DANGOTE

By Aliu Akoshile It was a poser I hadn’t thought of. Yes, his name rings a bell. Even his business ambition is as tall as the Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain standing majestically at 19,340 ft above sea level in Tanzania. Coincidentally here I was in Tanzania, actually in Mgao, a coast-line village located in Mtwara district of the East African country. The event was the commissioning of a 3 million metric tonne Dangote Cement plant, the second largest in Africa and the largest in the East and Central Africa. Aliko Dangote was at the epicenter of the event and the cynosure of all eyes last Saturday. The title of this piece is a poser from a British-born Tanzanian with whom I sat on Table 22 under the gigantic canopy used for the event. “Is that Dangote?”, my friend enquired in a hush tone, as if calling out the name would attract a penalty. I looked in the direction he was gazing at, I sipped some sparkling table water to first quench my thirst as the scorching sun had just begun to radiate the serene environment. “No, that’s Femi Otedola, Dangote’s closest buddy”, I responded, adding, “He owns Forte Oil Plc, one of Nigeria’s leading petroleum companies.” Africanleadership.co.uk