When Bill Gates calls

This is a comment on the reported congratulatory phone call last week by Bill Gates, no introduction necessary, to Nigeria leader Muhammadu Buhari. But I begin with a comment in my last column in which I spoke of Buhari having won re-election.  That was meant to have been “won re-election.” In previous comments, I criticized […]

This is a comment on the reported congratulatory phone call last week by Bill Gates, no introduction necessary, to Nigeria leader Muhammadu Buhari.

But I begin with a comment in my last column in which I spoke of Buhari having won re-election.  That was meant to have been “won re-election.”

In previous comments, I criticized the rigging of the election and supported Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the PDP, challenging the result in court.  That is not because I had supported his candidature in the election but because the issues involved are far more important than the individuals.

Given the blatancy of the rigging, and to set the record straight, it is vital that the election evidence is examined by a court of law. If Buhari wants to enjoy the same respect his defeat of Goodluck Jonathan granted him in 2015, let him demonstrate that the numbers he received in the election were not manufactured or allotted, but won.

That has become even more important because of the presidency’s celebration of the call from Mr. Gates for his electoral “victory.”

The philanthropist and former Microsoft icon is an important voice around the world, training his concerns on human advancement, and his billions on social problems.

He wants to see the conquest of disease: HIV & AIDS, malaria, polio and alzheimers, for instance.  He is a strong advocate of education, including in the developing world.  He talks about technology, of course: the kind that can really help people.

He participates and energizes and funds organizations which work for these objectives, and has spent a lot of money in Nigeria, directly and indirectly, and continues to do so.

But he has been hoodwinked and ignored in this country, such as when resources of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria-of which he and his foundations are a key part–disappear.

I have repeatedly drawn attention in this column to how the Buhari administration has openly, hypocritically and deliberately covered up the local assault on these funds and protected the perpetrators.  If anyone doubts this, missed it or challenges my assertion, I will repeat the disturbing story in full.

Nearly 20 years ago at a special summit in Abuja, African leaders, finding the continent threatened by HIV & AIDS, declared it a continental emergency and as we often do, called on the world for help: $5-10 billion worth.

The effort would crystallize into the Global Fund, which over the following decade invested in Nigeria over US$1.4 billion.

But then in 2011, when the Fund published its first audit of its grants to Nigeria, and in 2016 its second, it uncovered a terrible pattern of looting of the resources by local organizations.

Despite public indignation and “investigations,” the 2011 crime was covered-up by the Goodluck Jonathan government, and the second by Buhari’s.  Nobody went to jail, and that is always confirmation that the crime was led by senior officials.

“The Global Fund is one of the best and kindest things people have ever done for one another,” Bill Gates had reflected at the 16th International AIDS Conference in 2006.  “It is a fantastic vehicle for scaling up the treatments and preventive tools we have today – to make sure they reach the people who need them.”

That was before those explosive audits.  But they have not stopped Gates from trying to help in Nigeria.  Early in 2018, for instance, it was announced that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation had chosen to pay off a $76 million loan Nigeria obtained from Japan in 2014 for the fight against polio.

And then right away, perhaps in “gratitude,” the Buhari government invited him to an “expanded” National Economic Council meeting in Abuja, with nobody telling him how he had been expanded in.

Perhaps it was imagined that Gates appeared ready to empty a lot of money into Abuja, and to ask no questions.

The problem is that Nigeria does not listen when he disburses his most precious currency: advice.

Arriving in Abuja, the philanthropist waited until they gave him the microphone, and then he told the government to its face, in pin-drop silence, that its economic plan was headed for grief unless it invested on human capital and its youth population.

“While it may be easier to be polite, it’s more important to face facts so that you can make progress,” he declared, affirming that such a policy would help Nigeria achieve the upper middle-income status of the BRIC nations.

Speaking subsequently on CNN, he observed that he has been traveling to Nigeria for over 10 years and that his foundation is spending $1.6 billion, mainly his own money, on various programmes in the country.

“The current quality and quantity of investment in this young generation in health and education just isn’t good enough,” he regretted.  “So I was very direct.”

But Nigerian leaders do not listen to anyone, unless they are putting down a lot of free money.  And of course, they do not listen to Nigerians outside the cycles of praise who offer them the same advice or expertise.

Which partly explains why Gates was ignored in the past year, his name suppressed in official circles until one call last week which boosted the fragile ego of the Nigeria leader.  Under our power grid, praise of the leader is far more important than his competence or his service.

But that is exactly why they laugh at Nigeria.  And why nobody trusts Nigeria, particularly anyone calling himself its leader.  And why, within international organizations, contempt of Nigeria is no longer even diplomatically concealed.

But Gates mines the statistics, pointing out, among others, Nigeria’s maternal mortality crisis and the chronic malnutrition afflicting Nigeria’s youngest.

“I really think that of all the countries I have seen, it really hangs in the balance. If they can get health and education right, they can be an engine of growth, not just for themselves but for all of Africa,” he said.

Sadly, none of these perspectives has acquired new energy or prominence in Nigeria since Gates’ “rudeness” last year.   Buhari’s Nigeria continues to flower on bluster and propaganda: after four years, government officials are either complaining about their predecessor or promising the moon…tomorrow.

And just on cue, Buhari is said to have told Gates last week, “My government will not fail Nigerians.”

That is after four years, during which Nigerians have become poorer, more deprived, more desperate.  Promises multiply, and the only ones who are prospering are the powerful and protected.  Unemployment, like the volume of out-of-school and not-in-school children, is frightening.  Opportunities have dried up for the ordinary citizen.  That is a recipe for disaster.

Buhari cannot rise to the task because of his severe limitations.  Sadly, those limitations are not going to get any better simply because they are now fully exposed.  He is the tennis champion who arrives for a tournament he was sure to win, only to jump into a rugby game he loses from the start, screaming all the time he is winning his tennis tournament.

No phone call, from anyone or anywhere, can cure that.

 

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