Politics
By Anthony Isibor.
THE letter that Bill Gates wrote to Peter Obi on his exemplary leadership qualities has surfaced. The letter personally signed by Gates and dated March 20, 2013 was sighted by Realnews on Tuesday, July 12, 2022.
Gates in the letter congratulated Obi for leading Anambra State to achieve the best performing state in the South East geopolitical zone in the 2012 Nigerian Governors Immunization Leadership Challenge.
He stated that Obi’s commitment to eradicating polio and strengthen routine immunization in Anambra State, his personal leadership and public support for these efforts, and his engagement with traditional leaders in the same year had been impressive.
He also expressed hope that with Obi’s leadership, Nigeria would eradicate polio and achieve real improvements in routine immunization, benefitting Nigeria’s children for generations to come.
Gates urged Obi to continue working to improve the lives of Nigerian children.
Similarly, as a result of Obi’s emergence as a winner of that challenge, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation promised to provide a one-time grant funding to support Anambra State in achieving its priority health related millennium goals.
The road to Gates letter began when Peter Obi as the Governor of Anambra State, had offered them the use of Anambra’s Lodge for free, after the bombing of the UNDP Building in Abuja.
Tongues wagged on the wisdom or otherwise of not collecting rent from them for the usage of the said facility.
When the then UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon visited, Obi was the only governor that had a one-on-one with him. Surprisingly, he said that . Kofi Annan, his predecessor, was the first person that told him about Obi.
Consequently, his subtle instruction that Anambra should be the number one in all their programmes in Nigeria was followed through, and by the time Obi left as the governor, Anambra State had gained10 fold what it lost from not collecting rent for her lodge.
The last time Obi met Bill Gates, he encouraged him not to relent in his efforts to improve his society. He remembers Obi’s exploits as the Governor of Anambra State and said to him that his type was needed for leadership.
Obi, who is the current presidential candidate for the Labour Party and one of the top contenders for the position in the forthcoming 2023 general elections, has continued to have a reverberating acceptance among Nigerians, especially the youths for his smooth track records.
Among the major contenders for the presidential seat, Obi is believed to have the largest social media following led by youths, who are chanting for a drastic change in the present socio-economic and political situation of Nigeria.
A.I
Tags: Ban Ki-moon Bill Gates Kofi Annan Labour Party Peter Obi UNDP
