Nigerian Lady celebrated for being first woman to board aircraft in her community

While it is staple for some folks to travel by air, it is a life long dream for others like Gold Ike, a popular TikToker and popularly identified as EveryDayWithGold

Ike organised a party on Sunday to celebrate her achievement as the first woman to board an aeroplane in her community.

The TikToker, known for peeling cassava and making garri, revealed her new achievement on her livestream.

The lady was seen in different videos sharing jollof rice, white rice and other locally made foods to the residents who joined in celebrating her milestone.

The banner read, ‘The first woman to enter a plane in my community.’

“I want to use this medium to thank everyone for appreciating the record I broke and the award I won. It was not easy. And I see all your nice comments, the love was massive. We all enjoyed ourselves yesterday. We merry and dined yesterday. Thank you all for celebrating me,” she said.

According to the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) executive summary of international and domestic flight operations from January to December 2024, by the end of 2024, NCAA recorded a total domestic passenger traffic of 11, 549, 442, made up of 5, 727, 700 inbound passengers and 5, 821, 743 outbound passengers.

On the international travel, from January to December 2024, the total number of passengers carried on international destinations was 4, 135, 750, made up of inbound passengers of 2, 018, 948 and outbound passengers of 2, 116, 802, which is similar to the number of passengers that travelled overseas from Nigeria in the previous years.

With roughly 15 million air passenger traffic as against over 200 million population, only a few Nigerians are able to travel by air.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.