Governor Nasir El-Rufai of The Kaduna State, on Thursday cleared the air on attacking American billionaire founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, over his comment on Nigeria’s economic plan and public spending especially on education.
El-Rufai insisted that while there was nothing wrong in attacking Gates, he never did but only put things in proper context.
The governor stated this at the closing session of the Kaduna Investment Summit (KADINVEST 3.0) .
“A few weeks ago, when Microsoft founder Bill Gates came to Nigeria and appealed to Nigerian government to invest more in education, I made a comment that was reported widely as attacking Bill Gates. It was not an attack on Bill Gates, it merely putting things in context.
“What I told Mr. Gate is that, you have identified the problem correctly, but you are looking at the wrong tier of government to handle it.
“The state and local governments have the responsibilities to invest in education and healthcare. So, it is up to state governments to invest more in education and healthcare and I gave example of what we are doing in Kaduna .
“I also urged my colleagues, the governors to do same. Because, unless the state governments do so, the country will be clapping with one hand.
“That is what I said, but it was misrepresented to mean that I was attacking Bill Gates. There is nothing wrong with attacking Bill Gates, we can differ, but that is not what happened, I merely explained the context, where the investment should be,” the governor said.
El-Rufai further added that Mr. Gates is a big partner as he has invested $1.6billion in Nigeria, pointing out that a large percentage of the money he invested was invested in Kaduna State.
He said Kaduna has it own development plan which aligns with the federal government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).
In his remarks at the event, Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, praised the Kaduna people for their activism on social media, saying it indicates how educated they are.
“In the past, none of you can send a video to a minister, now you don’t only send, you direct me on what to do.
“Last week, I got a video though I didn’t know the locomotive that brought people to Kaduna had lost power. Somebody sent me the video to show how much they were sweating.
“I responded immediately by forwarding that same video to the Managing Director of Nigerian Railway Corporation asking him to confirm. He got back to me to say one of our locomotives was bad and that it would be fixed immediately.
“So, I urged you to continue on that line of being active by making us accountable to you, because without you there is no government. Without the Kaduna people there is no Mallam el-Rufai and without the Kaduna people there is no Buhari,” he said.
