Photo: Left to Right: Lambert Peter, Foreign Service Officer at the Nigerian Mission, Rwanda;Amb. Mohammed Mohammed, Director of Programmes at DTAC, Rt. Hon.(Dr.) Yusuf Buba Yakub, DG, DTAC; Rwandan Minister of State for Education, Ms Claudette Irere;Amb. Suleiman Sani, High Commissioner of Nigeria to the Republic of Rwanda;Mr Shehu Faskari, Head of Chancery, Nigeria mission in Rwanda, Mr Idris Saidu Yusuf, Ag Director ,Finance and Accounts and Haj. Rahila Ayuba Kaura, Ag. Director, Monitoring and Evaluation at DTAC during the visit to the Hon. Minister of State. Photo: *Kauthar Hassan Ibrahim Gwarzo*
The Rwandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation has lauded the Nigerian Technical Aid Corps Scheme, describing its activities as noble and the truest promotion of Pan-Africanism.
Minister of State in the Ministry, James Kabarebe, who stated this in Kigali over the weekend when the Ministry received a delegation of the Directorate of Technical Aid Corps (DTAC), led by its Director-General,Rt.Hon.(Dr.) Yusuf Buba Yakub, also commended the Tinubu Administration for continuing to advance the course of development through technology transfer, skills acquisition and scholarship for African people.
Kabarebe noted that, although Nigeria , like other nations of the world, may be facing its own challenges,its commitment to the leadership and development of Africa and some parts of the global South through soft-power diplomacy,he said, remains an applaudable vision in practice.
He said Nigeria has continued to use its huge population, size and early advancement in matters of education to benefit all parts of Africa and added that the positive inspiration projected by writers like Chinua Achebe, Soyinka and Ekwensi, among many others, was not only an instrument of soft power that sold Nigeria to the world, but was all that Nigeria needed to stamp its authority as a global super player in world affairs.
While highlighting the huge gap that exists between other countries of Africa and their goals, Kabarebe threw his weight behind the TAC Scheme.
He promised that the Ministry would leverage on the existing cordial relations that exist between Rwanda and Nigeria to strengthen their co-operation through the Scheme.
Earlier, while informing the Honourable Minister that the DTAC delegation was in Rwanda to monitor ,evaluate and as well as review the activities of the TAC Volunteer Scheme in its recipient countries and among the Volunteers, Rt. Hon. Buba also added that the visit was also aimed at providing him the opportunity to meet and familiarize himself with State officials and other stakeholders in the TAC Scheme across parts of Africa having newly been appointed to head the Agency by Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Meanwhile, the DTAC delegation also used the opportunity of the Rwanda visit to also meet with the Minister of State for Education,Hon. Claudette Irere; the High Commissioner of Nigeria in Kigali, Amb. Suleiman Sani, the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Finance), University of Rwanda,Ms Francoise Kayitore, as well a Volunteer of the TAC Scheme at the University of Rwanda, Dr. Nasiru Sani, a Health Information and Community Medicine expert, among others.
Very useful discussions on the progress of the TAC Scheme were held and commitment from various stakeholders were also elicited.
The DTAC boss was accompanied on the visit by the Director of Programmes in the Agency, Amb. Mohammed Mohammed; the Ag. Director,Finance and Accounts, Mr. Idris Saidu and Mrs Rahila Ayuba Kaura, Ag. Director, Monitoring and Evaluation.
