Gates Under Fire: As Scandals Mount, Questions Swirl Around the Gates Foundation’s Expanding Influence in Nigeria
Finally, Bill Gates, billionaire philanthropist and founder of the Gates Foundation, has learned what other men had learnt to do early in life: admit defeat. After years of denial, the chair of the world’s largest door organisation admitted to staff that he had an affair with two Russian women, a situation that led to the divorce with Melinda French-Gates, his former wife and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
In a candid town hall meeting with staff of his Gates Foundation, Gates apologised for his association with convicted sex offender and disgraced financier, Jeffrey Epstein, but insisted that he did not do anything illicit.
“I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit,” the billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder told his staff.
The core of the accusations has been revelations from files released by the U.S. Justice Department, which showed an unsavoury association between Gates and Epstein, who died in federal custody of suicide in 2019.
Epstein had written that Gates contracted a sexually transmitted disease from some Russian girls and had asked for his help to treat and hide from his wife, Melinda, a claim a spokesperson for Gates called “absolutely absurd and completely false.”
In a twist of events, Gates during the week admitted that he had affairs with a “Russian bridge player who met me at bridge events and one with a Russian nuclear physicist whom he met through business activities.”
According to media reports, the bridge player was identified as Mila Antonova, who reportedly met Gates around 2010 when she was in her 20s. However, in distancing himself completely from the Epstein ‘sins’, Gates said he “never spent any time with victims, the women around [Epstein].”
Gates had met Epstein in 2011, and they spent time together, which he now described as “a huge mistake” until 2014, but never at Epstein’s infamous island mansions. “I apologize to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made. Knowing what I know now makes it, you know, a hundred times worse in terms of not only his crimes in the past, but now it’s clear there was ongoing bad behavior,” Gates said, according to reports.
Gates ultimately said that his past with Epstein and the newly disclosed emails have cast a shadow over the foundation’s work and its reputation.
“It definitely is the opposite of the values of the foundation and the goals of the foundation,” he said. “And our work is very reputation-sensitive. I mean, people can choose to work with us or not work with us,” Gates said.
But the matter may not likely go away, especially as it involves Russia, which many countries in the West have put under sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. Analysts believe that Gates’ association with top-tier Russian women may have compromised his security and reputation; it remains to be seen the overall impact on the foundation’s global philanthropy.
Implications for Gates Foundation Nigeria
The controversy surrounding Gates’ infidelity, association with Epstein, and his eventual divorce from Melinda has had very little impact on the foundation’s work in Nigeria through the Gates Foundation, Nigeria Country Office. This is because the foundation across the world has insulated itself from the personal life of its chair, Bill Gates.
Analysts in the development sector, however, fear that the protection generated by the insulation may soon be over, especially in a country like Nigeria, which has a large population of citizens who are suspicious of the foundation’s real intent in the country, and may lead to a reputational crisis for the foundation.
The Gates Foundation is currently Nigeria’s greatest donor for health, women, development, and agriculture. But that is where the problem began, environmental and human rights activists have criticised Gates and his foundation’s work in Nigeria, especially in health and agriculture, alleging Gates overarching control over government officials and accusing the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammed Ali Pate, of implementing the “Gates Agenda” in Nigeria.
“This ordinarily should not impact the wonderful work the foundation is doing in Nigeria,” says a consultant who has worked on projects funded by the foundation. “But if the revelations keep coming with Nigeria going into elections next year, then the government may want to distance itself from scandals that may hurt its electoral chances,” he said.
Efforts to speak with a foundation representative proved abortive and the Nigeria Country Office is yet to release any statement regarding the matter.
