This page is updated periodically and is dedicated to the following:
- Various announcements and information on matters we consider to be of interest to the club and our wider communities.
- Club's comments on contemporary issues.
- Collection of jokes and other humorous items.
- Information about other clubs/organisation’s activities, etc.
Transition of our President - Robert Awoloye-Kio
Bob Awoloye-Kio
Bob in his Kalabari/Ijaw outfit
Folks - it's with the saddest of emotions that our social club, London Tari Club (Lontar), is now able to formally announce the recent transition, last week Thursday (16/07/20) of the current President of our Club, Barrister Robert (Bob) Igonibo Awoloye-Kio. Click here to read the club’s official release.
NB: the club will shortly have in place a purpose-specifically dedicated "ForeverMissed" website where all who knew Bob across the globe will have the opportunity to go place their tribute, sympathy messages, etc, now and on every anniversary of his death.
I’ll keep all informed when the site is in place, hopefully within next few days.
Regards,
Anthony H. Otokito (London UK) 25/07/20
Bob (2nd from left) with some members of the club at a recent event at the Benamaisia's place
Bob and his wife, Lady Rose Awoloye-Kio, at our club's X'mas Partners NiteOut last December, 2019
THANK YOU FOR BEING PART OF EACH OTHER’S LIFE
"People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. When you know which one it is, you will know what to do for that person.
When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually They may seem like a godsend and they are. They are there for the reason you need them to be. Then, without any wrong doing on your part or at an Inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die.
Sometimes they walk away Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand. What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on.
Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn. They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it, it is real. But only for a season.
LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons, things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life. It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.
Thank you for being part of each other's life, whether you were a reason, a season or a lifetime".
Lontar Ladies (from left): June Douglas; Florence Otokito; Dorothy Barber; Nkem Benamaisia; Rose Kio (missing Bio Ndaliki)
Cross-section of Lontarians at a social outing
SOME GREAT QUOTES
- "It is against natural law for any two persons to do everything exactly the same way. Nobody like you has ever been created, nobody like you is in existence and nobody like you will ever be created. So why should you expect anybody to behave exactly like you?" (Chiedu Victor Ebube [Ife Onye Cho K'ofu])
- "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit" (Aristotle)
- "Our deepest fear is that we are not inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure" (Nelson Mandela)
- "The separation of management from leadership is dangerous. Just as management without leadership encourages an uninspired style, which deadens activities, leadership without management encourages a disconnected style, which promotes hubris" (Henry Mintzberg)
- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. (Reihard Niebuhr)
- "Feelings of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible -- the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family" (Virginia Satir)
- "The tragedy in life does not lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It is not a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It is not a disaster to be unable to capture your ideal, but it is a disaster to have no ideal to capture. It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. Not failure, but low aim, is sin" (Benjamin Mays)
- "Belief in witches and all such phenomena is a product of deep-seated fear, backwardness, illiteracy of the mind and soul, gullibility, self-loathe and an inability or refusal to take responsibility for ones stupidity, failings and shortcomings. Sadly, even some of the most educated amongst us believe in such nonsense" (Sabella Abidde)
- Cities like Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kaduna are replete with open gutters and cesspools. We don’t wonder about the implications of living within close proximity of or of selling cooked and raw food near or around such contaminants. Furthermore, food vendors sell expired and decayed food. The aforementioned are some of the source of our illness. Most motor vehicles operators do not have the license to handle vehicles -- most of which are not road-worthy, anyway. In these and many cases, we blame the witches when fatal accidents happen. And how many Nigerians have access to good medical care? We die like flies and like chickens -- by our own hands and doings -- and then blame the witches. (Sabella Abidde)
- If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remains undone; if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate; if justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion. Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything"
- "Your life and my life flow into each other as wave flows into wave, and unless there is peace and joy and freedom for you, there can be no real peace or joy or freedom for me." We cannot afford to be all talk or sit on the fence when our people are downtrodden and in a hopeless condition. (Buechner)
- I cannot now remember who it was who said, "Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some people move our souls to dance. They awaken us to a new understanding with the passing whisper of their wisdom. Some people make the sky more beautiful to gaze upon. They stay in our lives for awhile."
"If we deny love that is given to us, if we refuse to give love because we fear pain or loss, then our lives will be empty, our loss greater" (Author Unknown)
- "Every man is his own ancestor, and every man is his own heir. He devises his own future, and he inherits his own past die" (Frederick H Hedge)
- "Have the courage to live. Anyone can" (Robert Cody)
- Death should not stop a fight where there is a third person present (An Ijaw saying)
- He who pays the piper dictates the tune (An Ijaw saying)
- "Criticism is good for a leader or organisation. Some are criticising out of ignorance, some out of the fact that they want things to be better. Some are criticising out of malice. They are all welcome as far as I am concerned. Because critics make a leader to stand on his toes because you do not take things for granted."
"I have said that there are some Nigerians that are professional agitators. They are important in life and I said that if I go to a country and do not find people like that, I wonder if I would want to stay in that country. And if I go into a country and find too many of them, I wonder if I would also want to stay in that country. A few of them are necessary," (President Olusegun Obasanjo at the Thanksgiving Church Service 28-May-07' marking end of his administration)
- "No man is an island entirely of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main" (John Donne)
- "Life is ours to live, but not to waste, and ... the greatest rewards are found in the commitments we make with our whole hearts - to the people we love and to the causes that earn our sacrifices" (George Bush)
- "I have opinions of my own; strong opinions ... but I don't always agree with them" (George Bush)
- "It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something" (Franklin D. Roosevelt)
- "Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm" (Sir Winston Churchill)
- "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity. An optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" (Sir Winston Churchill)
- "The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life" (Muhammad Ali)
- "I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them" (Isaac Asimov)
- "Lack of money is the root of all evil" (George Bernard Shaw)
- "Critism comes easier than craftsmanship"
- "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" (Aristotle)
- "Always get married in the morning. That way, if it doesn't work out, you haven't wasted a whole day" (Mickey Rooney)
- "Its not these well-fed long-haired men that I fear, but the pale and the hungry-looking ones" (Julius Caesar)
- It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I just beat people up (Muhammad Ali)