Akan Emah: His Rotary Story
By Abasifreke Effiong
The top brass of Rotary International are in Akwa Ibom State to witness the installation of Akan Emah, as the 7th Governor of Rotary International District 9142 taking place by noon today, Saturday 29th July, at the prestigious Ibom hall, Uyo. Rotarians from Abia, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo, Anambra, Cross River and Akwa Ibom, which make up District 9142, are already anticipating the cultural thrills and glamour promised by the installation planning committee chaired by Barr Bassey Ekanem. The event will be chaired by Barr Nyesom Wike, the immediate past Governor of Rivers State.
Akan Emah has served meritoriously in many Club and District Committees in the then District 9140 and currently 9142. He is the District Fund Raising Chair for the Rotary Foundation and the Vice President of Rotary District 9141 & 9142 Alumni Association. He is a Charter member and a former President of Rotary Club, Uyo Metropolis (2014/2015) where he won Presidential citation and named the 3rd best President in the District then. Emah is a past Assistant Governor of District 9140 (2016/2017 Rotary year). He was an Assistant Trainer, District 9142 between 2017 and 2020. While still serving in that capacity, he was appointed to the District Chair – Public Image; he served in that position for two years consecutively, 2018/2019, 2019/2020. Between 2020/2021, he was appointed District Coordinator – Paul Harris Society.
Akan Emah, fondly called Kanyst, has made Rotary his most preferred social organisation right as a teenager. He joined Rotary’s interact club while he was still in Secondary School, more than 16 years ago. This makes him one of the very few exceptional and privileged persons to have passed through all the three stages of Rotary’s youth leadership programmes. He is an Interractor, Rotract and Rotarian. To him, Rotary is an extension of his family. His adorable wife, Nene, is a Major Donor, a Benefactor of the Rotary Foundation and Paul Harris Society Member, while his first child – UtibeIma – Abasi Elliana is a Paul Harris Fellow.
Akan Emah is a public relations practitioner, life coach, public affairs analysts, compere, a motivational speaker and politician. Currently, he is the Akwa Ibom State Publicity Secretary of the Young Progressives Party (YPP). Kanyst has a passion to connect with people of diverse culture and build enduring friendship with them. The most outstanding part of his daily life on social media has been celebrating his friends. Connecting with people of diverse perspective and forging lifelong friendships to create social warmth across the globe is intrinsic in Rotray’s vision statement – Together, we can see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change – across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.
Rotary has built a network of over 1.4 million people in the last 110 years, harnessing their passion, energy, intelligence and material resources to promote global peace, fight diseases, provide clean water, sanitation and hygiene, save mothers and children, support education, grow local economies and protect the environment. Its contributions to the global fight to end polio is most outstanding. Worthy of note is that Akan Emah who will be installed as Governor today and indeed all Rotarians contributed to that success. Emah’s contributions to global health through Rotary is in good measures. In 2013/2014, he had the honour of serving as the Akwa Ibom State Representative in the Nigeria National Polio Plus Committee. As President of Rotary Club, Uyo Metropolis, he led the Club to undertake interventions in healthcare, and WASH including the donation of 120 mattresses and mackintosh each to General Hospital, Ituk Mbang, Uruan local government area, and Mary Slessor Hospital, Itu local government area, both in Akwa Ibom State; provided pipe-borne water to some rural communities in the State, among other projects.
This year and next, Akan Emah will oversee the activities of Rotary International in seven States of Nigeria. He will be working locally with Rotarians in the District and globally with Rotary International President, Gordon Mclnally, to “Create Hope in the World”. In the 2023/2024 Rotary year, President Mclnally is urging Rotarians to restore hope by helping the world heal from destructive conflicts. Ahead of his installation, Emah said Rotary International District 9142 has already keyed into the global campaign against mental health. “Almost all the Clubs in the District different stages of implementation of projects on mental health.” The Governor added that the campaign will focus on counselling and rehabilitation.
Work has begun already. Congratulations, Governor.
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