as vice chancellor and deputy vice chancellor in the University of Education in Gambia. So in Gambia today, we have two vice chancellors, two deputy vice chancellors, and another vice chancellor who is a former volunteer who is also employed permanently as a deputy vice chancellor in the Gambia University.
“One of our former volunteers is today the deputy vice chancellor. And when you go to other countries, we had a volunteer that was the chairman of COVID in Sierra Leone during the COVID period. That was a position that the Secretary to the Government of Nigeria chaired here.
“But our volunteer was the chairman of the COVID task force in that country during the COVID period. We have volunteers in different countries that are occupying different positions of authority because of the quality of Nigerians that we have. We have everywhere in the world we can beat our chest to say we have the most educated citizens, well-trained citizens all over the world in terms of population.
“So our demography is very rich and the need to share our very rich demography with our fellow blacks all over the world. Because until Africa reaches a stage or a point where we can share what we have amongst ourselves without going out to the Western world to beg for it, we will never be developed.
“And so Nigeria as a major player in Africa, not only in Africa but in Caribbean and Pacific where we have our fellow blacks, our blood brothers who are in the Caribbean and Pacific, who were taken out there during the slave trade. We are sharing what we have, our technical expertise with them to see that Africa becomes united and to help share our cultures together. And the other leg of the 4D foreign policy agenda, which is the development, we are also using it positively through the Nigeria Technical Aid Corps to help not only develop the skills and expose our experts but also to help develop other parts of Africa.
“That is why I’ve just mentioned that in Gambia we have two vice chancellors and two deputy vice chancellors that are contributing to the educational sector, educational development of that country.
“I remember also in Uganda we had volunteers that have invented building materials from the fibre of banana and plantain, which is being put in use today.
“It’s a very strategic foreign policy, and in the past 38 years we have deployed over 10,000 experts to Africa, Caribbean and Pacific, and we have deployed to over 40 countries,” he said.
