Lagos — Philanthropist, Bill Gates, qualifies as a kind-hearted person, and a man whose centre of life and existence is the good of humanity. He has not only shown compassion to his country, the United States of America (USA) alone, but has done so all over the world, including Nigeria.

Recently, Gates through his Gates and Melinda Foundation, donated the sum of $25 million to fight polio in Nigeria, a scheme he considers his pet project. The amount, according to him, was for the purchase of more than 100 million oral polio vaccines for the country. Before this time he had donated a huge sum of his personal wealth to fighting malaria in Africa.

Bill and his wife, Melinda have a four pronged approach to giving, which they explained to be: Develop Strategy, Make Grants, Measure Progress and then Adjust Strategy.

In his humanitarian work, the acclaimed rich man and his wife have a core belief that life has equal value, hence it is their desire to have a hand in making this a reality in the world. Gates believes that the success of his Polio programme, particularly on Nigeria, should be hinged on the active participation of state leaders to make sure that all children are reached by immunisation.

With this belief in mind, he stated recently in Devon, Switzerland, "I believe that the wealthy have a responsibility to invest in addressing inequity. This is especially true when the constraints on others are so great. Otherwise, we will come out of the economic downturn in a world that is even more unequal, with greater inequities in health and education, and fewer opportunities for people to improve their lives."

Gates' gesture is coming amazingly at a time Africans are butchering fellow Africans in recurrent conflicts and her leaders stealing their peoples' resources to deposit in foreign banks. The Microsoft founder/owner, is also a computer software expert, who is apparently repatriating his own personal wealth to better the lives of Africans in general and Nigerians in particular.

To Kalu Onuma of Ndigbo Lagos, "Gates' gesture is a shameful thing for Nigerians who call themselves elite and the rich. Well, a good thing, but a shameful one to governors who collect huge sums of money, ride big cars and live flamboyant lives forgetting those whose money they are squandering. It shows barrenness of our political elite."

The Gates and Melinda Foundation is richly endowed having invested in Capital markets up to N35.1 billion by October 2, 2008. Even at that, Gates revealed that the global economic meltdown affected its value by 20 per cent and was increasing his amount of giving from $3.3 billion last year to $3.8billion in 2009. "In this century, our world has the opportunity to fulfill the great human promise that all lives have equal value," Gates further said.

Born William Henry Bill Gates 111, on October 28, 1955 at Seattle, Washington, Gates is generally known as a business magnate, author, and was the world's richest person for 15 consecutive years. He stepped aside from full-time work at Microsoft in 2000 to concentrate on his work at the foundation.