The West African Rotarians in all the groups were eager to build a viable regional Rotary community. To this effect they started holding annual conventions; the first was held in Accra on 21– 23 March 1968, attended by eleven (11) clubs coming from Ghana, Dahomey now Benin, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone namely: Accra, Bamako, Cotonou, Freetown, Ibadan, Kano, Kumasi, Lagos, Monrovia, Takoradi, Tema. This historic conference had the privilege of the presence of R. I. Vice President Steve O. Halloran, the Special Presidential Representative for Groups F & G; he was accompanied by his wife.
Four subsequent annual conferences followed at different venues. The fifth took place again in Accra on 8 – 12 March 1972 with the participation of the Rotary Clubs of Freetown, Monrovia, Enugu, Ibadan, Ikeja, Kaduna, Accra, Accra-West, Kumasi, Sekondi-Takoradi, Tamale, Tema, and Lome, the new club from Togo making it the seventh member-country. The conference was once again honoured by the presence of R.I. President Ernst G. Breitholtz, accompanied by his wife.
One may reasonably conclude that the fifth Annual West African Convention, attended by R. I. President Ernst G Breitholtz, represented the turning point for district status, as it demonstrated the maturity and dedication of Rotarians so convincingly. Thus in October 1972, the R.I. Board, under the new R.I. President, Roy D. Hickman (1972 – 73), took a Board decision to create the new Rotary District 210, to take effect from 1st July 1973 for clubs in Groups E, F, & G including Chad and Cameroun from Group H, and all future clubs that may be organized in Mauritania, The Gambia and Burkina Faso.
President Hickman then instructed his second Vice President Jules P. Flock to call for nomination of names for the position of the first District Governor. The circular letter from Jules P. Flock dated 25th October 1972 reported that at the close of nomination on 15th December 1972, two out of the seven nominations were rejected for late submission, that the majority of clubs in the District took part in the balloting, which resulted in the selection of Francois Amorin as the District Governor-Nominee for the Rotary year 1973-1974; his nomination was endorsed at the 1973 West African Conference in Lome, Togo in April 1973. Subsequently Francois Amorin was formally elected the first District Governor of District 210 at the 1973 R.I. Convention in Lausanne, Switzerland where William C. Carter was elected the RI President for 1973-1974 Rotary years.
In accordance with the By-Laws of Rotary International, the District Governor is required to organize two events, namely the District Assembly and the District Conference during his year in office. In so large a District as D210, with very limited inter-country transportation facilities, not to mention corresponding high costs, it appeared to the first District Governor that it would be unwise to organize two District Meetings in the same year. The solution arrived at was therefore to hold the District Assembly in two separate locations in cities closer to the participants in the area. Consequently the first District Assembly was held on 26-27 April 1974, in Ibadan, Nigeria for clubs in Nigeria and to the east of Nigeria, and the second in Tema, Ghana for clubs to the west of Nigeria.
The second annual meeting in a District, which in this case was the first District Conference of D210, was held in Lome (Togo) on 21, 22 and 23 February 1974. The co-chairmen of the Organising Committee were Sam Okudzeto (Rotary Club of Accra) and Bawa Mankoubi (Rotary Club of Lome). All clubs were represented. “A Time For Action” was the Presidential Theme for the Rotary year 1973 – 1974 when William C. Carter from Great Britain served as R.I. President. To make Rotary meaningful in the newly constituted District, the Theme for reflection was “Is Rotary relevant in Africa?”
At the time of the Conference, most of the Sahelian part of the District was struck by a severe drought. A special plenary session was accordingly devoted to studying ways and means by which Rotary could assist the affected communities. Relief funds contributed by friendly clubs in France, Japan, U.S.A and from within District 210 itself were shared among the clubs in the drought stricken areas. In the true Rotary spirit, the clubs in Nigeria decided to donate their share of the relief funds to the clubs in the worst stricken areas. During the first five year period of District 210, club extension was stagnant; only three new clubs were created: Nouakchott in Mauritania, Abidjan-Cocody in Cote d’Ivoire (1978) and Banjul in The Gambia (1979).
A decision by the R. I. Board in Rotary year 1976 – 1977, changed the numerical designation of District 210 to District 910 of which Rotarian Sam Okudzeto became the first Governor. The number 210 was re-assigned to an Italian district in the Catania Province.