District Governor Visits Rotary Club of Ikoyi Metro

Solomon Elusoji

On Tuesday, the District Governor (DG) of Rotary District 9110, Rotarian Adewale Ogunbadejo, was at a meeting of the Rotary Club of Ikoyi Metropolitan.

In Rotary, an international service organisation, it is the duty of the DG to visit all the clubs within the district at least once a year, affording him the chance to meet other Rotarians on a personal level, get to meet new members and appreciate the state of the clubs.

“I have been familiar with the club for years,” Ogunbadejo, who joined Rotary in 2002 to help more people, said after the meeting. “I am happy with the way I met them, that they are still on the same path of trying to be better. They now have more members and are now more vibrant. There was a time when they had a bit of crisis, but they have gotten out of that and are moving onward. What I have now done is to motivate and inspire them to do more of what they are doing, in terms of membership, project activities and contributions to the Rotary Foundation.”

The President of the Ikoyi Metropolitan Club, Rotarian Laurine Ubanozie, was equally pleased with the visit. “I am happy that the District Governor visited, I am happy with his observations and corrections and we thank God that the event turned out very well.”

The conclusions of the meeting revolved around how the Ikoyi Metropolitan club could improve the sustainability of its community projects. There was also an induction for new members, a launch of the club’s handbook and a presentation by PathCare, a medical services company.

“Most of our projects are on water and sanitation, where we ensure that proper toilet facilities are being provided for the public,” Ubanozie said. “We had something – a toilet facility – that we did in the past at Obalende Park, but it was demolished by the Lagos State Government. Now, we have decided to concentrate on public schools around the area – Girls Secondary Grammar School, Aunty Ayo, and many others. So we developed a three-year plan where we choose schools to focus on.

We have recognised that some of them have boreholes that are not connected to the toilet, dearth of toilet facilities; we will be attempting to fix these issues. Also, we plan on setting up a sickbay and an e-library within selected schools.”
Meanwhile, DG Ogunbadejo said his administration was focused on ensuring that the District 9110, which accommodates over 80 Rotary Clubs within Lagos and Ogun State, does more in Rotary International’s six focus areas. “We have the hope to have a vocational centre where we are going to have a lot of young people,” he said. “We’ve been given a parcel of land in Igbogbo and very soon we should move to site. But, basically, we just want to make sure that our district does more than it has done in years past.”

In the same vein, President Ubanozie, who joined Rotary in 2010 due to a passion to serve, said she wants to be remembered for strengthening the club’s structure and furnishing it with a well defined purpose. “Also, I want to leave a health-consciousness legacy. That was why I started the year’s project with a health awareness campaign, encouraging people to know the status of their well-being.”