The Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), Kaduna State on Friday graduated 249 students in various Aerospace Engineering and related fields at its 46th Convocation Ceremony.
The Director of Public Relations and Information, NAF Headquarters, Air Commodore Olatokunbo Adesanya, made this known in a statement in Abuja.
Adesanya said that the ceremony which held in the Institute’s recently commissioned Ibrahim Alfa Auditorium, witnessed the conferment of diplomas and presentation of certificates to graduating students.
He said that the certificates were presented to the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Air Force and civilians.
“In all, there were 11, 109 and 129 Post Graduate Diploma, Higher National Diploma and National Diploma graduands respectively out of which 122 were civilians.”
The Minister of Transportation, Mr Chibueke Amaechi acknowledged the place of AFIT as a trailblazer in West Africa.
Amaechi recalled the feat achieved by the Institute in locally designing and manufacturing an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, which was successfully tested, a first in West Africa, among other achievements.
He also congratulated the graduating students, urging them to be worthy ambassadors of AFIT for the benefit of Nigeria.
The minister commended the various award winners and urged them to live up to expectations in their future endeavours.
Amaechi commended the visionary and sterling leadership qualities of the Chief of Air Staff, (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, whose tenure in office had witnessed a lot of infrastructural and academic developments in AFIT.
The CAS enjoined the graduands to be good ambassadors of AFIT, as their invaluable contributions would be much appreciated in the fast growing and increasing quest for technological advancement in NAF and the country.
“Let me remind the graduating students that NAF is currently increasing in size, scope of operations and sophistication in the application of technology.
“Based on this development, the knowledge you have gained in the past one or two years will definitely be put to task,” he said.
He reminded the graduands that they would be required to speedily develop proficiency and innovate indigenous ways to maintain platforms and improve on equipment serviceability.