On-bill-gates-message-to-the-nigerian-government-something-our-political-leaders-should-think-about
September 7, 2020 | News
ON BILL GATES MESSAGE TO THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT – SOMETHING OUR POLITICAL LEADERS SHOULD THINK ABOUT
Without a doubt, the recent speech by American billionaire Businessman, Bill Gates, to Nigerian political leaders and the Nigerian people, can best be described as a wakeup call for us to fix our country in all ramifications by taking the right steps along the lines that matter most. He reminded Nigerians that it is our responsibility to fix the country and no foreigner will do this better than us, as they can only support. The crux of Bill Gates message to Nigeria can be summarized in one sentence, and that is the urgent need for the Nigerian Government at all levels to aggressively invest in ‘human capital development’ in order to harness the demographic dividends of Nigeria’s growing population. Gates gave the charge at the expanded National Economic Council (NEC) meeting which took place recently at Aso Villa. Chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the NEC meeting had in attendance representatives of the Senate President, Speaker House of Representatives, State Governors, Ministers, Royal Fathers/Traditional Rulers, and members of the Economic Team, etc.
Gates advised the Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to match investments in infrastructure with human capital development. The Microsoft founder said over $1.6 billion has been invested in Nigeria’s key areas of agriculture, primary healthcare, immunization, polio eradication programmes, nutrition, family planning amongst others through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The philanthropist urged the Federal Government to make policy decisions focused on improving the human capital the country has. Adding that his foundation would only play a “supportive role” in the achievement of those set goals.
He faulted the execution priorities of Federal Government’s Economic and Recovery Growth Plan (EGRP). Though, Bill Gates said a lot of things concerning Nigeria in his well-publicized speech, the aspect that struck out most was when he noted that: “The most important choice you make is to maximize your greatest resource, the Nigerian people…Nigeria will thrive when every Nigerian is able to thrive. If you invest the health, education and opportunities – the ‘human capital’ we are talking about – then they will lay the foundation for sustained prosperity. If you don’t, however, then it is very important to recognize that there will be sharp limit on how much the country can grow…I urge you to apply this thinking to all your investments in your people. The Nigeria government’s Economic and Recovery Growth Plan identifies ‘investing in our people’ as one of the three ‘strategic objectives’ but the ‘execution priorities’ don’t fully reflect people’s needs prioritizing physical capital over human capital… To anchor the economy over the long term, investments in infrastructure and competitiveness must go hand in hand with investments in people. People without roads, ports and factories can’t flourish. And roads, ports and factories without skilled workers to build and manage them can’t sustain an economy…This is the scenario we all want: Nigeria thrives because every Nigerian is able to thrive. And the data makes it clear that this scenario is entirely within your reach,” he added.
Narrating his experience at a health clinic in Bodinga, Sokoto state, Gates said although Nigerian primary healthcare centers were not adequately funded, it also does not get the most out of the current funding. The businessman described Nigeria as “one of the most dangerous places in the world to give birth” adding that "one in three Nigerian children are chronically malnourished." According to Gates, Nigeria has the fourth worst maternal mortality rate in the world, only ahead of Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, and Chad…In upper middle- income countries, the average life expectancy is 75 years. In lower middle – income countries, it’s 68, in low- income countries, it’s 62. In Nigeria, it is lower still, just 53 years,” Gates announced. “A functioning primary health system has six features. Adequate funding. Good facilities located in the right places. Skilled and dedicated health workers. Ample stocks of essential equipment and medicines. Patients who know about the system and want to use it. And a mechanism for collecting the data needed to improve quality. More transparency would lead to more accountability, which would strengthen governance, leadership, and management, which would improve quality across the board.”
Other essential takeaways from Bill Gates' speech at the said expanded NEC summit, includes the fact that: “the agricultural sector is a pillar of the Nigerian economy, it nourishes most Nigerians and supports half the population, especially the poorest. The sector accounts for a large proportion of the GDP, and during the oil price collapse and recession, it helped cushion the economy. But it still has a lot of potentials to grow; Available statistics still showed that the country ‘still looks like a low-income country,’ but if drams and ambitions are alive, Nigeria will rapidly approach upper middle-income status, like Brazil, China, and Mexico; Growth is not inevitable. Nigeria has unmatched economic potential, but what becomes of that potential depends on the choices you make as Nigeria's leaders; Nigeria should prioritize health and education, continue to open up opportunities in the agriculture and micro enterprise sectors, as it is in the ERGP, creating the conditions where Nigerians can reach their goals while adding value to the economy - the win-win scenario; Nigeria's government revenue as a percentage of its GDP is by far the lowest in the world, at 6 percent. That makes investing in your people difficult. The next lowest country, Bangladesh, collects 10 percent of its GDP.” Gates said the country should brush up to second-to-last in the world, to have an extra $18 billion to budget. Another point he noted was that Nigeria's economy tomorrow depends on improving its schools today - and the “epidemic of chronic malnutrition of children in Nigeria is a huge blow to the economy, stressing that one in three children is chronically malnourished, which is a tragedy.”
