The President, Rotary Club of Lagos, under the Rotary International District 9110, Rotarian Kehinde Ayo-Kasumu, has described education as a weapon for fighting ignorance and also a key ingredient in nation building.
He said this after donating books to Holy Child College, Ikoyi, Lagos on Wednesday, in company with other members of the association.
Ayo-Kasumu said the association had earlier sent a team to do assessment needs of the school two months ago, and the school management had requested for those books.
He said, “Rotary is known everywhere for its contribution to the society. It involves in charity and other humanitarian endeavours, all aimed at making the society better, by giving succor to the needy. This is one of those charitable deeds.
“We had sent a team to the school to do the school’s needs assessment. They met the school management and asked in what area do they need help. And they told us. We have returned to give them those books they wanted.”
Ayo-Kasumu, who presented the books that include dictionaries, encyclopedia and others on various subjects to the administrator of the school, Reverend Ify Atuegbu, enjoined the school to make good use of them to advance knowledge.
“Our presence and donation can only have meaning if these books are put into good use by the pupils. They are to expand their horizon in their quest for knowledge. We hope the pupils will utilise the books judiciously,” he added.
Responding, Atuegbu commended the association for the donation and promised the team that the books would be judiciously used, while he called on other organisations to emulate the Rotarians good gesture.
On her part, the school librarian, Mrs. Nkechi Kareem, said the books would be well-maintained, as most of them were good reference materials, which would serve the pupils’ need.
While she also commended the Rotarians, she noted that this was the first time an association would make a promise and fulfill it to the school.
Earlier, at a short lecture delivered at the Lagos Motor Boat Club, Ikoyi, by management expert, Dr. Emmanuel Omolayole, on corporate management, he noted that “it is becoming worrisome that some multinationals somehow did not seem to find it easy to sustain an indigenous management succession.”
This, he said, was not the case in the 80s and 90s. He said, “The question we must ask ourselves are: What has gone wrong and are still going wrong? What exactly is happening? Have the majority owners of multinationals lost confidence in Nigerians?”
Omolayole said the future of the country lies on its ability to harness the potentials of its abundant human resources at the top levels, be it in management or public service.
