11/12/2022
THE LICENSED AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE ENGINEER AND THE PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY.
Why should a licensed aircraft maintenance engineer belong to a professional Society?
Perhaps the most compelling reason is that: a person who enjoys the benefits of a respected career and feels an obligation to give back certain measure of his or her talents for the general good. Why else would such individuals as Engr Frank Oruye, Engr Joe Ameh, Engr Biodun Hassan, Engr E.C.Iloeje, Engr M. Mubarak, Engr S.A Kyari and Engr/Group Captain O.Bassey choose membership in our Society? Surely they wished to exemplify professional affiliation as a way of life for people in our field.
The legal and medical professions in Nigeria have been greatly strengthened by virtue of a healthy Bar Association and Medical Association to speak on behalf of their respective fields. Every lawyer and medical doctor of note belongs to their Associations yet many old and young licensed aircraft maintenance engineers working in the industry and even retired are yet to register with SLAMEN austensibly for lack of knowledge of its existence. We should do much better.
We all need to maintain technical expertise. We must make a conscious effort to stay abreast of this fast growing field for it is easy suddenly to discover that one has become professionally middle-aged even when a mere thirty year old. As the inscription on a tombstone in Ikoyi cemetery reminds us. "I was expecting this, but not so soon"! Truly, a technical education, even one which properly emphasises fundamentals, is highly perishable.
Our Society provides us with timely information on the latest advances in the field. Most of us can benefit from the Society's work to improve our career environment. A professional Society raises and supports high standards. It is a source of personal strength to meet and recognise talented people who have a hand in shaping our mutual maintenance fortunes. We can and should have more of the members of our field enrolled.
I raise for you the goal of at least doubling our membership and thus the greater good we do each other, the field of Aircraft Maintenance Engineering and our country.
Start now, encourage a colleague. Tell him if he really considers himself a professional he should join SLAMEN the professional Society that exists to advance his field.
