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| From left: Mr Oluseyi Duggan, Treasurer; Mrs Ebun Onabanjo, 1st Vice Life President; Chief Dr Olaseinde Akinsete, Life President; Mrs Arit Tunde-Imoyo, Incoming Chairman of the Council and Mr Fusi Akinkugbe, Outgoing Chairman, all The Federal Nigeria Society for the Blind, FNSB, during the 66th Annual General Meeting of FNSB held in Lagos |
The Federal Nigeria Society for the Blind, (FNSB) has elected new officers to pilot the affairs of the society at the 66th Annual General Meeting, AGM.
Arit Tunde-Imoyo, the former vice chairman of the society, was elected as the chairman while Mrs Oluyemisi Daramola assumed the position of the vice chairman in the new executive council for 2024/2025.
The election which took place at the FNSB centre in Oshodi, Lagos, also witnessed Mr Seyi Duggan retaining his position as honorary treasurer while the former chairman, Mr Fusi Akinkugbe joined the executive council as a member.
Mrs Ayopeju Njideaka, Chairman of BOG, Vocational Training Centre, Mr Lanre Adebayo, Engr. Olugbolahan Sobande and Major Kehinde Danmole (rtd) all made the executive council.
Other members include Mr I. A. Lawal, Dr (Mrs) Faderin-Omotosho, Mrs Tunde Coker, Otunba Boye Ogunlaja, former Commissioner for Education, Lagos State, Mrs Folasade Adefisayo, Engr. Woji Welli, Mrs Izegbua Amusu, Reverend Goddie Isibor, and Ms Kemi Onabanjo.
Before the 66th AGM, the society had held a thank-you dinner for the donor to appreciate the support of the non-governmental voluntary organisation.
At the dinner, the former chairman, Mr Akinkugbe, said: “We felt it is important to say thank you to you, our donor, for all you have been doing for us and continue to do.”
He added: “We put this event together for accountability. It is important to say thank you, but it is equally important to let you see the results of your support.
“Today, we will be sharing with you through a documentary and direct testimonials from some of our past trainees how much we can achieve because of your support.”
Akinkugbe disclosed that support from donors can come in different forms — direct financial support, financial sponsorship of students’ school fees which is about N210,000 per student, or the full cost of maintenance; support in kind such as food items, payment for the repair and upgrade of facilities, critically needed equipment and more.
He, however, called on corporate organisations, government agencies and parastatals, good-spirited Nigerians and others to support the blind to achieve their purpose in life through donations and support, particularly financially.
During his stewardship, while presenting the annual financial statement, the treasurer, Mr Duggan stated that the performance in 2023 was much better than that of the previous year as the deficit was reduced significantly from N18,133,161 to N3,683,749, almost 80% improvement over 2022 financial position.
According to him, “This is largely due to improved income generation which rose by 67.78% from N33,369,633 in 2022 to N55,985,654 in the year under review.
“This is attributable to voluntary donations which rose by 90.54%, school fees rose by 54.84% and exchange gain.”
The new chairman during her acceptance speech promised to build on what the previous administration has achieved and particularly to give adequate attention to the upgrade of the vocational training centre, VTC, for the blind as the society prepares to celebrate its 70th anniversary next year.
She said, “I am going to stand on what we have been doing, which is to educate and empower the visually impaired among us to be able to contribute to society.
“It is not easy if you are one-sighted, and you can no longer see to continue to do what you should be doing. We are going to make them understand that it is not the end of life, going blind is not the end of life, we will have programmes where you will see the visually impaired do things that probably they were able to do.”
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