I am impressed by your simplicity in sharing your knowledge and wealth with those with less income, Buhari Tells Zuckerberg the Facebook CEO

I am impressed by your simplicity in sharing your knowledge and wealth with those with less income, Buhari Tells Zuckerberg the Facebook CEO

By Musa Abdullahi Sufi

Kano, Nigeria

Facebook Founder, Mark Zuckerberg visited President Muhammadu Buhari in Aso Villa on Friday, September 2, 2016. His visit came after he visited Lagos and Kenya.  He came for a special meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Osinbajo and other government officials in the state House.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has praised the Chief Executive Officer and also the Co-founder of Facebook social network hosting over 1.7 billion subscribers.

President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity Mr Femi Adesina, said President Buhari made the approval to received the Internet entrepreneur at the State House.

The President during his meeting with Zuckerberg  said that President Buhari told Zuckerberg that the  different meetings hold with Nigerian youths as he arrived  were well-timed, as the Nigeria was already exploring opportunities to offshoot development through entrepreneurship.

Buhari said “Nigeria has always been identified as a country with great potential for growth, especially with our youth population, but now we are moving beyond the potential to reality.”

“I am impressed by your simplicity in sharing your knowledge and wealth with those with less income,’’ Buhari emphasized further.

The president also further added that “we are not used to seeing successful people appear like you; we are not used to seeing successful people jogging and sweating on the streets. “We are more used to seeing successful people in air-conditioned places; we are happy you are well-off and simple enough to always share.”

The happy and cheering looking Zuckerberg in his remarks, said he was overwhelmed by the interest, energy and entrepreneurial spirit revealed by young Nigerians in all the ICT camps visited in his first visit.

The CEO and co-founder of Facebook quoted that “I was highly impressed by the talent of the youths in the Co-creation Hub in Yaba (Lagos). I was blown away by their talent and the level of energy that I saw.”

He further added that he came to Nigeria to promote the penetration and diffusion of “fast and cheap” internet connectivity, Express-wifi, that would help people to create online businesses and reduce poverty vanguard news also reported.

The visit was full of happiness, smiles and laughter as well as taking Selfies. Zuckerberg seems extremely happy with the visit and impressed with high confidence in the president of the most populous nation in Africa.  

However, the bottom-line is Nigerian Youths and Exploration of the ICT for Jobs and creative industry will be given a paramount importance. The visit further highlighted to the nation effort in diversification of the economy from highly dependent on Oil to Agriculture, Tourism, and ICT as the answer to our current economic challenges.