Rotarian Emmanuel Ibukun Efuntayo is the 40th President of the prestigious Rotary Club of Ikoyi. And he is damn proud of it. He is eminently proud to be the president of Rotary club of Ikoyi and you only need to spend a few minutes with him to know this. Clearly, apart from his work and family, the next thing he loves with incredible passion is his role as the president of the Rotary club of Ikoyi and the responsibilities the position bestows on him. He is a natural giver and nothing gives him a bigger sense of fulfilment than serving humanity which the Rotary club gives him ample opportunities to do. This is why he has exceeded the expectations of many as the 40th president of the Rotary club of Ikoyi. He has undertaken gigantic projects many would’ve struggled to make a success of. For him, this is what he has always wanted, finding himself in a position where he can fulfil his purpose in life. This is why Ibukun Efuntayo relishes every opportunity he gets to touch lives and make a difference whether in the lives of just one child or multitude of children and women as the case maybe.
Let us tell you a bit more about the professional background of this complete gentleman. Rotarian Efuntayo is a highly regarded Estate Surveyor and Valuer with a wealth of experience in the industry. And he has made quite a success of his profession. As the Principal Partner and CEO of Ibukun Efuntayo and Company, he specialises in property management, facility management, property taxation and valuation services. Mr. Efuntayo is recognised for the expertise and professionalism holding the esteemed title of Fellow of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV). Having worked with reputable organisations such as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, and Eko International Bank (now Polaris Bank), Mr, Efuntayo brings a comprehensive background tyo the field.
Two weeks ago, Rotary club of Ikoyi celebrated its 40th anniversay with a special Gala nite held at the Golden Gate Restaurant, Ikoyi. Ibukun Efuntayo was the chief host and the event had lots of past presidents and past district governors of the Rotary club of Ikoyi in attendance, including the Doyen of Rotary in Nigeria, Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi. City People’s Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL (08037209290) got the President, Emmanuel Ibukun Efuntayo, to share with us the significance of the Gala nite. Here are excerpts.
Its always a pleasure talking to you, sir. And its so good to see that you have had an impactful six months in office so far, tell us how the journey has been for you?
Well, we thank God, its been a worthwhile journey, though full of sacrifice in terms of in terms of talent, in terms of treasure, in terms of time. But we’ve been able to impact lives, starting from maternal and child health, which we did in Victoria Island. Only two days ago, on Saturday, we were able to donate inverter solar power to the motherless babies’ home in Lekki. We are happy to be able to provide for the needs of the vulnerable in the society. We made them happy and put smiles on their faces, so its been an impactful journey. We’ve been able to beast cancer screening, so many cases were discovered. We are building a boat for out of school children in Makoko. We donated books to Folawiyo secondary books. We donated books on pregnancy, early pregnancy, drug abuse and several others.
We also went to Oxford Tutorial College to also share with them the issue of sacrifice, how they should embody sacrifice in whatever they’re doing. We partnered with districts and we did street planting in Lekki, we did family of Rotary where we invited members of the public to come and do medical check ups and where necessary, we give them drugs or we refer them. We’ve done quite a lot. Even breast cancer screening, we’ve done that, prostate cancer screening, we’ve done that. We’ve been able to put smiles on the faces on people and have even granted scholarship to one indigenous individual. So, we have done so much. And I am happy to be 40th president of the club, we are celebrating the 40 years of Rotary in service. I am happy today. This is part of the programme ear marked to celebrate the 40th anniversary, we are here today for the gala nite to celebrate. When you look round the room, you see a lot of people. Past p[residents, past district governors, people who have been in Rotary club and have made Rotary club very impactful. Thank you Rotary club of Ikoyi.
Share with us how the response has been from friends within Rotary, friends outside of Rotary? What sort of goodwill have you enjoyed in the last 6 months or so?
Well, I’ve enjoyed so much from members of the club in terms of their time, their treasure, which is money and also their talent. And also outside too, I’ve also enjoyed. For example, look at Ikoyi club N-38, they partnered with us, gave us about N5m to do some of our projects. And we have people like that, individuals, corporate members, like WEMABOD, you can see they co-sponsored this event, they gave us some money. So, its been enjoyment of goodwill. I enjoy the fellowship of my members and I’m happy going out with my members to change the society and also taking steps to change that society even on larger scale. Its been a good day, its been a good year, I believe the next 6 months will be a better one because we still have so many more projects we have to do. We told them at the motherless babies home last Saturday, that the provision of solar inverter is not the only thing we plan to do for them. Phase two is that we’re going to paint that place and make sure the light continues to work. Whatever we can do to help humanity, we’re ready to do that.
Yeah, number one, we are going to cut the 40th anniversary cake. We have the doyen of Rotary in Nigeria, Julius Adeluyi-Adelusi, he’s here with us to grace the occasion. I have my district governor in here, Adenekan, we many past district governors and presidents in here, they have come to celebrate with us. It’s not about the forty years we have spent, but we are looking forward to another fort years. We are reinvigorated for another forty years. We believe the next forty years for us is going to be much more impactful than these ones. We salute our forebears in Rotary, we were chartered by the Rotary club of Lagos. We appreciate them. Our Charter President is also here, Chief Rotarian Bajomo, we appreciate him. Forty years ago, they never knew Rotary Club would be this impactful. We’ve sponsored two clubs, Rotary club of Eko Atlantic city and Rotary club of Ikoyi metro. Imagine what we are doing and what are our counterparts are doing, we’re actually making the world a better place for all of us. So, we are going to have a lot of things, we are going to have American Auction, we are going to have goodwill messages from people, dance, dance, dance, we are going to eat, we’re going to merry because we’re happy and we have been able to achieve a lot and we have been counted in the service of humanity.
So, in another six months or thereabout you will be handing over the baton of leadership…
By July next year, I will be handing over the baton to another person. We are even holding our elections in December and a new set of officers will emerge. That’s one thing with Rotary, it is so organised. I know who is going to take over from me, my president-elect is going to take over, somebody else is going to become president-elect, so you don’t need to go to Tribunal, everything is organized.
It will not be out of place to say you have raised the bar and will be leaving an incredibly high standard in another few months when you’re done, what should we expect from you and your immediate successor?
Well, in my remaining six months, I want to complete all my projects, and as a matter of fact, right now, I have touched every area of focus. Rotary has seven areas of focus, I have touched on everyone of them like environment, disease prevention, community development, we gave money to some widows and also the widow of our late member, we’ve done those ones. Peace and conflict resolution, we have provided Pro-bono service to inmates awaiting trial in Kirikiri. In terms of environment, we partnered with the district to plant coconut trees in Lekki. So, what I’m going to do in the next six months is just reinforcing and doing more of those things. In terms of basic education and literacy, we were in Folawiyo Secondary school, so, we’ve touched almost every area. Disease prevention, we have the breast cancer screening, we are now going to amplify all these projects more, but we have touched every area of focus.
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