Atiku Abubakar

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar yesterday donated $750,000 to the National Peace Corps Association and thereby became the highest individual donor to the peace corps in its 33 years of existence.

A statement from his organisation said the donation targets supporting returnee peace corps officials as well as attend to the needs of the peace corps community as well as to fund discussion on impact of peace corps.

“The Peace Corps has always been about bringing people from different backgrounds together to work on some of the most difficult global problems Association. Thanks to this generous gift, we’ll be able to take that concept a step further and bring in the expertise of some key leaders who’ve been influenced by the Peace Corps to talk at depth about these issues”,  Kevin Quigley, president of the National Peace Corps said.

The donation will endow the Global Leaders Program, a regular series of discussions initiated by the National Peace Corps Association featuring notable figures, influenced by the Peace Corps from the worlds of politics, business and society. Through this new program, the association will put a spotlight on host-country nationals who embody the values of the Peace Corps, which Quigley said is an important shift away from only telling about the impact on Peace Corps Volunteers, a story told for the last 50 years.

The first Global Leaders Program, held prior to the association’s 2011 gala, featured former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, former Afghan Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai and Abubakar on a panel moderated by noted journalist Bill Moyers.