The wide gates of Bill Gates and Nigeria’s ‘failed’ economy plan

Of what use is wealth that can’t wet the dry land of the bottom billions? Such wealth, but to many, is wasted wealth…

Bill Gates, one of the richest few people in the world, last week in Nigeria’s capital,  Abuja, had a lot to say, where he diplomatically blew the country’s govt’s weak investments on human development.

Gates emphasised more on the country’s concern for young people, especially in health and education, which to him was not good enough.

I might be quick to ask why are the past and present Nigeria ruling elites always averse to human development…?

Why are they hostile to the future and health concerns of the supposed leaders of tomorrow?

Why do they prefer Prado jeeps and Mercedeez-Benze to the quantum leap and positive blowing of young Nigerians?

It is simple; They know that #education leads to liberation or a pogo (as the Xhosans would call it) Educated citizens are very easy to lead and very difficult to rule. By all means, they (ruling class) want their Harvard, Cambridge trained children to continue to rule the children of the hewers of woods and fetchers of waters.

The elites have also designed the education sector to render useless anyone that passes through it.

The curriculum, the ambience, teachers remuneration and welfare, shrunk space and dearth of infrastructure are all up in arms against the children of the nobodies. They (elites) are always quick to take us to the cleaners.

We are constantly prefixed as “half-baked unemployable graduates” They never blame themselves for their unbridled appetite for foreign kinds of stuff as well as the ramshackle education system that they have developed over the years.

Any Nigerian who excelled in the system back home would be a Highflyer anywhere. Here, the entire system is up in arms against the already battered young minds. Let me say it again that those whose responsibility it is to develop the institutions are some bunch of irresponsible rascals. They have only one vision and one ambition which revolves around the enlargement of their already bulging vaults and the security of their children’s tomorrow.

The masses cañ go and die! For the masses and their offsprings, it’s operation find your mojo… Succeed or secede back to your maker in a coffin of unfulfilled dreams. As they say, God is forever handy to keep away flies from a tailless animal.

History is replete with men who rose from a Rose-less foundation to a rosy future. Those who trust in him are likely to tear through the storm of life like a hot knife would tear through butter. They will have scars, but they will hit the sky. The masses MUST neither be DESPONDENT nor be DESPAIRED! We have God!

The health sector is also on the ground. One of the most prominent lines in the coup speech read by Gen.Sani Abacha when they threw out Shehu Shagari(Gen.Buhari was the beneficiary) was that the country health care system was zero…that the hospitals had become mere consulting clinics. Decades later, nothing has changed. In fact, things are daily degenerating. People are daily dying even cold. The failing of govt knows and have no rival. At the drop of a hat, they would jet out to the hospitals outside the Africa continent. We foot their bills and go on foot to foot our own bills in our own so-called hospital. can a sick man learn anything? Can he be productive? Can his mind settle to think positively? Whichever way you look at it, its all negatives for the common people. Those ones that Shakespeare called the plebeians.

While speaking with CNN a few days ago, Bill Gates defended his Abuja outing. He restated that the execution priorities of Nigeria’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan do not reflect the needs of the people.. That the govt should place more importance on human development.

The multi Billionaire went on to say that as a partner in the Nigeria project, he was saying that the current plans were not good enough. The young people need to be developed. The quality and quantity of those young people in education and health is simply not good enough.

He said that Nigeria, with the right investment on young people, will liberate the country and the entire Africa continent “I needed to be direct. If they get it right in health and Education, they will be an Engine of growth not just for themselves but for all of Africa”

Bill Gates is a not only wealthy, he is also a generous and blunt personality. He has committed over 1.6Billion USD to fighting diseases in Nigeria. That made him to be the biggest pro Nigerians spender in our entire history. Now you know why he told CÑN that he was a partner Nigeria. The blunt brother never knew the elites here are of a special weird breed. They hate the truth and all sayer of truths. Those who refuse to sip from the chalice of sycophancy are branded as enemies of the state. Little Wonder it has been a torrential rain of excoriates from the spin doctors of this pro elites administration.

Not even an atomic bomb can destroy the truth. May the wealth of Bill Gates continue to grow like the cedars if Lebanon. May he continue to flourish like the palm tree. As for our billionaires down here, it will be better for history to remember you not only for the swanky cars, the posh homes and the juicy skirts you acquired or even the number of politicians you sponsored. Please endeavour to invest in poor people’s health and education. They will remember you as one who liberated them…..who pulled them from the valley of despair and despondency. Use your wealth to change the world. Make it a better place for everyone. Wealth that is not used to wet the dry ground of the poor is wealth amassed in vain.

Comr. Oscar Okhifo is a public affairs commentator based in Abuja.