Nigeria Missions oxygen that sustains NTAC mandate – DG

Director General of the Nigerian Technical Aid Corps, Hon. Yusuf Buba Yakub, has described Nigeria’s Missions abroad as the Oxygen that sustains the Technical Aid Corps mandate.

Yakub who made this known in Abuja, Thursday, while delivering a presentation titled “Nigeria’s Technical Aid Policy: Role of Mission” to participants of the 26th Regular Course of the Foreign Service Academy at the Public Service Institute, reiterated the pivotal role Nigeria’s Missions abroad play in enhancing the implementation and global reach of the country’s Technical Aid Policy.

In a statement released Thursday in Abuja signed by the Special Assistant to the DG (Media and Publicity) Nkem Anyata-Lafia, it noted, “The Director General in his paper, outlined the framework and objectives of the Technical Aid Corps Scheme, designed as a strategic component of Nigeria’s foreign policy to strengthen South-South Cooperation, promote African and global solidarity, and project Nigeria’s image as a responsible global partner.

“The former federal lawmaker noted that since its inception, the TAC Scheme has continued to deploy highly skilled Nigerian professionals—particularly in Education, Health, Agriculture, Engineering, and Legal Services—to requesting African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries on the basis of the assessed needs and request of those countries.

“Buba emphasized that the success and sustainability of the Technical Aid Scheme to the ACP countries largely depend on the active involvement of Nigeria’s Diplomatic Missions.

“He stressed that Missions serve as the first point of contact with host countries, playing critical roles in identifying areas of need, liaising with partner governments, monitoring volunteers’ welfare, and ensuring alignment with national foreign policy objectives.

“Without the Missions we cannot breathe. They initiate all the meetings we have in host countries and are part of them all. They follow up on decisions taken in those meetings and ensure that we keep a two-way track on developments between NTAC and the countries.

“In fact, the Head of Chancery at the Mission and the Financial Attache are the only signatories to the NTAC Account in every recipient country we have TAC Volunteers” Buba emphasized.

Aligning with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda as expressed in his 4-D Foreign Policy Thrust—Democracy, Development, Demography, and Diaspora—the DG reaffirmed that the Technical Aid Corps Scheme serves as a vital instrument of development diplomacy, saying it fosters not only people-to-people connections but also strengthens institutional capacity in partner nations while enhancing Nigeria’s standing in the international community.

“As a former Chairman of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Foreign Affairs and that of Nigeria/China Relations in his two tenures in Parliament, Buba also highlighted several practical experiences that demonstrated the greater role soft power and cultural diplomacy play in today’s global community, averring that, in the words of Ken Blanchard, the famous American cerebral author, “The key to successful leadership (today) is influence, not authority”.