50 Nigerian Lecturers 'Transferred' To Ugandan University On Loan

According to the Director General of Technical Aid Corps (TAC), Prof. Pius Osunyikanmi, who was quoted in a report, the lecturers are part of the 1500 volunteers to be deployed in 2014.

Speaking at the pre-departure ceremony in Abuja, Osunyikanmi said the lecturers are the “second batch that will be posted in the last one month” and they will lecture at Uganda until 2016.

“We have a total of 50 of you that will be departing for a single University in Uganda. "You will be going there to render services as University lecturers, he was quoted as saying in the report.

Nigeria: The Concerned ‘Big Brother’

Osunyikanmi said it was part of Nigeria's foreign policy objectives to provide technical know-how and manpower assistance to African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

"TAC was given birth to with the view to leveraging on the abundant human and material resources in the country using it as a platform to providing technical know-how to needy ACP countries," he said.

The DG revealed that between July and September a total of 1,500 volunteers would be deployed by TAC to 15 countries, including Namibia, Rwanda, Burundi.

"In all, we would be deploying about 1,500 within the next three months,” he said.

Osunyikanmi admonished the volunteers to give their best and be good ambassadors of their country.

“Uganda is desirous of your services and you cannot afford to give less than what they desire of you.

"Discipline should be your watchword; you are carrying the Nigerian flag and you must be able to do Nigeria proud.”

Is Nigeria Giving What It Lacks?

But many may be concerned that Nigeria could afford to send this many lecturers to a single country given the cries for more qualified academic personnel in the nation’s educational system.

Only recently, the Vice Chancellor of The Bells University of Technology, Professor Isaac Adebayo Adeyemi, noted a dearth of academics and said it was bad that Nigeria can not "match the number of universities we have with the number of academics/quality lecturers."

Also, Professor Abiola Awosika, Rector of Olawoyin Awosika School of Innovative Studies in a recent interview said one of the main problems facing the Nigerian system is presence of unqualified teachers in her academic institutions.

It is then ironical that such a high number of academics can be sent abroad as aid in the face f such obvious lack.

What do you think?