This man has always fascinated me really.I pray all the rich people of this world can impact the environment more,A lot of people who are not as wealthy are touching Lives but it is not far reaching enough,however of the richer people can think less about themselves and reach our more to the less privileged,we would all have touched Lives irreversibly.

http://www.tribune.com.ng/news2013/index.php/en/component/k2/item/2088-tribune-man-of-the-year

BILL Gates took the world by storm when in 1985, his company, Microsoft, introduced Windows, an operating system compatible with all personal computer software products developed on the MS-DOS system. It was a grand breakthrough which not only profited Gates and his company, but also benefited most PC users. Leveraging on the success of Windows, Gates, in 1986, took Microsoft public with an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of $21 per share. With his 45 per cent of the company’s 24.7 million shares, he became a multi-millionaire at the age of 31. A year later, he became a billionaire when Microsoft’s stock rose to $90.75 a share. In 1999, with stock prices at an all time high, Gates’ net-worth rose to $101 billion.

But Gates has proved that money does not make a man but that rather it is what man makes with money that makes him. Though programming and money brought him to the world stage, it is his eagerness to lend a hand and his heart to the vulnerable that has made him a world citizen. He is immensely wealthy and has everything money can buy, yet he closely associates with those who have nothing and is prepared to share his all with them. He goes out of his way to ensure the comfort of those who have no chance whatsoever of reciprocating his good gesture. He and his wife, Melinda, have decided to give out 95 per cent of their means to charity through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Nigeria has benefitted tremendously from this deed.

One of the issues that have attracted the attention of Gates is polio eradication. He has demonstrated unwavering commitment to see Nigeria exit the group of polio endemic countries more than any Nigerian dead or alive. He even has more information than Nigerian leaders about areas in the country where the war against polio is being lost. In a newspaper interview earlier in the year, he said, “We have some local governments that are still not as engaged in the activities as they should be. In fact, I’ll give the President, when I meet with him today (September 27, 2012), a list of those local governments, so that he can work with the governors to approve that.”

After meeting with Gates in New York, President Goodluck Jonathan returned to Nigeria and summoned governors of states still harbouring polio with a charge to stem the tide of polio in their domains. Similarly, the Presidential Task Force on Polio Eradication (PTFPE) was set up to advise and monitor polio eradication progress shortly after a meeting between Gates and President Jonathan in Abuja last year.

Gates has visited the country a number of times to sensitise the leaders to the need to put an end to the polio scourge. He even had to get the 36 state governors as well as the Federal Capital Territory minister to sign up to the Nigeria Immunization Challenge launched by his foundation earlier in the year. The Challenge set specific objectives that needed to be met during each quarter of 2012 with a view to freeing Nigerian children from the clutch of polio. The Challenge became necessary because although Nigeria made great progress in 2010, reducing polio by 95 per cent, it was not sustained in 2011, which resulted in the resurgence of the polio virus in the year with an increase in 2012. According to Global Polio Eradication Initiative in the latest edition of its Weekly Polio Update, Nigeria is the only country with ongoing transmission of all three serotypes.

As a motivation for the governors, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation stated that it would award every state that met all the necessary threshold criteria by the end of 2012 a $500,000 grant to support their top health priorities which could include priority initiatives in public health, such as malaria and tuberculosis, improving immunization, HIV prevention and treatment, or safe drinking water and hygiene promotion. In addition to the grant, the foundation promised that governors who achieved the goals would receive special recognition from Gates for their contribution to the elimination of polio. Winning governors would also be highlighted in his foundation’s communications, such as Gates’ annual letter or the foundation’s annual report, social media materials and Gates’ public engagements globally.

Gates’ foundation also teamed up with Aliko Dangote Foundation to stop the spread of polio in Kano State. Under a four-year alliance, the foundations would provide funding, equipment and technical support to the Kano State government to strengthen polio immunisation.

Apart from committing billions of Naira to the polio eradication campaign in the country, Gates has provided leadership in the campaign, showing more concern about the spread of the debilitating but preventable disease in the country than those elected to govern the people.

But his altruistic activities in Nigeria are not restricted to polio eradication; he is also committed to caging malaria, which is said to kill at least 10 Nigerian children daily. He is determined to wrest Nigerian infants, children, and pregnant women from the jaws of death occasioned by malaria. Since he set it as his objective in 2007 to see to the eradication of malaria from the world in his lifetime, Gates has been working hard to actualise this goal.

