By Mustapha Sumaila
Abuja – Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, has called for voluntary teachings in schools to help boost education in the country.
Mustapha made the call at the National Stakeholders’ Policy Review and Validation Workshop on the National Policy on Inclusive Volunteerism for Nigeria in Abuja on Thursday.
Represented by Mr Andrew Adejo, a Permanent Secretary in charge of Political and Economic affairs, the SGF said the education sector in the country required attention of all and sundry including the volunteers.
He appealed to retired teachers whom he described as knowledgeable to go to schools in communities and offer voluntary teaching to support the government.
He said in those days, corps members also offered such voluntary services free of charge in communities.
He commended the office of Nigeria Volunteers National Service which he said had been facilitating rural and foreign medical mission in rural areas, empowering youths with technical skills and impactful sensitisation.
“I am happy to note that one of the key results of its work is the establishment of National Diaspora Commission and it is a plus that we now have a diaspora commission that is running on its own.
“I’m also glad that we are making progress to create an established and institutionalised base for volunteerism in the country.
”It has been operating without a policy and there were various attempts in the past to put that in place.
“It is good that you are now making efforts to ensure Nigeria adopts a national policy on volunteerism that is all encompassing, which necessitated this meeting,” he explained.
He expressed hope that this ongoing effort on this policy review would be successful thereby making Nigeria to be among the few in Africa with a robust policy on volunteerism.
Mustapha added that the zeal and commitment of various organisations involved, confirmed the country’s recognition of the global and national acceptance for volunteerism activities as an important way for Nigerian development.
The SGF urged the organisers to work and submit the report as quickly as possible adding that the clean draft would be forwarded to Federal Executive Council for adoption.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that participants were drawn from various volunteer organisations, civil society organisations and the media among others.
(NAN)