President Bola Tinubu, on Tuesday in Lagos, praised Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and chairman of the Bill Gates Foundation, for inspiring leaders worldwide by consistently lifting the poor and underprivileged.

The president, who conferred the national honour of the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic on Mr Gates, noted the renowned philanthropist’s interventions in maternal health, agriculture and infectious disease research.

He thanked Mr Gates for providing global leadership that prioritised ameliorating the lives and safety of the poor and underprivileged.

“Today, I would like to share my happiness and respect and acknowledge one of the greatest human beings in the world. All I need to say is thank you, Bill Gates, for your indivisible commitment to humanity. It is highly remarkable.

“It is an inspiration to leaders across the world, including the one standing before you. I thank you very much. It is a great thing to honour you as the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” the president added.

Mr Gates said, “I am very happy to receive the honour for myself and the incredible team at the foundation. From the beginning, the foundation’s goal was to support improving Nigeria’s health sector. Nigeria had some ambitious goals for improving health, and three people here today are great champions of that cause.

“Of course, the president is making health a priority. Pate, we’ve worked together to handle great challenges, including the incredible progress on polio. Then, Dangote, I got to know, and we have done great work together.

“So, in the 25 years in Nigeria, we have achieved a lot. As was mentioned, the child death rate has gone down, and that’s because new vaccines were received to boost our efforts.”

Mr Gates stated that considerable work had been done to increase coverage and distribute vaccines to every child. He added that the effort to eradicate polio was one of the foundation’s toughest.

He said the foundation had already rolled out HPB vaccines to reduce the 7,000 annual deaths of women from cervical cancer and that a single dose of the vaccine taken by girls ages 9-14 could give them lifetime protection.

“Nigeria achieved a better result than any other country in getting out the vaccine to young girls,” Mr Gates noted.

Mr Gates told the president that he was dedicated to reducing malnutrition and spreading vaccines that could help eliminate malaria in Nigeria.

“Some of our goals will seem ambitious; for example, in the next twenty years, we hope to eradicate malaria,” he added.

Mr Gates assured the Nigerian leader of his continued commitment to improving health in Nigeria, aiming to invest his entire wealth in this cause in the next 20 years.

(NAN)