By Kingsley Nwezeh
Barely a month after a combined graduation of basic flying course and tactical flying course, where four officers were decorated with their basic pilot wings and two other officers awarded limited combat rating certificates, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) yesterday winged another combat helicopter pilot, Flying Officer Shehu Ibrahim, after his basic and advanced helicopter flying training at the Indian Air Force Helicopter Flying Training School, Hakimpat, India.
This is coming as the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) for the second time won the prestigious International Public Relations Association (IPRA) Golden World Award (GWA) for Excellence in Crisis Communication Management.
In the same vein, the NAF was among the major winners of the 2020 African Public Relations Association (APRA) Public Sector/Government Category Awards, which recognise Superior Achievement in Branding Reputation and Engagement (SABRE).
The two awards were as a result of NAF’s campaign through the documentary, “Women of War”, which highlights the NAF’s ongoing initiatives to empower women in roles hitherto considered to be beyond them due to certain cultural misconceptions.
A statement by NAF said the winging of the combat pilot is yet another milestone in the NAF’s capacity building initiative to meet emerging and contemporary security challenges in the Country.
Speaking during the winging ceremony, the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, expressed delight to receive the young pilot back from India and congratulated him for his outstanding performance during the courses.
The CAS emphasised that the NAF considered the human being as its most important resource and would therefore continue to invest heavily in equipping its personnel with the requisite skills to enable them be more effective and efficient in carrying out assigned tasks.
