Nigeria’s first female Boeing 787 pilot cruises long-haul on Dreamliner
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Nigeria’s first female Boeing 787 pilot is cruising long-haul for Qatar Airways, doing so with class, from an unprecedent perch that inspires men, and women, and proves, once again, that the gifted will attain the best in the right environment.
Women drive double decker London red buses. Women drive BRT buses in Lagos.
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But for Adeola Sowemimo, 31, to take the Dreamliner to the skies with 250 passengers onboard and fly at Mach 0.85, the equivalent of 1,024 kilometres per hour – three times faster than a Formula 1 car in full speed – well, that is surreal.
She is an ordinary Nigerian. Born in Kaduna.
There, she attended three primary schools. Northern upheaval relocated her South, and she had to attend a fourth primary school before she could proceed to secondary.
She attended two secondary schools, one in the South, the other back in the North. She returned to the South for a pre-degree course, but before finishing, went up North again to the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria.
After her pilot training, she flew off to Florida in the United States for her standard pilot course. She finished at 21. Then she returned to the South to complete her university education.
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Intrepid. Rugged. Determined. Focused. Persistent. And she is a woman.
Proving yet again that a Nigerian, male or female, from any background can and will achieve the best under the right circumstances. The greatest obstacle to that is visionless leadership, by far the worst exemplifier of which is Muhammadu Buhari.
Sowemimo is the first Nigerian female Boeing 787 pilot and also the first Nigerian female pilot to fly for Qatar Airways based in Doha, the capital of Qatar.
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