By Agbonkhese Josephine

President, Inner Wheel International, Mrs Oluyemisi Alatise, has said that she spent the last 15 years promoting Nigeria’s image globally while serving in subordinate capacities, before attaining the number one seat in the global charity organisation, comprising women professionals in 103 countries.

Alatise spoke on arrival in Lagos, barely one week after her installation in Britain as the first black President of the organisation founded in 1924.

She said her one-year tenure, which will be driven by the theme: Touch A Heart, will focus on teaching everyone to show kindness to one another and to nature.

Alatise said: “We all must learn to touch a heart through the way we treat our environment because the trees are our lungs, the rivers are our bloodstreams, and they are all inter-connected; what you do to your environment, ultimately, you do to yourself.

“Within the next one year, I hope to teach kindness in the way we handle our environment because even the oxygen we breathe works through our lungs and fuel our blood through our heart.”

She commended members of the organisation across the country for working collectively to boost Nigeria’s image at the international level, making the country the first black nation to occupy the organisation’s apex seat.