The District Governor-Elect 9111, Wole Kukoyi speaks on training of members to enhance their leadership skills, area of focus and activities for the year on assumption of office as the District Governor 9111 on July 1st, 2024.
Well, for us, this is going to be our first training. The one that was done last week was by our sister district, 9112, we are 9111. Maybe just to let you know, the current district is 9110 but from 1st of July, 2024, it’s going to be divided into 9111 and 9112, I’m from 9111.
The essential thing about this training is, we call it the DTTS, District Team Training Seminar.We want to train the leaders of the district and this includes the assistant governors, the various committee chairmen and other leaders that will be working in the year 2024 -25. So that’s the essence, that’s the goal of the training.
What’s actually the focus and what benefits will it be to the district?
Well, you know that in anything one wants to do, planning is very key. Apart from training them in leadership skills, we also want to discuss our goals and plan effectively for the coming year in various activities that will sharpen the coming year.
How many people are we looking at?
In all, we are looking at about 150 and this consists of people called Zonal coordinators, assistant governors and committee chairmen mainly.
What would be the take -home from this training?
The take -home number one, it is going to be an avenue for people to come together, do fellowship and network, but beyond that, we’re going to train them in leadership skills and also we’re going to put the goals for the year before them and all of us together would have input into our goals and into our strategies for the regional goals for the year. But beyond that, we’re also going to have fun, everything is not just work, work. I’m sure it’s going to be an exciting time for everyone. Okay, of course.
Now, tell us the activities that you have lined up for the year.
Yes, very important, on July 1, of course, that will be the day that I will be formally introduced into the year, my year starts on the 1st of July, and it’s going to be done in this office. Immediately after that, there’s going to be the installation, which is the public presentation of the district governor to the public and to Rotarians and after that, work starts. We’re going to be very, very busy this year. One of our staff projects is donating a building to the state government, specifically for the care of people with sickle cell disease.
Sickle cell disease is very common, and it’s a very debilitating illness but the good thing is that it can be prevented. We are going to talk more about cancer to people, about preventive measures, and also for those who already have it how they’re going to take care of their health, so that there will be minimal disturbance to their quality of life.
After that, we are going to have exchange programs between Rotarians in and outside the country. We are going to have youth training programs, youth exchange, in which case we will send some of our youth, specifically between 14-19, outside the country to sort of develop them and let them see what it is on the other side of the world.
We have what we call seven areas of focus in rotary. These are channels that rotary uses to impact people’s lives, and it covers almost all aspects of human life. We have child health, maternal and child health, for instance, we have economic empowerment, and in fact we are going to do more on this in terms of going to empower people who, for instance, have no capital to do their work, we can supply them with capital, but will be monitored. Water and sanitation, we are going to stress a lot about that, providing boreholes, teaching people how to maintain their health, and peace. We all know what our country is now. There is turmoil everywhere.
There is uncertainty everywhere. There is a lot of confusion, kidnapping and a lot of that, it is one of the seven areas of focus, and we want to see what we can do as a responsible organization to what we call peace building, a conflict prevention.
All the clubs will be involved in this but the district itself also will be actively involved. So these are some of the projects lined up for the year but there are still a lot more, almost every day there will be projects by rotary either the district or at the club level. We are going to start the year with 74 clubs in Lagos and Ogun States, we are going to add more clubs so that by the time we are handing over in 2025, we would have gained a number of clubs and of course new members.
Now over the years how have your activities impacted the society as a whole?
That is a good question and that is the importance of your coming here because if we don’t tell our stories nobody will be able to tell it for us. We have impacted the society through the channels that I told you about, seven areas of focus. I can tell you that at Shagamu Teaching Hospital for instance we have a prostate cancer center built by rotary, equipped by rotary and we are still involved in the management of the center as we speak now.
Last year we had one of the biggest medical missions. We had doctors, Nigerian doctors who are in America, they came here, about 50 of them. We had a very impactful medical mission. We did a lot of surgeries, we consulted, gave drugs, so many things like that.
Just last week we had a peace conference at Kofo Abayomi. We talked about Nigerian problems and how to bring peace. We have boreholes sunk in so many places in the district. We have schools that are built by rotary, we have women that are given a lot of start -up funds, I’m sure it’s very impactful. School children have been impacted, various categories of people have been impacted. Then we have a group called Women in Rotary who have also done lots.
A lot of advocacy for women and we are still going to continue that in my year.
During your tenure, what unique things, apart from the activities of rotary, that you want to leave as a legacy?
Well, thank you for that question and I think this is very important. My goal is to rotary the organization of first choice. For instance, if you want to consider joining many service organizations, we have Lions, we have rotary, we have so many other ones, you won’t think twice before you join the rotary.
That’s the legacy I want to leave behind. I know we are going to do a lot of projects but I think that one would stand the test of time. And how do we achieve this? I want to make trust, we have what we call 3Ts in rotary, Time, Treasure, Talent.
Beyond that, we also want to add Trust. For instance, people give rotary money to execute projects and I want people, to know that every commodity given to the rotary is accounted for. That is trust.
And I want them to know that once a rotarian answer is yes, that will be yes. That’s the part of trust. I want to leave that as a legacy. And of course we have the core values of rotary which I think will also be important.We have integrity but you cannot negotiate that integrity, when you see any rotarian, you know that yes, this is a person of integrity.
This week, Friday is International Women’s Day. And the theme is “Inspire Inclusion”. And I know you are already doing that with the women, rallying the women to a place where they can do it. You have shown that they do a lot in rotary. What would be your message to the women in general?
I’m sure you know that In rotary our rotary district 9110 we have a woman as a district governor we had one last year and we have another one back to back they are women and when you talk about inclusion you know that rotary believes so much in them. As parts of the values of rotary we also have a diversity as per equity diversity and inclusion.
These are the three things that are also parts of us so, my message to women is that There’s no limit to where they can be at least from the experience of districts having women as governors for two years running shows that the sky isn’t the limit, you can achieve anything.
The other thing is determination and focus and that is my message to the larger society that women can do a lot and in fact internationally Women are even doing more than men. I think I read a message by One woman that Nigeria is very proud of Mrs. Okonjo Iweala, she is a pride not just to Nigeria but even to the black race.
My message to the women is that any of them can reach that heights with determination and hard work. Rotary is there to Collaborate with any human organization that has that as its own goal. Thank you.
