By Emeka Mamah

The President of the Rotary Club, Enugu City Centre, Dr. Eddy Ndibuagu, has said that the club needed at least N26.3m to finance its projects within the current rotary year.

Apart from immunization, youth development and educational programmes within its immediate vicinities, Ndibuagu, stated that the construction of toilet facilities and provision of boreholes for a secondary school in the rural area, were among the club’s priority projects.

He spoke during the inauguration of the Rotary Teen Peer Ambassadors Projects, ROTEPA, for secondary schools, in Enugu.

Ndibuagu, explained that the club also planned to embark on the provision of toilet facilities in a rural based college to save the students from the perils of going to the bush for defecation.

He then solicited the support of corporate Nigeria to actualize the dream of improving the quality of life of the students

On his own part, the National Coordinator, Human Rights Volunteer Corps, Larry Oguego, explained that the ROTEPA was designed to harvest young talents through essay competitions, adding that those discovered would be trained and mentored to expose them to the world to enable them excel.

According to him, the event was organized as part of activities to mark 111 years (1905 to 2016) of Rotary International.

“Part of our mandate is to identify these new breeds, equip them with professional skills, give them the orientation to grow with the right value. We want to build a new future and if we fail to invest and show good examples, then we will have ourselves to blame,” Oguego said adding that the
competition entitled “I am a gift to the world”, was primarily organized in honour the club’s outstanding citizen, Prince Arthur Eze, who later gave university scholarships to all the 10 best students who competed.

An SS-2 student, Okolie Goodness, from Girls High School , Uwani, Enugu , won the first price of the club’s maiden Essay competition for 20 secondary schools in Enugu State .
Students from Federal Government College Enugu, Holy Rosary College , HRC, Enugu , Queen’s School Enugu and Girls High School featured on the occasion.

Earlier, in a lecture entitled “Peace on Earth” a former Commissioner for Agriculture in Enugu State , Dr. Emma Nwankpa, said that Paul Harris, who founded Rotary in Chicago on February 23, 1905, recognized and encouraged fellowship, as a basis of turning acquaintanceship into friendship.

Nwankpa further said, “this followed from the fact that in the human society, in one person’s right, there correspondents a duty in all other persons: the duty, namely, of acknowledging and respecting the right in question, for every fundamental human right draws its indestructible moral force from the natural law, which in granting it, imposes a corresponding obligation.”

The event attracted top officials of Rotary International from within and outside the country, including the former governor, Rotary International District 9140, Rev. Chike Nwizu who inaugurated the ROTEPA ambassador’s project, the chairman of Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, Enugu State.