Matilda Omonaiye/
The Sheraton Hotels, Ikeja, was studded with star personalities on Sunday when Rotarian Olumuyiwa Fagbola was installed as the 52nd President of Rotary Club of Ikeja for the 2019/2020 Rotary year.
Dignitaries at the event included the Governor of the District (9110), Rotarian Jide Akeredolu; Chairman, First Bank of Nigeria and Founder/CEO, The Chain Centre Group, Mrs Ibukun Awosika who was the guest speaker; Special Guest of Honour, Sir Kessington Adebukunola Adebutu and many others.
The renowned banker, who joined Rotary Club of Ikeja in July 2014 had served as the Foundation Director 2015/2016 Rotary year, Foundation Director 2016/2017 Rotary year, Secretary 2017/2018 Rotary year and Vice-President 2018/2020 before he was elected the President.
In her speech, Mrs Ibukun Awosika enjoined all present at the ceremony to be a giver especially to the less privileged because everyone will account for what he or she was given by the source.
She likened every human being to a treasurer of life and it is the way they disburse what they have that determines whether it was judiciously used or not.
Her words: “My question to you will be as a treasurer in life, the resources that I made available to you, how are you applying it or how responsible have you been in terms of the use of those resources.
“Every single one of you after school started his or her career and through what you do every day you have been endowed or you will be endowed with resources at a different point in time.
“Some of you will have too much, some of you will have just enough, some that you don’t know and might not be part of Rotary might not have enough, but in his wisdom God made more than enough for humanity and he gave some too much, much more than they will need, he left some with less than they will need but he knew that too much plus too little will equal to enough for everyone on the face of the earth.
“That is why I am encouraging everyone to be a giver because the source gave us these resources to help others and that is what the Rotary Club of Ikeja is doing.
“All you have is life and your life is time, every human being has a time of birth to the last second and every single person when your time is over there is a time of death and a death certificate which means we can calculate the last second how much time of life you have been given and you are going to account for how you spend that time.
“Part of that time through economic activities is converted into a financial resource for you and in accounting for the time of your life, you are going to account for how you manage the resources that you converted your time of life to and you will account to your source.
“The question is, are you a good reason why those that have too little end up with enough because you have been given more than enough and you have taken what you are required but realizing that there is a day when you will sign out and most of what you have will be useless to you.
“If I look at the ethos of Rotary and if every one of you stands up to be a Rotarian, then it means that fundamentally, he has to understand what it is to be a treasurer and to be successful as a Rotarian. Collectively as an organisation, it’s through the disbursement of your role as a Rotarian that the organisation itself can disburse its duty.”
Inducting the new president, the immediate past president, Rotarian Adeniyi Adelaja commended the efforts of his board for a job well done in the last two years he served as the President of Rotary Club of Ikeja.
He assured the audience of the new president’s ability to take up the task ahead of him because he has always been active in all the Rotary Club of Ikeja’s activities over the years.
In his inaugural speech, the newly inducted president, Rotarian Olumuyiwa Fagbola, said with the extent of the socio-economic problems facing the country especially the poor; the task of the club is increasing every day.
He said, “Service clubs like ours cannot shut their eyes to the pains being experienced by these people. Rotary Club of Ikeja has been ever proactive and ever focused and have mapped out several service projects under this rotary year that will further reduce the sufferings of the masses.’
This, according to him, will be made possible with the collaboration of everyone.
He added, “We, therefore, appeal to you well-meaning and eminent citizens to come on board and assist us financially. As usual, we have six areas of focus that we are going to implement this year and every area will be touched.”
On whether there is any problem attached to the office, Fagbola said when you are doing service to humanity, there is no yoke, and you enjoy doing it. “Once you enjoying good things, you do it seamlessly and you continue to do it.”
On what informs any project handled by the club, the President said by going around and looking at what people needed.
She added, “Like I said we have six areas of focus and we are going to touch every area of focus.
“For example, basic education is to educate our children and to provide a conducive environment for them. That was why we took up that school in Ikeja, I went there, it was in deplorable shape and I begin to imagine how our children are settling down in this classroom to learn. And these are what Rotary do; so we go to the school, we break it down. We convert it into a more conducive environment for the children to learn because they should have a conducive environment to learn and make themselves happy.
“We are going to be transforming one particular classroom to interactive classroom, e-learning different from conventional training we have in the school. I tell you what, if we have done this for the children, we are not expected to get it back by ourselves but somehow, somewhere in future, we will get it back.
“The children in that school may even be the children of your own uncles, of your own family. When you do good like that, you don’t look back and we know with the grace of God, little good things come back to you and that is what informs us to do that project and of course, we still have so many other projects in line with 6 areas of focus of Rotary.
Advice to the government, Fagbola urged the government to engage in projects that are life touching which can mostly affect the lives of those people that voted for them because it was the masses that voted most during elections.
“So I will advise the government to focus on the masses more and let us give them a quality life,” he said.
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