Former Governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu has donated N200 million to aid the fight against Coronavirus.
Tinubu made the donation as part of events to mark his 68th birthday celebration.
According to a tweet on his official twitter handle, @AsiwajuTinubu, N100 million will go the Lagos State Government which currently has to battle with the highest number of infections, while N100 million will go to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)
3. That is why I have chosen today to announce that I will be making a donation of N200m to fight this deadly virus. Pursuant to this pledge, N100m will be made available to the government of Lagos State and another N100m to the NCDC to support their efforts in fighting COVID-19.
— Bola Ahmed Tinubu (@officialABAT) March 29, 2020
Tinubu noted that the outbreak of the Coronavirus and the rapid spread had made it impossible for him to host any social gathering, but he had decided to mark the birthday by supporting the fight against COVID-19.
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The Bola Tinubu Colloquium was also suspended due to the government ban on gatherings of more than 20 people, and the need to adhere to the social distancing directive.
2. The circumstances this year prevent us from gathering together to celebrate my birthday but I would still like to mark the occasion.
— Bola Ahmed Tinubu (@officialABAT) March 29, 2020
Tinubu expressed optimism that the colloquium would be held next year under better circumstances.
1. Today, but for COVID-19 we would, as we have done for the last twelve years, have celebrated this day with the Bola Tinubu Colloquium. This year we could not but by God’s grace we will do so again.
— Bola Ahmed Tinubu (@officialABAT) March 29, 2020
What you should know: The Bola Tinubu Colloquium is an annual event hosted yearly for the last twelve years, by Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu to mark his birthday.
The colloquium was hosted by the former senator during his time as Lagos state governor and was proposed to serve as “a platform for sharing knowledge, experience, and information around socio-economic and governance issues”.
For the last dozen years, it served as a platform for galvanizing national discourse to remedy most of the country’s intractable problems. Previous yearly editions had covered problems from education to the social and economic sectors.
The 11th edition of the forum held in 2019, with the theme ‘Investing in People: Jobs and the Economy’, and was applauded as a timely interrogation of the unemployment which had plagued the Nigerian state for years.
I think some of these money should be given to the poor through their account cus millions of Nigerians are home with notthing yo eat and they will die of notthing else buh hunger and not coronavirus