The Merger

The Dangote of Ibadan, as the press called him, was a stout, jovial billionaire named Chief Olumide Fashola, and he had come to propose marriage.

Not to Ebele. To her company.

He sat in the boardroom of Anyanwu Logistics on a Wednesday afternoon, with a plate of puff-puff in front of him and a lawyer on either side. The long glass table gleamed. The directors, a nervous row of men and women in dark suits, kept glancing at their phones.

"A merger," said Ebele.

"A union." Chief Fashola smiled. "My shipping line. Your trucks. The biggest freight operation in West Africa. Think of it, Madam. We would control the entire corridor from Lagos to Lomé."

"And my company would be a subsidiary."