This is a good one for Nigeria as two Nigerians make the top 100 most influencial people on earth.Edwin De Bono recommended the Finance Minister as Bill Gates recommended Aliko Dangote.
Here is what Bono has to say about NOE “I first met economist Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala when she was campaigning for Nigerian debt relief. We’d been
fighting our way through capitals around the world trying to get Cold War–era
debts canceled for the poorest, most heavily indebted countries. During her
first term as Finance Minister of Nigeria, Ngozi arrived at her desk to find a
weighty $30 billion owed. With oil prices on the rise, she stopped having to
plead with her creditors and bought a massive chunk of her own debt so she
could cancel it herself. As if to make a point. She became a legend in that
moment. Humor and joy spill out of her, which can belie the fact that she’s got
one of the toughest jobs on the planet — how to ensure that the tens of
billions of dollars earned each year in oil receipts go into productive usage,
like agriculture, infrastructure, health and education. Ngozi has made
corruption her enemy and stability her goal. She is fiercely intelligent;
everyone wants her to work with them. I couldn’t be prouder to work for her”.
And Bill Gates on Aliko Dangote
A year ago, I gave a speech in London about the fight to eradicate
polio. It included a section on Nigeria, one of just three countries where the
virus still circulates. The organizers told me Aliko Dangote had been invited.
I thought, I’d like to see him, but he’d end polio faster by staying in Nigeria
and doing the work he does every day. Fortunately, Aliko thought the same
thing. He skipped my speech, and the children of Nigeria are better off for it.
Aliko is Africa’s richest man, and his business activities drive
economic growth across the continent. That’s impressive, but I know him best as
a leader constantly in search of ways to bridge the gap between private
business and public health. It’s for that reason he helped create the Nigeria
Private Sector Health Alliance. And it’s for that reason he is an advocate for
agricultural research and malaria control.
All of this is in addition to Aliko’s leadership on polio and other
diseases. The last time I was in Nigeria, we met with dozens of people, from
government leaders to front-line health workers. After I left, Aliko followed
up with them to make sure they were doing the work they said they would do.
This year, Nigeria is on pace for its lowest number of polio cases ever. Aliko
is a big reason why.
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