Jonathan visits amnesty trainees in Trinidad and Tobago

Posted by admin Africa & World Politics, Latest Politics, Niger Delta Thursday, August 2nd, 2012

President Goodluck Jonathan, on Wednesday, visited the National Energy Skills Centre (NESC) at Point Lisas, Couva in Trinidad and Tobago, in continuation of his three-day state visit to the Caribbean nation.

The centre is currently training no fewer than 70 Niger Delta youths in heavy equipment operations, crane operations, metal arc welding, industrial mechanical maintenance and other oil and gas related fields under the Nigerian government’s amnesty programme for former agitators in the oil producing region.

The trainees, dressed in orange overalls with the flags of Trinidad and Tobago and Nigeria stuck in their left sleeve pockets, received the presidential delegation that included Nigerian parliamentarians, Head of Reintegration in the Amnesty Office, Mr Lawrence Pepple, as well as the host country’s Minister of Tertiary Education and Skills Training, Fazal Karim, among others

The excited Nigerian students greeted the president in his native language and sang Nigeria’s national anthem, forcing the surprised locals in attendance to also sing the T&T anthem.

“It is a great moment, a moment of joy, when I came in and saw young Nigerians, men and women here greeting me in my local language, the language we speak in the Niger Delta,’’ President Jonathan said.

via Tribunewp_posts