SAN FRANCISCO, December 27, (THEWILL) – An African American billionaire, Robert Smith, has offered to also educate the 21 other girls who were freed last October by the Boko Haram terror sect.
Smith is currently sponsoring 24 of the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls that immediately escaped from captivity, at the American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola, Adamawa State,
This was revealed by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant on the media to President Muhammadu Buhari, at an interaction with media men in Abuja, adding that the 21 Chibok girls were being treated as adoptees of the federal government and that there was a lot of local and international interest in the future plans for the girls.
Responding to complaints by the families of the 21 Chibok girls that officials of the Department of State Services (DSS) had not allowed the girls to visit them at their homes in Chibok on Christmas Day, Shehu admitted that there were some hitches arising from a lack of understanding of the objective of the trip on the part of some security operatives.
“A black American billionaire, Mr. Robert Smith who is currently sponsoring the education of 24 girls from Chibok, among them the first set of escapees from Boko Haram, at the American University of Nigeria, Yola, has offered to pay for the education of the 21 girls released through negotiations and is offering to take responsibility for all the others who will hopefully be eventually set free,” Shehu said.
“The Murtala Mohammed Foundation in the country is equally interested,” he hinted.
Smith, who runs a private equity shop, Vista Equity Partners, worth over $26 billion, was listed by Forbes as the 274th richest man in the United States as at 27 December, with a net worth of $2.5 billion. He is ranked 688th in the world.
As a successful African-American, Smith has been generous hearted.
In January this year, he announced a $50 million gift to his alma mater Cornell University, which renamed its school of chemical and bio-engineering after him.
In September, he donated $20million to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the second largest behind Oprah Winfrey, the richest African-American, who gave $21 million.
Smith has received the Reginald F. Lewis Achievement Award, the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Robert Toigo Foundation, and the Ripple of Hope Award from Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.
Smith was also awarded an honorary Doctorate of International Affairs from American University’s School of International Service. He founded Project Realize– termed “Free Market Philanthropy”– in order to combine the best elements of the American free enterprise system with the core American ideals of giving back and lifting others up.
Of the 276 students kidnapped, 197 are still reportedly missing, and negotiations for their release are under way.
Story by Oputah David
