Lagos did not create Aliko Dangote or Abdul Samad Rabiu; it provided a platform on which they scaled. Their entrepreneurial roots, business culture, and commercial heritage were deeply connected to Kano. Kano had already developed into a major commercial center centuries before Lagos emerged as Nigeria’s dominant economic hub.
The success of Nigerian industry is not a Lagos story or a Kano story, it is a Nigerian story, built by multiple regions contributing different strengths.
It was Lagos that gave Africa its richest man, not Kano. Aliko Dangote is a Lagos man. Again, it was not Kano but Lagos that gave Africa its second richest man, Abdulsamad Ishaq Rabiu (BUA). Lagos made almost everybody who is who in Nigeria.
- VP Sen. Kashim Shettima