The Presidential Amnesty Office on Friday said 22 beneficiaries of its foreign education programme had graduated as Aircraft Maintenance Engineers and had returned to the country.
The Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and the Coordinator of Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brig.-Gen. Paul Boroh, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
He
said the beneficiaries were trained at the Royal Jordanian Air Academy
and were equipped with EASA licence on return, adding that without the
licence, they would not be useful in the aviation industry.
He said that the licence made the beneficiaries certified aircraft maintenance professionals needed in modern airline operation.
“Worldwide aircraft maintenance business is enormous, and expanding with the passage of time.
“Approximately 500, 000 passenger and cargo aircrafts are currently in service worldwide.
“Moreover,
about four million smaller private aircrafts are being used for
business or pleasure. Thus, aviation is an ever-expanding field with
modernization of equipment on new aircraft.
“Therefore,
the requirements of aircraft engineers and aircraft mechanics to work
on a permanent basis as an employee of an airline will always rise with
ever increasing expansion of aviation industry,” Boroh said.
He
explained that an aircraft maintenance engineer was mostly responsible
for the control, maintenance and repair of aircraft instrumentation and
related aircraft equipment.
According to him, the beneficiaries have also learnt how to set engine controls and test them for correct functioning.
“They play a major role being maintenance personnel to keep the aircrafts airworthy at all times.
“The
maintenance of modern sophisticated aircrafts calls for high degree of
technical knowledge, competence, proficiency, dexterity and integrity on
part of the concerned personnel.
“They work on any and
every mechanical aspect of the craft, including airframes, hydraulics
and pneumatics, engines and fuel systems and control and communications
systems.”
The presidential aide said that the success
of the amnesty programme has swelled the ranks of thousands of armed
youths seeking to lay down their arms and lead normal lives.
He
commended the Federal Government for funding the programme, adding that
continued funding for the project was further proof of President
Muhammadu Buhari’s administration’s commitment to the full reintegration
of amnesty beneficiaries into the society.
He,
however, disclosed that some of the persons that graduated from the
Jordanain academy returned without the EASA licence, but said that
efforts were on to obtain the licence for them.
– pulse
