The centre which will be the second in Africa will be established by Rotary International District 9125.
The Governor, Rotary International District 9125, Goddy Nnadi, made this known on Friday while fielding questions from journalists at the 14th Rotary District Conference in Abuja.
According to Nnadi, the peace centre which would be built in Jos, Plateau State, would serve as a training ground, adding that peace and conflict resolution was a major focus of the Club.
He stated, “The peace centre is very important. Rotary has only one peace centre in Africa, in Uganda. Ours from District 9125 will be the second centre. We applied for land through the Plateau State government and luckily, the governor graciously approved it and just last week, he issued us with the Certificate of Occupancy.
“It is going to be a training ground. Rotary has the peace arm. Peace and conflict resolution is a major focus of rotary events and we have working groups with so many organisations. In the last elections, we participated and we helped to observe what happened in the election and we reported back.
“We train people to avoid conflicts and maintain peace in our community, neighbourhood and country.”
On the humanitarian impacts during his tenure, the governor said, “Despite the poor economic turn in Nigeria, Rotarians pulled their weight and we made $560,000 donations to The Rotary Foundation.
“We transformed the toilets and bathrooms of Government Girls Secondary School, Dutsen Alhaji in Abuja. Having girls bathe outside was not the best, so we needed to protect their dignities which cost us almost ₦9million.
“In Akure, about 14 people with hernia were operated on for free of charge. We helped people carry out eye surgeries in Kaduna and we are happy.”
Speaking at the event, the President of Rotary International, Jennifer Jones, said Rotary club now had 1.4 million members with 46,000 member clubs worldwide in over 200 countries.
Jones, represented by the Past District Governor, Ijeoma Okoro, urged Rotarians to use the conference to “network with people and expand their horizon. Bring in more members because we are ready to touch more lives.”
