The Federal Nigeria Society for the Blind, (FNSB) has elected officers to pilot the affairs of the society for the benefit of the blind.
Arit Tunde-Imoyo, the former vice chairman of the society, has been elected as the chairman while 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 recently at its annual general meeting also witnessed Seyi Duggan retaining his position as honorary treasurer while the former chairman, Fusi Akinkugbe joined the executive council as member. Ayopeju Njideaka, Chairman of BOG, Vocational Training Centre; Lanre Adebayo, Olugbolahan Sobande and Kehinde Danmole all made the executive council.
Other members include I. A. Lawal, Faderin-Omotosho, Tunde Coker, Otunba Boye Ogunlaja, former commissioner for Education Lagos State, Folasade Adefisayo, Engr. Woji Welli, Izegbua Amusu, Goddie Isibor, and Kemi Onabanjo.
Prior to the 66th AGM, the society had held a thank you lunch for the donors to appreciate the support they have given to FNSB.
At the Donors’ lunch, the then chairman of Executive Council of FNSB, 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 the purpose of 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 through direct testimonials from some of our past trainees how much we are able to achieve because of your support,” he stated.
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.
Presenting the annual financial statement, the treasurer, Duggan stated that the performance in 2023 was much better than that of the previous year as the deficit reduced significantly from N18,133,161 to N3,683,749, almost 80% improvement over the 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 for the upgrade of the vocational training centre (VTC) for the blind as the society prepares to celebrate 70th anniversary next year.
She said, “I am going to stand on what we have been doing, which is to educate, empower the visually impaired amongst us to be able to contribute to society. It is not easy if you were 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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