President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria has told Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg that his simplicity despite being one of the world’s richest men is at variance with Nigerian culture where the rich exude a lot of flamboyance.
Zuckerberg returned to Nigeria a day after he left Lagos for Nairobi to learn about the mobile money system in the East African country. He met Mr Buhari and vice president Yemi Osinbajo. He has also been attending a start-up demo day hosted by Mr Buhari.
“In our culture people who’re successful don’t appear like you, they’re big men,” @MBuhari joked w/ Mark Zuckerberg pic.twitter.com/CdZXsQrocb— Presidency Nigeria (@NGRPresident) September 2, 2016
President Buhari said he was “impressed” by the 32-year-old sixth richest billionaire’s “simplicity in sharing your knowledge and wealth with those with less income.”
“Nigeria has always been identified as a country with great potentials for growth, especially with our youthful population, but now we are moving beyond the potentials to reality,” he said in a statement issued by Femi Adesina, presidential spokesman, adding: “In our culture, 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.”
For his part, Zuckerberg said: “I was highly impressed by the talent of the youths in the Co-creation Hub in Yaba. I was blown away by their talent and the level of energy that I saw,” adding that he was in Africa’s most populous and biggest economy to promote the penetration of ‘fast and cheap’ internet connectivity, express-wifi to shore up online businesses and also help reduce poverty.
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