From PAUL OSUYI, Asaba
Asaba, the capital of Delta State was literarily painted in yellow when over 3,000 members of Lions Club International lined the streets on Friday for a road show as part of activities for the 32nd annual Multiple District Convention of the club.
The participants who were drawn from all the states of the federation, however adorned various attires portraying the culture of their respective states. The road show temporarily caused traffic hold-up along some major road.
Multiple Council Chairperson, MD 404 Nigeria, Mrs. Stella Agbogun said the road show was one of the events for the convention where resolutions, elections among others are conducted while also appraising the successes of members and the clubs in the district.
Speaking on the theme of the convention, ‘Ahaba 2016’ the governor of district 404A1 of the club, Mrs. Patricia Udeme said the purpose was to have a nostalgic feeling of the years of yore when Asaba was known as Ahaba.
“We all know that it is with the coming of the white men that the name which was originally Ahaba was changed to Asaba. We decided to tag it Ahaba 2016 because we want to bring in Asaba as the host venue for the convention.
“Lions all over the country are in Asaba, hence we decided to go down memory lane as we want to, like fulfill that nostalgia we were having as to those days when Asaba was known to be Ahaba.
“When a typical Asaba man wants to really do you a favour, when they really want to talk about Asaba, they refer to Asaba as Ahaba. The moment they say Ahaba, you can be sure that they are ready and geared up to give you the best.
“So the Local Organising Committee (LOC) in Asaba is ready to give the best, hence, we decided to go with that name which gives us that push, that zeal to put in our best,” she assured.
Lions Club International is a non-governmental organisation renowned globally as humanitarian service organisation, with a membership of over 1.4 million and found in 209 countries and geographic locations across the world.
The club which berthed in Nigeria in 1964, has a membership of over 6,500 in 259 clubs divided into four sub-districts for administrative purposes.
According to Mrs. Agbogun the main areas of focus of the club are preventable blindness, empowering youths, alleviating hunger and protection of environment.
“Aside, we are also heavily involved in areas of fight against the scourges of cancer, HIV/Aids, malaria, measles,” she added.