‘Everything Rotary does is centred around peace’: Olayinka Hakeem Babalola

Interview/ Olayinka Hakeem Babalola, president, Rotary International

WHEN NIGERIA’S OLAYINKA Hakeem Babalola took charge as president of Rotary International for 2026-27, he became only the second from Africa to hold the position. His association with Rotary began four decades ago. In an interview with THE WEEK, Babalola talks about his vision of “creating lasting impact”, India’s growing influence within Rotary, the organisation’s focus areas, its efforts to bring more young people into its fold, and more. Excerpts:

Q/ Could you tell me about your journey through this organisation. What will be your focus during this one year?

Rotary found me quite early, when I was 17 or 18. It has been four decades with the organisation, since. I started as a Rotaractor, then a Rotarian, and now I’m the president.

I get asked about my journey quite a lot, and I think it’s because someone who was part of Rotary’s youth programme has become the organisation’s president.

Coming to my focus for this year, the Rotary vision statement itself says, “Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change—across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.” So my duty is to help bring that vision statement to life, and help every Rotary member and partner understand and feel what that vision means.

My presidential message has been: “Create lasting impact.” I’m asking our members to create lasting impact in communities and within ourselves. The reason is simple: change is just the beginning. Impact is what endures.

Q/ In India, we have seen the role Rotary has played in polio eradication specifically. Where does India feature in the broader Rotary International umbrella?

India is a significant Rotary country.

Thank you for mentioning polio eradication, which is our priority. There’s no better way of making lasting impact than eradicating a disease.

The good thing is, India became polio-free about 12 years ago. And there were many people who thought that it would be the last given the size and other issues. But India did it.

My own country, Nigeria, became polio-free years after India. My continent, Africa, was certified polio-free in 2021. So India provides an inspiration. That’s number one, with respect to polio eradication.

Secondly, India has grown in terms of our membership. And that also means India is growing in terms of its influence on the organisation. For instance, earlier from India, we would have one director every three or four years. Now we have two. And it looks like, in the future, we would even be having three on the board.

Q/ For India, what are the focus areas?

We have what we call our seven areas of focus. For India, like every other Rotary entity, the focus remains on all seven. These are: disease prevention and treatment; maternal and child health; water, sanitation and hygiene; community development and economic empowerment; basic literacy and education; peace and conflict prevention; and environment.

India is the host of our newest Peace Centre at Symbiosis University, Pune.

Rotary is also involved with the India Literacy Project, hence, working to improve literacy and ability to read and write. Regarding water, we are working on a $2 million project on water conservation.

All our Rotary clubs focus on maternal health and disease prevention. Indian clubs are also getting involved with cornea replacement project, with about 1,700 replacements already happening for free.

Also, when we talk about medical missions, it’s not just internal to India. There are medical missions, supported by Indian Rotary clubs and Rotarians, in other parts of the world. In Africa, for example, I think they do an average of about six or seven every year.

Q/ Can you give some examples?

There have been many, some I have directly participated in. For example, a medical mission in Zambia in which I had participated. Similarly, there have been missions in Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Nigeria and Ethiopia.

But there’s something about Rotary’s India influence that’s beyond brick and mortar but significance. And that is youth development. We are investing a lot of resources mentoring young people. We have Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, celebrating Interact clubs, which is for people in the secondary school age, and supporting Rotaract clubs.

Q/ Today, with young activists, new NGOs, digital campaigns, how’s a century-old organisation like Rotary attracting youngsters?

Like I mentioned, Rotaract is Rotary for young people. It’s like a preparation ground, so to speak.

Part of our strategy is to ensure that we transition many members from Rotaract into full Rotary membership. We’ve not been very good at doing that around the world. India and Africa have been the most successful at that.

We are also beginning to deliberately have public-facing events, to let young people see, this is who we are.

Q/ The world is becoming increasingly individualistic, segregated. In such scenario, how do you ensure the members remain committed to the service?

Actually, it is not challenging for us. Because, you see, Rotary provides connection.

In fact, we say, before the advent of Facebook, LinkedIn and such social connection platforms, we were the real connectors. We still offer that today.

And post-Covid, with a lot of people working from home and alone, Rotary has provided that opportunity for people to connect, to step out of that computer, that phone, and come and meet real human beings, and join them to improve the community and themselves.

Q/ In today’s time marred by war, poverty and climate change, how do you see Rotary International’s role?

Everything Rotary does is centred around peace. And as I’ve asked Rotarians to create lasting impact, I’ve asked them to think a little harder about how the things we do enable an environment of peace.

How can providing a well for water bring peace to the community? How can literacy bring peace? Without access to health, there can be no peace. Same is when there’s no access to an income and resources.

In fact, we work with the Institute for Economics and Peace on a programme called Positive Peace. Because peace isn’t just the absence of war.

We are unable to intervene in wars directly. But we have done things in the past where we’re going to use our leverage, our connections, to talk people into a ceasefire, for example, to allow vaccination and immunisation for polio to go on.