Bill Gates is busy helping poor African kids with vaccines. He is empowering small businesses and deprived women with start-up capital in order to grow out of poverty. Diseases such as malaria, meningitis, the crippler-polio and other infectious illnesses could bear testimonies to Gates’ decisive blow if they could speak. Their abilities to strike have been significantly mitigated by the spirited interventions of Gates’ Foundation. His humanitarian work around the world, particularly in Africa, the epicentre of disease and deprivation has uplifted millions of people.
The billionaire tycoon is as much a philanthropist as he’s a tech guru. Every time there’s a disaster, be it natural or man-made, this kind man would be there to help. In spite of these virtues, some blockheads would have the guts to accuse him of trying to decimate the human population with COVID-19. They concoct that, he wants to install a chip in humans so that he could control the world population. This conjecture would have been hilarious if it was pun-intended. But unfortunately, many people believe it to be true.
How can you kill people in order to control them? Illogical! The truth is that tech guys including Bill Gates already control significant aspects of our lives. You cannot be formally educated, from the lowest to the highest level, without benefiting from Microsoft products. The impact of technology in our lives today is immeasurable. He, who controls technology, dictates to the world literally.
What they are imputing to this great philanthropist cannot hold water for so many reasons. His antecedents, impeccable humanitarian records, women and children empowerment, contribution to education and poverty alleviation among others, especially in Africa stand at odds with the deadly conspiracy against him. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation expends over $2 billion annually in various charitable courses in Africa alone. This man has willed 90 percent of his money to charity. How dare anyone in his twisted mind accuses someone of Gates’ pedigree of mass murder!
There was controversy around how COVID-19 swiftly spread – that whether it was man-made in the Wuhan Institute of Virology or it spiralled from a Wet market where exotic animals are traded in Wuhan, central China. Interestingly, this controversy has been laid to rest by the U.S. Intelligence Community in their April findings, that “the COVID-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified”. Scores of renowned scientists and medical practitioners agree as well.
Despite all the evidence that, the virus came from China, some ill-informed people still went berserk with all sorts of unfounded conspiracy theories. Nigerians, in their longstanding penchant for the alternative facts, didn’t hesitate to join the bandwagon that was raging fast like wildfire and took it to the next level. Their delusional wonderland knows no boundaries.
It beats my imagination that, even well-educated people indulge in this misinformation business. They even say without evidence that, Bill Gates is bribing the National Assembly to pass COVID-19 Bill, so he could make money from it. Laughable! Other groups, who purport to be some kind of ‘experts’ in world affairs but no less ignorant, are blaming 5G technology.
My Muslim guys are saying it’s a ploy by the West to stop them from 5 daily prayers in mosques, forgetting that thousands of churches across Europe and America are shut as well. The virus is by far affecting more Westerners than Africans or Muslims for that matter.
My Christian buddies ‘retaliated’ with their own version of the conspiracy to the effect that President Muhammadu Buhari is using the COVID-19 lockdown to stifle the growth of churches he so passionately hates or some unnamed Western Anti-Christ somewhere is attacking the children of God and they need to pray fervently to overcome the enemy.
Some know-it-all Pastors and Imams were reinforcing these fact-free theories from their pulpits. Some of them went overboard in the art of disinformation, they had to be reprimanded for endangering the lives of their gullible followers. Yet again, some other guys are accusing a non-existent American-Chinese biological warfare.
The conspiracy spree graduated to the downright lunacy of accusing Bill Gates because, they claim he hypothesised, in a 2015 TED talk, about how unprepared the world is for the likelihood of a major virus outbreak. I wonder why they spared Obama and loads of other scientists, who also spoke years ago about how ill-prepared the world is in the event of a possible resurgence of diseases, like Ebola, SARS virus, etc.
I am dumbfounded that lots of people believe these craps. It honestly breaks my heart that Bill Gates, who arguably is the biggest individual helper of Africa in history, would be paid back with a hideous conspiracy. Common, Africans of conscience, stand up and defend the man that has dedicated his life to helping your brethren. I recall Dangote mentioned that his Foundation was inspired by Bill Gates.
Nigerians are habitual rumour mongers, they conjure up theories to explain almost anything, even in the face of undisguised evidence to the contrary. The early 2000s Polio immunization pandemonium is a case of reference, and more recently, the knee-jerk fairytale of ‘Jubril from Sudan’ is still trending on social media.
Clearly, Bill Gates is not the first victim of Nigerian conspiracy theorists. I recall during the formative years of Boko Haram insurrection, many Muslims accused the duo of America and President Jonathan of sponsoring the carnage. They ridiculously argued that America is apprehensive of the burgeoning Muslim population, hence must be arming the terrorists to do their dirty job.
Similarly, some Christians grotesquely fantasised that Muslim politicians were orchestrating the slaughter of their own people, including the infamous 2014 abduction of Chibok girls, to discredit the Jonathan administration. So, we are basically accusing all and sundry but the real perpetrators – Boko Haram.
These are the dangers of conspiracy theories. It allows you deny incontrovertible facts, just so it conforms to your wishful thinking. No wonder everyone is confused in that country. Because we are chasing shadows while denying scientific evidence and truth.
I think posterity is angry with us in advance, unless we begin to feel it’s incumbent upon us to right what’s wrong; to be grateful to people who have demonstrated nothing but kindness to us; not to vilify them with awful accusation of profiteering from our deaths, when in fact all their lives, they have been doing the exact opposite. Bill Gates deserves better!
Mr. Bagwanje wrote this from the United Kingdom. He can be reached by e-mail: amiruabd@yahoo.com