He is motivated to join hands with others to fight malaria in Nigeria and other developing countries because he is aware of the direct contribution of malaria to poverty, losses in productivity and reduced school attendance. The Gates Foundation has been involved in the distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets and effective drugs in Nigeria. He is also involved in funding research on the development and delivery of new malaria drugs, particularly for treating acute malaria in at-risk populations such as; infants, young children, and pregnant women. To actualise the malaria eradication dream, his foundation is working on developing a safe, effective and affordable vaccine against malaria.

Recently, he promised to support the development of vaccines to fight tuberculosis with $220million over a period of five years. This has resulted in the development of six possible TB vaccines that are currently being tested.

Despite the direct intervention of his foundation in the eradication of polio and malaria and the stemming of other diseases, he also has donated $1.4billion to Global Funds to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in different countries of the world.

Just as he is committed to eradicating polio and malaria so is he resolute to boost agricultural production in the country.

Earlier in the year, he provided $12million for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to improve yam production in Nigeria and Ghana. The project according to IITA would focus on increasing yields through better seed tuber supply and improving markets for the underground, edible tuber.

The multifaceted five-year effort is expected to double the incomes of three million small-holder farming families.

IITA said, “The initial focus of the project is on 200,000 smallholder farm families in Nigeria and Ghana, 90 per cent of whom cultivate less than two acres. A key priority is to ensure that affordable pest- and disease-free seed yams are available to farmers, along with storage and handling technologies that can reduce post-harvest loss.”

With the initiative, yam breeders would develop and widely disseminate new, higher-yielding, disease-resistant varieties.

In addition to that, he is also funding to the tune of $9.8m a research project into whether cereal crops can be genetically engineered with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. The essence is to create cereal crops that can access nitrogen from the air using symbiotic bacteria, reducing the need for expensive chemical fertiliser.

The focus of the investigation will be maize and the purpose of the intervention is to help small subsistence farmers.

But before we chose Gate, some Nigerians were considered for the Tribune Man of the Year alongside Bill Gates.

Dr Akinwumi Adesina, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, was considered for his cassava bread initiative, the Growth Enhancement Scheme as well as his attempt to stamp out corruption in the nation’s fertiliser distribution network. The downside, however, is that the initiatives are just taking off and do not yet have much impact on the lives of Nigerians.

Alhaji Aliko Dangote, President, Dangote Group, was also nominated for being a major employer of labour in the country and for giving succour to flood victims. As significant as these accomplishments are, just a segment of Nigerians are affected by them.

Ms Arunma Oteh, Director General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), also came under consideration for standing up to the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market and Other Financial Institutions, which had demanded that SEC should pay a bribe of N39million for a public hearing organised by the committee. The chairman, Mr. Herman Hembe, was forced to step down from the headship of the committee. He and his deputy were also arraigned in court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for fraud. But Ms Oteh did not emerge as the Man of the Year because a series of allegations, which are yet to be cleared, have also been levelled against her.

Another nominee for the title was Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria for always alerting the nation to issues that have dangerous implications for the economy. Sanusi had, not long ago, raised the alarm over the rate of borrowing by the government. He had said it was not right for the government to keep borrowing thereby jeopardising the interest of future generations. He also called for a reduction in government expenditure, adding that not much progress could be recorded for as long as the government continued to spend 70 per cent of its revenue on recurrent expenditure and merely 30 per on capital project. Sanusi lost to Gates because the fruits of his watchdog efforts have not come to the fore.

The Gates’ edge is that through his intervention, he has been able to improve the wellbeing of many Nigerians. Without standing to gain anything, he has deployed his resources to uplift the average Nigerian. Quite a number of Nigerians are sleeping under insecticide-treated bed nets donated by Bill Gates, many are getting free anti-malaria drugs donated by him, many tuberculosis patients have access to free medical treatment through his intervention, many HIV/AIDS patients can easily access anti-retroviral drugs and the lives of many infants and their mothers have been saved from untimely death because of his input. Gates has also been able to galvanise the federal, state and local governments to take action concerning polio eradication. Very soon, the production of yam and maize would get a boost because of his commitment to increase food production and reduce poverty in the country.

If there is anyone who puts his resources and energy behind the desire for a better life for the majority in the country, it is Bill Gates. If there is a friend who will not stop at anything to put smiles on the faces of Nigeria’s poor, it is Bill Gates. This American has demonstrated his unequivocal affection for Nigeria; he even loves Nigeria more than many Nigerians. He is, therefore, our Man of the Year.