As the 2025/26 Rotary year ends today, 30 June, I find myself reflecting — not merely on the programmes and projects, but on the deeper meaning of serving through an institution that has, for more than a century, quietly changed the world, one community at a time.
My Rotary journey began towards the end of 2018, a deliberate and intentional decision that I count among the best I have ever made. Rotary International, founded in Chicago in 1905 by lawyer Paul Harris and three colleagues, is today one of the world’s largest humanitarian service organisations, with more than 1.4 million members across over 46,000 clubs in more than 200 countries. Its guiding principle — Service Above Self — is not merely a slogan. For those of us who have lived it, it is a discipline.
During the Rotary year that ends today, I served in two roles within Rotary International District 9127: District Media Relations Chair and Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the District Governor’s Newsletter. District 9127 covers the Federal Capital Territory and parts of north-central Nigeria — a district with a significant civic footprint and a growing institutional presence within the Rotary family.
The year belonged, in every meaningful sense, to the outgoing District Governor, Dame Joy Nki Okoro — a woman of remarkable grace, organisational clarity and an unwavering commitment to service. Working with her was a privilege. My mandate was straightforward in ambition, though demanding in execution: to ensure that every programme, project and activity of the district received robust, dignified and timely media coverage. In a media environment as competitive and often distracted as Nigeria’s, that required both strategy and persistence.
The year began with the formal handover ceremony on 1 July 2025, when Okoro received the mantle from Rotarian Mike Nwanoshiri — a moment that marked both continuity and a new direction for the district. Her installation, held at Chida Hotel later that month, set the tone: purposeful, well attended and media-visible in the way institutional milestones ought to be.
A significant part of the year’s media work was captured in the pages of the District Governor’s Newsletter. Under the editorship of Rotarian Winifred Ogbebor — a disciplined and creative Editor-in-Chief whose editorial vision gave the publication both rigour and warmth — our team produced what I can only describe as a genuinely anticipated monthly publication. In an era when institutional magazines often feel like obligatory dispatches, ours became something members genuinely looked forward to reading. Each edition was produced as a full magazine — richly designed, substantively reported and reflective of the breadth of District 9127’s activities across its clubs and communities.
The newsletter became, in effect, the district’s institutional memory for the year: a running record of service, fellowship and achievement that no single event could capture on its own. Serving as Deputy Editor-in-Chief under Ogbebor’s leadership reminded me that good journalism — even in a voluntary, service-driven environment — demands the same standards of craft and intentionality as any serious publication.
The high point of the year, in terms of both scale and logistical complexity, was World Polio Day. Rotary’s commitment to polio eradication is one of its most historic undertakings. The organisation has been a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative since 1988 and has contributed more than US$2.1 billion to the effort, helping to reduce cases of wild poliovirus by more than 99.9% worldwide.
District 9127 marked the occasion not with a single event but with a week-long programme of activities that brought together all six District Governors in Nigeria in a coordinated effort across Abuja. Each District Governor led a team to one of the six Area Councils of the Federal Capital Territory, taking the polio message directly to the grassroots. Coordinating media deployment across all six councils simultaneously — including television coverage — was among the most demanding and rewarding assignments of the year.
Beyond the calendar of events, the district also issued press statements on matters of national significance. When former President Muhammadu Buhari passed away, the district, like many civic institutions, felt the weight of the moment and responded with an appropriate public voice.
Now, today, 30 June, the wheel completes another turn. The 2025/26 Rotary year comes to a close, and Rotarian Sikiru Owonikoko steps forward as the third District Governor of Rotary International District 9127, inheriting a district that has spent the past year firmly in the public eye and a media infrastructure better positioned to keep it there.
Rotary rolls on. And I am grateful to have helped keep the wheel turning.