It is obvious from the above that Bill Gates means well for Nigerian, hence his usual visits to Nigeria every now and then, is not to give awards to our non-performance Nigerian politicians, or to sing their praise or romance their egos. He always ensures to tell them what they really need to hear without painting it. His speech was blunt and straight to the point. No dilly-dallying. This is unlike what we see with some other foreigners who visit our Nigerian Governments’ Houses and be very ‘economical with the truth’ because of their hidden agendas, but behind, they mock the country and its political leaders and people. From what Bill Gates has said, the question is, when will our political leaders going to be accountable and transparent in the management of our collective wealth? When will the ordinary common masses going to demand for more accountability from our political leaders at all levels, no matter who that persons may be to us? And if the answers sort is not provided satisfactorily, then they are shown the way out of the Office. And if they are found to have misappropriated our collective wealth, they are publicly shamed and not praised, and made to face the full weight of the law.
What the Nigerian Government and political leaders across all boards must understand is that these foreigners, just like Bill Gates, know everything that is happening in the country, even more than most of the Nigerian leaders are aware of. So, these foreigners are not moved or deceived in any way, when our political leaders go about wasting public funds to organize one Economic Investment Summit or the other in the name of trying to attract investors into their States. They know State Governors and political leaders at the Federal level that are performing and those that are not. They know everything that is required of them to know, to decide if they will come to invest in the country or not. They are aware of the unwillingness by most Nigerian political leaders to holistically develop the country. They read newspapers, online news, follow happenings in the country’s political landscape. So, rather than continue to waste public funds to organize their usual Economic Investment Summits, our Nigerian political leaders at the Federal and State levels should focus on providing the needed infrastructure and investment in human capital development that would invariably attract investors to come into the country without them moving a muscle to call them to come. They should stop going to the UK, France, Germany, etc., to woo investors because they are practically fooling themselves.
All the money usually spent by Nigerian political leaders to organize these Economic Investment Summits could have been used instead to provide the basic infrastructure, stable power supply and conducive atmosphere that would attract investors into the country. In other words, they should stop wasting public funds to organize these frivolous gatherings called Economic Investment Summits. The hotel bills and other logistics involved to organize such gatherings are waste of our collective national and States’ wealth. Everybody knows Dubai today as a ‘safe haven’ for investments. Nigerian political leaders should strive to provide such ‘safe haven’ for investments in the country and not all these so called Economic gatherings and talk shows. The crux of the matter here is that, let the Bill Gates speech be a wake-up call to our Nigerian political leaders to tighten their belts and start doing what is expected of them to better the lives of the ordinary Nigerian masses.
Zik Gbemre, JP.
Without a doubt, the recent speech by American billionaire Businessman, Bill Gates, to Nigerian political leaders and the Nigerian people, can best be described as a wakeup call for us to fix our country in all ramifications by taking the right steps along the lines that matter most. He reminded Nigerians that it is our responsibility to fix the country and no foreigner will do this better than us, as they can only support. The crux of Bill Gates message to Nigeria can be summarized in one sentence, and that is the urgent need for the Nigerian Government at all levels to aggressively invest in ‘human capital development’ in order to harness the demographic dividends of Nigeria’s growing population. Gates gave the charge at the expanded National Economic Council (NEC) meeting which took place recently at Aso Villa. Chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the NEC meeting had in attendance representatives of the Senate President, Speaker House of Representatives, State Governors, Ministers, Royal Fathers/Traditional Rulers, and members of the Economic Team, etc.
Gates advised the Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to match investments in infrastructure with human capital development. The Microsoft founder said over $1.6 billion has been invested in Nigeria’s key areas of agriculture, primary healthcare, immunization, polio eradication programmes, nutrition, family planning amongst others through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The philanthropist urged the Federal Government to make policy decisions focused on improving the human capital the country has. Adding that his foundation would only play a “supportive role” in the achievement of those set goals.
He faulted the execution priorities of Federal Government’s Economic and Recovery Growth Plan (EGRP). Though, Bill Gates said a lot of things concerning Nigeria in his well-publicized speech, the aspect that struck out most was when he noted that: “The most important choice you make is to maximize your greatest resource, the Nigerian people…Nigeria will thrive when every Nigerian is able to thrive. If you invest the health, education and opportunities – the ‘human capital’ we are talking about – then they will lay the foundation for sustained prosperity. If you don’t, however, then it is very important to recognize that there will be sharp limit on how much the country can grow…I urge you to apply this thinking to all your investments in your people. The Nigeria government’s Economic and Recovery Growth Plan identifies ‘investing in our people’ as one of the three ‘strategic objectives’ but the ‘execution priorities’ don’t fully reflect people’s needs prioritizing physical capital over human capital… To anchor the economy over the long term, investments in infrastructure and competitiveness must go hand in hand with investments in people. People without roads, ports and factories can’t flourish. And roads, ports and factories without skilled workers to build and manage them can’t sustain an economy…This is the scenario we all want: Nigeria thrives because every Nigerian is able to thrive. And the data makes it clear that this scenario is entirely within your reach,” he added.
