The deputy national organising secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Nze Chidi Duru, has challenged wealthy Nigerians to invest more in a developmental agenda that will engender a buoyant economy and produce an economically enabled populace.
He also tasked them to stand up for the people, insisting that the country urgently needs the like of Billionaire Michael Bloomberg who can stand up to be counted as a developmental champion.
The former federal lawmaker was reacting to the recent commitment of $600million to the endowment of four historically black medical schools in the United States of America to help secure their future economic stability by the billionaire.
Duru in a statement in Abuja on Thursday recalled an earlier $1billion pledge Bloomberg made in July to Johns Hopkins University to offset all medical students’ tuition fees in that university, noting that Bloomberg has upped the ante in the sphere of philanthropy.
According to him “Now, this, to my mind is one other way to profoundly impact life and lift society and I wished we had individuals that can replicate this philanthropic feats in Nigeria. In truth, it’s not as if we do not have such individuals except that the quantum of their philanthropies has been of the constricted type.
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“In this regard, I recall pleading with Nigeria’s banking stalwarts in an earlier article, to commit to a developmental agenda for both country and people so as to have an economically enabled populace that will not only engender a buoyant economy but impact the banking system for the banking chiefs’ benefits too.
“I am not asking bankers to dish out money as Bloomberg had done, essentially, I reason that if bankers commit to best practices to actively engage to make the Naira stronger and facilitate access to credit without the usual exploitative encumbrances that are associated with credits granted customers by Nigerian banks, the economic space will be energised and able to create wealth and better livelihood for the millions of Nigerians that are struggling to make a success of their respective businesses or those that are struggling to survive from one day to the other.
“Seriously speaking, this time requires the type of wealthy Nigerians, that can stand up to be counted as developmental champions on the side of the Nigerian people,” Duru maintained.