By Vivian Daniel
ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – The President of the Rotary Club of Abuja CBD, Katherine Adamu-Sambo, has urged students in Nigeria to live transparently in order to become respected leaders that society would be proud of.
She said this on Friday, 7th July during the Club’s joint fellowship with and inauguration of the Board of Interact Club of Army Day Secondary School, Mogadishu Cantonment Barracks, Asokoro, Abuja.
In her speech, Adamu-Sambo said that the Rotary is an organisation that grooms new leaders in all ramifications.
While responding to newsmen and Sundiata Post, she highlighted the significance of the club’s visit, especially to the students of Army Day Secondary School, Asokoro, as mainly to interact with the students and also inaugurate the board of the Interactors – the future Rotarians, as well as guide them on how to become good leaders.
“It is a good initiative because we feel that catching them young as leaders of tomorrow is the best thing to do so that they’ll know that leadership is not about doing the wrong things; rather, leadership is all about serving humanity and positioning oneself as a servant leader.
“We expect them to be community leaders ensuring that there’s transparency and orderliness in all they do here in their school and beyond”, she said
Speaking on the expected mentoring sessions the club intends to hold for the students, the club’s president said it would cover leadership programmes, and community service, down to the way and manner they comport themselves. She said after the mentoring programme there would be a clear difference between them and other students in terms of their behaviour.
“We want them to be good community leaders of this country, Nigeria, hence, there should be a distinction in how they behave. They should also have passion for service to humanity which is also one of the reasons we adopted the school again as a part of our 2025 Project Initiatives to ensure we have new ‘Interact’ leaders as there is no vacuum in Rotary Club,” she added.
Likewise, one of the past presidents of the Club and currently an assistant governor, Rotarian Anne Uche Obi, who conducted the first Rotary Interact election in the school, highlighted the importance of her choice to visit the Army Day Secondary Asokoro from the beginning while emphasising the efficient organisation and structured aspects of Rotary Club globally.
“We looked around and saw that other schools have one Rotary Club or another who visits them while they had none, hence, we decided to adopt the school as a part of our Club’s Project. The first sets of students who were our first Interactors have graduated, although we are still in touch with them; the vacancy created by their graduation called for other Interactors to be elected for another three years. This is why we made sure we elected a new president, president-elect and a president-nominee who will cover for the coming years as Rotary is very organised and well structured.
“The Interactors are usually between the ages of 12 and 18 years. The whole essence is to teach the students how to be better citizens, especially, by making them go out there in communities where they find themselves to do service for humanity like planting trees, sweeping roads, sweeping their principal’s offices, etc. while encouraging them to read their books,” she graciously added.
Uche Obi said the Rotary Club of Abuja CBD has been supporting the students for the last three years and that the Club has paid the school fees of many of them whereas some are on scholarship. She said “We have been taking care of them. We guide them while providing them with other basic amenities like sanitary pads for the girls and teach them basic hygiene among other things we do for the students. We also mentor girls on how to take good care of themselves while encouraging them that the girl-child is not one to be intimidated. We are all equal in society and respect should be mutual.”
Meanwhile, another past president of the Rotary Club of Abuja CBD and Assistant Governor of District 9127, Martins Odeh, emphasised that the event is a part of the Rotary Club’s mandate to establish Interactors yearly. He said that this brought about the elections for the leadership change while thanking the school authority for welcoming them.
“We have been in this school since and have adopted them for the past three years. It’s good to see that the conduct of many students has changed for the better as they are getting to understand what service to humanity is all about. We also extend our gratitude to the school leadership for opening their doors for our Club’s visit where we took our time to conduct the Interactors election smoothly and transparently, allowing the students to nominate and cast their votes for their choice candidates,” he emphasised.
In the election conducted by the Rotary Club of Abuja CBD for the interactors, Daniel Odenigbo emerged President with 18 votes, followed by Esther Ifeanyi (President-elect) and Antonia (President-nominee). In the same vein, a Secretary (Forestina) and Treasurer (Sarah) were elected, as well as the director of local projects (Frank Ikechukwu) who will be in charge of organising local events and the director in charge of the new membership (Ayuba) alongside the SAA – Sargent Art Arms, (Destiny) who will serve as a disciplinarian.
The newly elected Interact-President, Daniel Odedigbo, one of the SS2 students of the school, appreciated his fellows for nominating and voting him. He also thanked the leadership of the Rotary Club of Abuja CBD for the platform and opportunity given to him to serve while promising to work to see that the students’ character changes for good.
The Director/Principal of the school, Mary Terwase Kumekor, during her vote of thanks, revealed that it was her first time experiencing the Rotary Club in general while noting the good job they do (which is service to humanity, adding that catching the children young would make them very useful in society.
Additionally, in a related development, the Charter President of the Rotary Club of Abuja CBD, Rotarian Salome Garba, presented a cheque covering the tuition fees of five students in SS2 (3 girls and 2 boys) from her NGO called “HADGAR Humanitarian Development Initiative” in partnership with “DO TAKE ACTION,” which would cover for a year. DO TAKE ACTION, a non-governmental organisation, is usually sponsored by the World Bank to undertake different humanitarian projects. One of their projects is educating women on how to bid for contracts alongside the documents required for such processes.
Rotarian Salome Garba underscored the importance and fundamental right of every child to be educated whether or not they are privileged. She stated that the gesture was a way of giving the students hope while reaching out to those whose parents could not afford to pay their school fees. She promised that her NGO would reach out to such students from other schools yearly. She also revealed that her NGO takes care of widows in the “Church of Christ in Nigeria” (COCIN) located in Mado, Plateau State.
