NIGERIAN LIONS CHARIY FOUNDATION (NLCF) By PID H.O.B. Lawal
... THE JOURNEY SO FAR
Acting on the promptings of some prominent Lions, late PDG (Chief) Layi Balogun launched the Nigerian Lions Charity Foundation in the 1986/87 service year as the Nigerian eguivalent of the Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF).
Worried by the needless loss of lives on the 12oKm Lagos - Ibadan Epressway, occasioned by lack of immediate (First Aid) medical attention, late PDG (Chief) Steady Arthur-Worry led his cabinet in 1988/89 to adopt the construction of the Accident Clinic as the first project of NLCF. Consequently, a committee was set up under the chairmanship of Lion (Otunba) Tunji Ogunyemi (who was then a Commissioner with the Ogun State Government) with a clear mandate to reach out to Federal and Ogub State authorities for the allocation of a piece of land along the expressway for the project.
When PDG (Hon) Dr. H.A.B. Ajayi got into the saddle in 1989/90 as the District Governor, the land acquisition drive for the project received an impetus and the duo of Lions Fola Odufuye, PDG and Niran Badmus, PRC, succeeded in getting approval for the allocation of the present site at Sagamu Interchange from the Federal Government. Consequently, PDG (Hon) Dr. H.A.B. Ajayi relaunched the NLCF and laid the foundation stone of the project on Saturday 12th May 1990.
Hon H.A.B. Ajayi worked on the project to lintel level under the joint supervision of Lion (Arc) Bassey Duke, the Project Architect and Lion Fola Odufuye, the Project Manager. Thereafter, the declining state of the nation's economy did not permit much work to be done on the project until the 1991/92 service year during the tenure of PDG Alex Irotumhe who encouraged more subscriptions to the NLCF as a means of completing the project to the roofing stage under the able chairmanship of Lion (Chief) Sina Egberongbe, PDG.
When in 1993/94, PID H.O.B. Lawal was in the saddle as the District Governor, the cabinet was persuaded to separate the Accident Clinic from the NLCF. Thus clubs in Lagos in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo and Osun states were encouraged to pool resources together for the completion of the Accident Clinic. Efforts were also made to give the NLCF the true semblance of a foundation through its re-launch on 6th March, 1994 as the hallmark of D404’s dual celebration of 10th Anniversary as a District and 30th Anniversary of Lionism in Nigeria, otherwise known as 10th/30th Anniversaries, under the chairmanship of Lion (AVM) Tony Okpere.
The primary aim of the re-launched foundation was to enhance our relevance in responding promptly to all forms of national emergencies without recourse to external aid which may be late in coming or may never come at all. The 1993/94 cabinet also resolved that the completion of the Accident Clinic at Aba and Sagamu, and the Children’s Hospital at Bacita should also fall within the purview of the re-launched NLCF. A Board of Trustees for the foundation under the chairmanship of our erudite Lion Ola Vincent (former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria) was then constituted.
Lion (Barr) Kingsley Essien, the then Chairman District Constitution and Bye Laws committee gave a legal backing to the creation of the Board of Trustee by providing the Board with a Constitution which among other provisions spelt out its aims and objectives as follows:
a.) To manage all the funds collected by the Nigerian Lions Charity Foundation for the purpose of improving the lives of the less privileged in the society.
b.) To advise the District Governor as to the involvement of the Lions Clubs International District 404 in times of urgent national emergencies.
c.) To seek ways and means of raising funds for the NLCF.
d.) Ti invests and deals with the moneys of the foundation that is not immediately required in such shares or upon such securities and in such manner as they may from time to time determine.
e.) To do all such other things as are incidental or conclusive or necessary for the attainment of the above objectives.
