By Ola Ajayi

IBADAN— As part of its hu-manitarian services, the International Association of Lions Clubs, District 404B1, Nigeria said several Nigerians who were diagnosed with diabetes and glaucoma have benefitted from its services.

This was disclosed by the District Governor of the club, Lion Lekan Babalola while speaking with newsmen at the 5th District Convention of the club tagged: Mesiogo 2019 which held in Ibadan.

He clarified that its efforts and services to the people is not for political reason but just to complement government’s efforts.

Unlike politicians who expect votes in return for their efforts, he stated that the club impacts the people through effective service delivery which is sponsored by members who oftentimes tax themselves.

“We organise this convention to celebrate our impacts in society. We help to feed hungry people because we know that hunger is a world phenomenon. We have provided 150 eye glasses apart from treating people with glaucoma,” he said.

Lion Lekan Babalola who was flanked by the past district governors, Lion Waheed Kadiri and Lion Abiola Odeyemi, Local Organising Committee Chairman, Lion Dipo Sule,  the 1st Vice district governor, Lion Bernard Eboreime and Lion Abiola Job,  explained that the convention which was attended by 82 clubs from the district which covers Oyo, Lagos and Ogun states, was themed: Friendship and Service.

Babalola said: “Service for politicians and service for Lions are quite different from each other. For us at the Lions Club, we serve without expecting anything in return. Our services are based on contributions that we make from ourselves. Lions task themselves every year to look at the needs of society and find a way to fulfill those things.

“The secret of our success is the aspect of working together, we put our resources together to achieve a common goal and basically for the communities. Unlike the politicians who get paid and receive salaries, in the Lions Club, we don’t receive salaries and we don’t expect any salary.”

Speaking on the challenges militating against the club from reaching out to more people, the 404B1 Nigeria District Governor identified dearth of funds and shortage of members, noting that with more volunteers, the Club will have more resources to reach more communities more easily.

“The challenges we are having is funding, we want to do a lot of things but we don’t have enough, that is why every year, we ask people to support us on our projects for the communities.

“The second challenge we have is membership, the more volunteers we have, the better we are able to help our communities. The whole of Ibadan has 9 or 10 clubs which are generally inadequate, we can reach out to more people. We are making efforts to spread the gospel of what we are doing to the public so that they can all join us in our attempt to make our society a better place. So, if we have more members, that means we are going to render more services. Generally speaking, Lions Club has about 6,000 members in Nigeria and that is very small. We need more people to join us so that we can deliver this service more effectively.”

While speaking on the purpose of the convention, Babalola explained that it is meant to provide members with the opportunities to reflect and review past activities in planning for the New Year while also training members in a relaxing and interactive atmosphere.