TheCable

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday commended Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook, for his simplicity, but he said successful people in Nigeria do not jog and sweat on the streets like the entrepreneur did in Lagos.

The president also commended Zuckerberg for sharing his wealth of knowledge with Nigerian youths, and inspiring a new generation of entrepreneurs.

Buhari said this while receiving the Facebook chief at the state house on Friday.

“Nigeria has always been identified as a country with great potentials for growth, especially with our youthful population, but now we are moving beyond the potentials to reality,”  he said in a statement issued by Femi Adesina, presidential spokesman.

“I am impressed by your simplicity in sharing your knowledge and wealth with those with less income.”

Buhari said that the simplicity and magnanimity of the entrepreneur, the world’s 6th richest man as of August 2016, had also challenged the culture of lavish wealth display and impulsive spending that had become peculiar to Nigerians.

“In our culture, we are not used to seeing successful people appear like you. We are not used to seeing successful people jogging and sweating on the streets,” he said.

“We are more used to seeing successful people in air-conditioned places. We are happy you are well-off and simple enough to always share.”

In his remarks, Zuckerberg said he was impressed by the interest, energy and entrepreneurial spirit displayed by young Nigerians in all the ICT camps that he had visited.

“I was highly impressed by the talent of the youths in the Co-creation Hub in Yaba. I was blown away by their talent and the level of energy that I saw,’’ he said.

Zuckerberg said he was in the country to promote the penetration of “fast and cheap” internet connectivity, express-wifi that would help people create online businesses and reduce poverty.