Much has been said about the simplicity exuded by Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg on his low key visit to Nigeria. This comes as a great surprise to most Nigerians because one would have expected a fanfare of sort, TV jingles at least a month to his arrival, bill boards plastered with his medium close up shot, customised T shirts worn by organisers for promotion purposes, and overpriced access to watch him speak at the prestigious Eko Hotels. None of that happened, the reality was that the fifth richest man in the world came into Nigeria unnoticed, jogged the streets of Lagos, gate crashed a Nollywood music video ate jollof rice and took a selfie with our President.
For those who have been in a cave, Mark Zuckeberg is the Chief Executive Officer of Facebook, a virtual network that boasts of 1.7 billion users worldwide. During Facebook’s 10th anniversary two years ago, Zuckerberg in a post said he was just happy to connect the school community. No one knows for a fact if he knew Facebook was going to become a global brand today, he started something and the rest is history as we know it. In a Q/A session at the town hall meeting held in Lagos, a lady asked Zuckerberg what made Facebook so successful among other start-ups. Zuckerberg answered by saying that it is necessary as an entrepreneur to make as many mistakes as possible while growing your business. As a prospective entrepreneur, I saw the statement as a great encouragement, not because someone in the Forbes list said it, but because someone who wanted to make a difference as a youth saw his wish come true. The lesson to be learnt here is Nike’s slogan, just do it.
Many youths nurture ideas of what they think and believe can transform the world, I have a lot of them, and I’m sure thousands of other youths also do, the major challenge here is bringing the ideas to reality, and to do so you need more than a set of people to believe in you, you need a system that works, you need the government. This is the part we talk about revolutionising our educational system, power sector, sports, agriculture, the list goes on and on. Mark Zuckerberg who is one of the world’s youngest billionaire started his journey to greatness as a teenager, he created a software program he called “ZuckNet” which allowed all the computers between the house and his father’s dental office to communicate with each other, from there on he kept trying his hands on more projects till he discovered Facebook. It is no mystery that the environment he was in enabled him the chance to do all these.
Zuckerberg whose smile stretched from ear to ear was obviously happy to be in Nigeria, one could not say if it was before or after his encounter with jollof rice, he was however smart enough not to involve himself in the jollof wars by comparing it with other countries’ own, Ghana most notably. The tussle for jollof superiority swung in our favour when the Harvard University drop out endorsed the legend as being delicious. His adventures in Nigeria didn’t end with business and jollof rice, Mark also showed his energetic athletic side when he was spotted jogging on the Ikoyi Lekki Bridge, an act which has been seen as simplicity by many Nigerians.
The Facebook founder went to Kenya from Nigeria and made a quick return few days later but in Abuja this time around. He was spotted taking selfies with our President and also attended a meeting with key people in our communication sector. Now, here are some key approvals from the 32 year old guru’s visit, first is that simplicity is everything, second is Jollof rice is delicious, lastly is that selfies are just pictures taken with the front camera of a phone. Feel old yet?
Amidst Zuckerberg’s visit, it is pertinent to note that a lot is to be learnt ranging from his undramatic entrance to his adventurous hoopia, the 32 year old was gracious enough to share knowledge with aspiring computer scientists he met at Yaba. President Buhari was impressed by his attitude and lifestyle and was quick to acknowledge that. He told him that “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…We are happy you are well-off and simple enough to always share.”
Dapo Akinsanya, a Banker, wrote in from Otan-Ayegbaju, Osun State.
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