Rotary Club to Build a New Peace Centre in Abuja 

Emameh Gabriel in Abuja 

The Rotary Club has announced its readiness to embark on another signature project in Abuja as part of its efforts to reduce the level of conflicts in Nigeria.

The Governor, Rotary International District 9125, Goddy Nnadi, made the announcement yesterday while fielding questions from journalists at the 14th Rotary District Conference in Abuja.

He said the centre, which will be the second in Africa, would be established by Rotary International District 9125 and to be sited in Jos, Plateau State. 

The centre, he said, would serve as a training ground for peace and conflict resolution.

Nnadi explained that the peace centre “is very important. Rotary has only one peace centre in Africa, in Uganda. Ours from District 9125 will be the second centre. 

“We applied for land through the Plateau State government and luckily, the governor graciously approved it and just last week, he issued us with the Certificate of Occupancy.

“It is going to be a training ground. Rotary has the peace arm. Peace and conflict resolution is a major focus of rotary events and we have working groups with so many organisations. 

“In the last elections, we participated and we helped to observe what happened in the election and we reported back. We train people to avoid conflicts and maintain peace in our community, neighbourhood and country.”

Earlier in his remark at the event, the district governor said the body was able to make significant impacts on humanitarian projects during his tenure. 

He said: “Despite the poor economic turn in Nigeria, Rotarians pulled their weight and we made $560,000 donations to The Rotary Foundation.

“We transformed the toilets and bathrooms of Government Girls Secondary School, Dutsen Alhaji in Abuja. Having girls bathe outside was not the best, so we needed to protect their dignities which cost us almost ₦9 million.

“In Akure, about 14 people with hernia were operated on for free of charge. We helped people carry out eye surgeries in Kaduna and we are happy.”

Also speaking at the event, the President of Rotary International, Jennifer Jones, said the Rotary club now had 1.4 million members with 46,000 member clubs worldwide in over 200 countries.

Jones, represented by the Past District Governor, Ijeoma Okoro, urged Rotarians to use the conference to “network with people and expand their horizon. Bring in more members because we are ready to touch more lives.”