New Year Starts at Rotary Club of Akowonjo

By Omolabake Fasogbon

Amidst pomp and pageantry, the new Rotary year commenced at the Rotary Club of Akowonjo as the baton of leadership exchanged hands from the immediate Past President Rotarian Olamide Abegunde to Victor Amaraegbu the new president of the club.

At a well-attended handover ceremony which took place recently at the Lagos Airport Hotel, reminiscence of the Rotary tradition of transition at the close of a Rotary year every June and the commencement of a new one, the event was witnessed by Rotary dignitaries from the Rotary International District 9110, Rotarians from other clubs, guests and friends of Rotary who added colour to the occasion.

In his welcome speech, the out-going president of the club Rotarian Olamide Abegunde gave account of his twelve months stewardship reeling out the various projects executed with the support of his board of directors under Rotary’s seven areas of focus including: Peace and Conflict Prevention/Resolution, Disease Prevention and Treatment, Water and Sanitation, Maternal and Child Health, Basic Education and Literacy, Economic and Community Development and the Environment.

President Abegunde particularly referenced the renovation and commissioning of a two classrooms building at State Senior High School Alimosho, in the Alimosho Local Government area of Lagos State which the new president, Rotarian Victor Amaraegbu promised to continue with in the new Rotary year. This, President Abegunde said was in addition to the formation of two additional Rotary clubs and two Interact clubs.

In his acceptance speech as the new president of Rotary Club of Akowonjo, Rotarian Victor Amaraegbu said “it was with great delight on behalf of myself and the entire board of directors of Rotary Club of Akowonjo, that I welcome you all to the new Rotary year full of happiness and success in our personal and professional lives”.

According to him, “having reviewed RC Akowonjo’s performance and achievements in the past six years, we are compelled to set new objectives and priorities for the future of the club and it is a collective responsibilities to commit ourselves to implementing them” noting that “to this end, I shall be inaugurating an implementation committee that will be assigned specific roles and tasks to evaluate our goals on monthly basis in this Rotary year and draw up a five year roadmap that will see us lead in the district once again”.

Rotarian Victor Amaraegbu who is the 36th president of the club, stated that “you will agree with me that we have a lot to do in our society and we can only achieve that much with a good number of members like they say “the more the merrier”. With this, I challenge us to join in singing the new mantra Each 1 Bring 1.” In addition, he said “let’s begin this Rotary year by re-committing ourselves to the values of respect, openness and compassion that defines us as Rotarians by coming together as friends, brothers, sisters and putting community first, to build a brighter tomorrow for everyone”

He used the occasion of the handover event to solicit for support and continued understanding as “we serve to change lives.

The highpoints of the handover ceremony was the induction of two new Rotarians into the club, awards presentation to supportive members of the public and raising of funds to give a good financial muscle to the in-coming president and his board of directors to steer the ship of the club with for the next twelve months.