Narrating his experience at a health clinic in Bodinga, Sokoto state, Gates said although Nigerian primary healthcare centers were not adequately funded, it also does not get the most out of the current funding. The businessman described Nigeria as “one of the most dangerous places in the world to give birth” adding that "one in three Nigerian children are chronically malnourished." According to Gates, Nigeria has the fourth worst maternal mortality rate in the world, only ahead of Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, and Chad…In upper middle- income countries, the average life expectancy is 75 years. In lower middle – income countries, it’s 68, in low- income countries, it’s 62. In Nigeria, it is lower still, just 53 years,” Gates announced. “A functioning primary health system has six features. Adequate funding. Good facilities located in the right places. Skilled and dedicated health workers. Ample stocks of essential equipment and medicines. Patients who know about the system and want to use it. And a mechanism for collecting the data needed to improve quality. More transparency would lead to more accountability, which would strengthen governance, leadership, and management, which would improve quality across the board.”
Other essential takeaways from Bill Gates' speech at the said expanded NEC summit, includes the fact that: “the agricultural sector is a pillar of the Nigerian economy, it nourishes most Nigerians and supports half the population, especially the poorest. The sector accounts for a large proportion of the GDP, and during the oil price collapse and recession, it helped cushion the economy. But it still has a lot of potentials to grow; Available statistics still showed that the country ‘still looks like a low-income country,’ but if drams and ambitions are alive, Nigeria will rapidly approach upper middle-income status, like Brazil, China, and Mexico; Growth is not inevitable. Nigeria has unmatched economic potential, but what becomes of that potential depends on the choices you make as Nigeria's leaders; Nigeria should prioritize health and education, continue to open up opportunities in the agriculture and micro enterprise sectors, as it is in the ERGP, creating the conditions where Nigerians can reach their goals while adding value to the economy - the win-win scenario; Nigeria's government revenue as a percentage of its GDP is by far the lowest in the world, at 6 percent. That makes investing in your people difficult. The next lowest country, Bangladesh, collects 10 percent of its GDP.” Gates said the country should brush up to second-to-last in the world, to have an extra $18 billion to budget. Another point he noted was that Nigeria's economy tomorrow depends on improving its schools today - and the “epidemic of chronic malnutrition of children in Nigeria is a huge blow to the economy, stressing that one in three children is chronically malnourished, which is a tragedy.”
It is obvious from the above that Bill Gates means well for Nigerian, hence his usual visits to Nigeria every now and then, is not to give awards to our non-performance Nigerian politicians, or to sing their praise or romance their egos. He always ensures to tell them what they really need to hear without painting it. His speech was blunt and straight to the point. No dilly-dallying. This is unlike what we see with some other foreigners who visit our Nigerian Governments’ Houses and be very ‘economical with the truth’ because of their hidden agendas, but behind, they mock the country and its political leaders and people. From what Bill Gates has said, the question is, when will our political leaders going to be accountable and transparent in the management of our collective wealth? When will the ordinary common masses going to demand for more accountability from our political leaders at all levels, no matter who that persons may be to us? And if the answers sort is not provided satisfactorily, then they are shown the way out of the Office. And if they are found to have misappropriated our collective wealth, they are publicly shamed and not praised, and made to face the full weight of the law.
What the Nigerian Government and political leaders across all boards must understand is that these foreigners, just like Bill Gates, know everything that is happening in the country, even more than most of the Nigerian leaders are aware of. So, these foreigners are not moved or deceived in any way, when our political leaders go about wasting public funds to organize one Economic Investment Summit or the other in the name of trying to attract investors into their States. They know State Governors and political leaders at the Federal level that are performing and those that are not. They know everything that is required of them to know, to decide if they will come to invest in the country or not. They are aware of the unwillingness by most Nigerian political leaders to holistically develop the country. They read newspapers, online news, follow happenings in the country’s political landscape. So, rather than continue to waste public funds to organize their usual Economic Investment Summits, our Nigerian political leaders at the Federal and State levels should focus on providing the needed infrastructure and investment in human capital development that would invariably attract investors to come into the country without them moving a muscle to call them to come. They should stop going to the UK, France, Germany, etc., to woo investors because they are practically fooling themselves.
All the money usually spent by Nigerian political leaders to organize these Economic Investment Summits could have been used instead to provide the basic infrastructure, stable power supply and conducive atmosphere that would attract investors into the country. In other words, they should stop wasting public funds to organize these frivolous gatherings called Economic Investment Summits. The hotel bills and other logistics involved to organize such gatherings are waste of our collective national and States’ wealth. Everybody knows Dubai today as a ‘safe haven’ for investments. Nigerian political leaders should strive to provide such ‘safe haven’ for investments in the country and not all these so called Economic gatherings and talk shows. The crux of the matter here is that, let the Bill Gates speech be a wake-up call to our Nigerian political leaders to tighten their belts and start doing what is expected of them to better the lives of the ordinary Nigerian masses.
Zik Gbemre, JP.