The son of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo is a Program Manager at Windows Live

Oct 20, 2006 11:02 GMT  ·  By

You want a private one on one with Bill Gates? Well, you have to be the son of a president to get a 15 minutes meeting. This is the case of Dare Obasanjo, Program Manager at Windows Live. As Microsoft accounts for in excess of 70,000 employees worldwide, its bound that there should be some diversity within the workforce. Well, here is a link pointing to a Wikipedia entry on the current Nigerian president Olusẹgun Ọbasanjọ (foto), and the father of Dare.

Dare got to chat with Bill Gates as Microsoft's co-founder was preparing for a visit in Nigeria. "BillG asked a couple of questions about me and my family such as how long I'd been at Microsoft, where I want to school, if my mom was Stella Obasanjo (she isn't), what my mom did, if I had any siblings back home and so on. I appreciated talking about myself and was put at ease before being asked about Nigeria or my dad," confessed Dare.

Dare additionally revealed that Gates' visit to Nigeria was related to the involvement of the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation into Africa and efforts to eradicate polio in Nigeria through vaccination.

"We did talk about Microsoft a little. When I mentioned I work for the Windows Live platform group he mentioned that this would be an interesting area to be in over the next few years and commented on a number of Windows Live services such as Windows Live Spaces, Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Mail. He also talked about some of the leadership changes we've had across Windows and Windows Live," also revealed Dare.

After the 15 minutes talk was done, while exiting the building, Dare Obasanjo witnessed a conversation the Receptionist was having with a visitor. For your amusement and consideration, here it is:

Visitor: Where is Bill Gates' office? Receptionist: I'm not at liberty to divulge that information. Visitor: I need to see him, I just downloaded Windows Vista and I have a number of complaints.