US-based group, Project Sunshine, trains students in aircraft manufacturing, flying

Sade Williams/Business a.m.

In its bid to stimulate students’ passion and interest in aircraft manufacturing and flying, Project Sunshine, a non-governmental organisation, has embarked on another round of training for students in selected public secondary schools in Kwara State.

The training tagged, “Aerostem Fellowship”, which commenced August last year at International Aviation College (IAC), Ilorin, is to assist students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) realise their dreams of becoming aviators and aeronautical engineers.

Project Sunshine is the brainchild of a political scientist turned pilot, Idris Ekungba, who hails from Owo, Ondo State but raised in Ilorin, Kwara State capital.

Hundreds of students of senior section of public secondary schools including, Queen Elizabeth Secondary School, Ilorin; Ilorin Grammar School (IGS) and Government Secondary School (GSS), Ilorin; Government High School, Adeta, Ilorin; Baboko Community Secondary School, Ilorin; and Unilorin Secondary School, Ilorin participated in the training.

But, unlike last year when selected students were camped at International Aviation College, Ilorin for a few days, the current training is being conducted in each school in furtherance of the fellowship.

The students were taught the processes involved in aircraft manufacturing and flying an aircraft, especially Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA).

A student pilot, Musa Aliyu Damilola, who conducted the technical and practical session with the students in each school, said the participants were being enlightened on the prerequisites to build and fly an aircraft.

He explained that the training was also designed to propagate the vision of Idris Ekungba of building the next generation of aviators in the country.

Damilola told journalists during the training at GSS, Ilorin that he enrolled for training in International Aviation College having developed interest in the way aircraft is flown in the air in his formative years in Zaria, Kaduna State.

“We are enlightening the young generation on how to go about it in the aviation industry. Because when you are gifted with something and distribute it to the young ones, it wouldn’t just be only you. So, you have a name and set a record for yourself.

“So, I’m here to distribute it to the younger ones around Secondary School with the opportunity of propagating the message of Captain Idris Ekungba of enlightening the young people with passion for aviation.”

Abubakar Shola Buhari, coordinator of Project Sunshine in Nigeria, said his organisation was retraining the students to stimulate their passion more.

Buhari said, “What we are doing is about Aerostem Fellowship for students that have interest in building aircraft. So, that is what we have basically done. Those are the ones we are training now. It is a continuation of former training, which we did in August last year. So, we are retraining them to show them more interest in what they are doing.”