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Recently in February, Kogi State-born Dr. Joel Eleojo Adams made history in the United Kingdom, as he became the first non-British to be commissioned as an Aero-Systems Specialist Engineer, and the first Nigerian to reach the rank of a Flying Officer in the British Royal Air Force.
Heritage Times had reported that Adams, a native of Abejukolo in the Omala Local Government Area of Kogi state, made Nigeria proud by breaking a 102-year-old record with his achievement.
Adams who was one of the beneficiaries of President Jonathan’s Presidential Special Scholarship for Innovation and Development, PRESSID, obtained a doctorate degree from the Cambridge University, UK.
According to reports, Cambridge University on seeing his potentials, made several efforts to contact the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration through the late Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, to enable him return home and contribute his knowledge to national development.
Sadly, there was no response from the Nigerian government. This would later spur the British government to snap him up, give him more training, and signed him on to the benefit of the British national security, as Nigeria missed out on his talent.
With the controversial demise of one of Nigeria’s finest flight officer in Tolulope Arotile, and many others, Adams would have made a good addition to Nigeria’s air combat prowess. However, the current administration jettisoned the dream and vision of the PRESSID scheme.
“A thinking government would have leveraged the beneficiaries of the scholarship who are all first class brains to serve as agents of change and scientific and technological advancement,” the report said.
Heritage Times had reported that Adams prior to his academic achievement at the Cambridge University, was a graduate of the Bayelsa State-owned Niger Delta University, NDU, where he obtained his B.Eng. (1st class honors) in Electrical and Electronics Engineering.
After completing a Masters degree in Control Systems at the Imperial College, London, he went further to obtain his doctorate in Industrial Systems and Manufacturing Engineering from the University of Cambridge.
Dr. Adams began his career at Ford Motors in UK as the BOM Lead Project Analyst for Battery Electric Vehicles.
In a short while, his great potential of research work for military application, saw him enlisted and subsequently awarded the Queen’s Commission as an Officer in the British Royal Air Force, and made a British citizen.
