Nigerian TAC volunteers protest ‘non-payment’ of allowances in Gambia

Members of the Technical Aid Corps (TAC) programme of the federal government in Gambia say they are yet to receive their allowances for over two months. 

The TAC members, who were posted to the University of the Gambia, are mainly senior lecturers and professors.

Established in 1987, TAC is an international volunteering programme set up by the federal government as a foreign policy mechanism to deliver technical manpower assistance to other developing countries.

One of the lecturers who chose to remain anonymous told TheCable on Wednesday that the last time they received their allowances was in February.

The university teacher said the academics had planned to embark on a “massive strike and to picket” the high commission.

Another lecturer recounted the challenges of providing for their family with no income for the past two months amid soaring inflation in the country.

The lecturer said the TAC volunteers, especially members of the 2021-2023 cohort, were promised an extension of one additional year, but TAC allegedly reneged and reduced it to three months, “throwing the members and the university into disarray”.

The university teacher said they were informed before leaving for Nigeria in 2021 that they would be paid $2,000 as their monthly allowance, but added that TAC failed to honour the pledge and “sliced off $500 from the allowance of every member”.

“Imagine creaming of $500 from the allowance of every TAC member on the mission. For example, Uganda has over 90 TAC volunteers, and The Gambia has about 30 volunteers, not to talk of other countries in Africa,” one of the lecturers told TheCable.

The volunteers said they will not organise examinations for students in the university next month if they are not paid at least two months’ allowances by the end of the week.

‘THEY’VE BEEN PAID UP TO DATE’

Pius Osunyikanmi, director-general of TAC, said the Nigerian volunteers in the West African country have been paid up to date.

Osunyikanmi, however, said if their allowances were delayed the blame should be on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

“They have been paid to date,” he told TheCable.

He said since they are paid in dollars, the process of acquiring forex could be the reason for the delay.

When told that the lecturers are planning to boycott examinations, Osunyikanmi retorted: “Nobody has ever brought that to my attention except you now.”

“The delay must have come from the CBN. I will contact the accountant in TAC to inquire about what exactly happened,” he said.

Osunyikanmi also denied that the volunteers were promised an additional one-year extension to their statutory two years programme.

“They requested to elongate their programme by one year and I declined. This set of people you’re talking about — we have booked their tickets to come back home (Nigeria). We have another set that we will be sending to the country,” he said.