Bill Gates Cancels Trip To Nigeria
Monday, March 18, 2013Omoba
PREMIUM TIMES has it that America’s richest man,
Bill Gates, has cancelled his scheduled March 27 official visit to Nigeria, in
response to the controversial pardon granted by President Goodluck Jonathan to
ex-convicts Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and Shettima Bulama, PREMIUM TIMES can
authoritatively report today.
Mr. Gates was due in Nigeria March 27 and 28 to meet President Goodluck
Jonathan, state governors and officials of the Federal Ministry of Health
concerning the aggressive polio eradication campaign his Bill and Melinda
Foundation is undertaking in the country.
That trip, authoritative diplomatic sources said, has now been cancelled, two
days after the U.S. government expressed disappointment with its Nigerian
counterpart for pardoning convicted money launderers and warned it might cut
aid meant for the country.
“I can confirm to you that Mr. Gates won’t be coming as scheduled,” one of our
sources told PREMIUM TIMES Monday morning. “The body language of Washington
D.C. does not support his travelling to Nigeria. The thinking here is that the
Nigerian government has high tolerance level for corruption and should be
ostracized in all ways possible.”
Our sources said Mr. Gates has already instructed his staff to inform the
Nigerian presidency, the secretariat of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and the
Federal Ministry of Health that he was no longer coming.
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