Peter Mba bags Lions Club Melvin Jones Award

Gov Mbah

The District Governor of Lions Club International District 404A1, Nigeria, Anogwi Anyanwu, has decorated the Enugu governor, Peter Mba, with the highest honours of the Lions Club International, the Melvis Jones Award- for their selfless service to humanity.

The Melvis Jones Award is bestowed on men and women of impeccable character who have lived a life of meritorious public service that have impacted positively on their immediate environment and the society at large.

Speaking during the award luncheon, at the prestigious Nigerian Air Force Officer’s Mess, Victoria Island, Lagos, Anyanwu said Mbah is the third distinguished Nigerian to be bestowed with the prestigious and highly coveted award.

The former District Governor stated that the Melvin Jones Award is given only to those that exhibit the highest degree of philanthropy and service to humanity, saying “One of such people is Dr Peter Mbah, Governor of Enugu, a well-known philanthropist and founder of the Peter Mbah Foundation (PMF).

“His foundation is a non-profit and non-political organisation with the sole goal of improving standards of living in rural communities and human capital development and for his service to humanity, Governor Mbah was honoured with the Melvin Jones Award.

“Lions Clubs International recognizes outstanding individuals by bestowing on them the award named after its founder, Melvin Jones, a very high form of recognition that embodies humanitarian ideas consistent with the nature and purpose of Lionism.

“The Melvin Jones Awards ranks with the Lions Humanitarian Award, which is the highest honour of the association given to an individual or an organisation with exemplary humanitarian efforts.”

The fact that Enugu State governor, Dr Peter Mbah, was considered worthy of such high honour by the Lions Clubs International is a testimony to his outstanding dedication to humanitarian works. His values align with the task and vision of Lions Clubs International”.

Chatting on his tenure, Anyanwu said Lions Club under his watch spent N26 million in executing various projects in the service year and explained that “the major project we did this year is to provide receptacles for the collection of plastic bottles.

“We produced and distributed 88 receptacles in five states where our districts exist, including Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Edo and Delta.

“The essence of that project is to call people’s attention to the fact that plastic waste disposal is a problem, so they need to be properly disposed of. We built those receptacles and placed them in strategic locations where they are used to collect bottles.

“The goal is for people to dispose their plastic waste inside the receptacles so recyclers will pick them up. Improper disposal of plastic bottles clogs the drainages and waterways which also exacerbates flooding.

“We also carried out more than a hundred cataract surgeries through different clubs. Each club organised its outreach. They sourced for beneficiaries who have eye problems and got good health facilities where they carried out these operations. Over ten clubs carried out cataract surgeries for different patients and the districts also supported these clubs.

“We also had a Feed the Hungry programme at the destitute home in Makoko where we served food to over 1000 people. In the course of serving food for over 1000 people, we discovered that the refuse dump at the area has not been cleared for a long time, so we had to mobilise resources to clear the refuse. So we accomplished quite a lot of things this year.”

While giving the breakdown of the project, Anyanwu said: “The cataract surgery project cost about N5 million. The plastic waste disposal project cost N50,000 each, so 88 of them cost N4.4 million.

“The feed the Hungry programme fed over 1000 people, which cost about N2 million, including several other projects different clubs carried out.

“Also, some clubs under our districts donated hospital equipment while some others donated drugs.

“We donated equipment and medical supplies to our Lions Clinic at Sagamu Interchange, which attends to people who are involved in accidents.

“One of our clubs in Ikorodu donated hospital beds, another club in Warri donated five delivery beds to a hospital in Warri among other donations.”

Speaking at the event, the chairperson of the planning committee, Lion Omotunde Johnson
said: “the District Governor’s recognition and award luncheon is to appreciate all the Lions who worked so hard to ensure that we made the modest achievements in the outgoing Lions year, which began July 1, 2022 and will end on June 30, 2023.”

It be recalled that the Lions International District 404A1 Nigeria had in August 2022 conferred the Melvin Jones Award on the Group Chairman of SIFAX Group, Dr Taiwo Afolabi, as well as on the Governor of Ondo, Arakurin Rotimi Akeredolu, in January 2023.

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