Businessmen are prophets of enterprise. They are the illustrious popes of commerce, robed and mitred in the resonance of their exploits.
More often than not, they rise through the fog and the fire of enterprise to tower in dominion astride chains of businesses and industry.
Consider the Nigerian magnate, for instance; he starts out as a champion of trade, constantly battling the odds to protect the franchise he creates.
In time, he becomes a god of the franchises he creates and guardian of the world that his business empire inhabits. A cursory look at the exploits of billionaire magnates, Dr. Mike Adenuga, Abdulsamad Rabiu, Aliko Dangote, Herbert Wigwe and Chagoury would reveal how they rose through the gruelling beginnings fraught by challenges, to attain the glorious height they currently inhabit.
Evidently, they have grown through those trying years to become deities and authorities in their respective fields. Little wonder, they influence economies, politics and drive industrial cities to unparalleled heights of growth.
Knowing this, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, has set out to woo these Nigerian billionaires.
Having spent a formative period building commercial bridges between his country and Nigeria, President Macron has invited Adenuga, Dangote and co to France, hosting them to a sumptuous dinner last Thursday night in Paris. It is part of his push for the French corporate sector to seek opportunities beyond their comfort zone by partnering with Nigeria’s most accomplished billionaire magnates.
Macron’s recent initiative comes at the heel of the Choose France summit of global business leaders which was held in Versailles on June 28 and was graced by the Nigerian business leaders including Adenuga and Rabiu. Afterwards, Macron, realising the true worth and brilliance of the Nigerian entrepreneurs,especially Dr Mike Adenuga, pushed for a special Nigerian event, to bring together leading Nigerian and French industrialists.
Nigeria is the only country receiving such treatment at Choose France: a sign of how important France’s economic diplomacy in Nigeria is to the French President. Expectedly, the basement and eaves of French industry and high society rattled in homage to the assemblage of business titans. Never in the history of Versailles had the city being ornamented by the presence of colossi, many of whom made their names by fostering seeds of enterprise and carnations on desolate terrain.
But while the French President woos and dines with Nigerian business leaders, back home in Nigeria, they do not enjoy the same attention from their own President, Muhammadu Buhari.Hardly anyone recalls the last time President Buhari went out of his way to court and engage productively with the country’s most illustrious industrialists.
At the backdrop of President Macron’s ardent courtship of these business-leading lights from Nigeria, speculations abound that President Macron is eager to see them go about their businesses uninhibited, in France. He is eager to have them grace his homeland with their dexterous bids throbbing quietly through the pulse of his country while their exploits and attainments resonate marvellously, in a grand, concrete industrial edifice for France.
Interestingly, however, back in 2017, the French government, in homage to Adenuga’s humanity and relentless strides at rewriting the African business narrative, invested him with a Knight of the Legion of Honour (Chevalier de la Legion d Honneur), the highest French decoration and one of the most famous in the world. Dr. Adenuga is the only and first-ever Nigerian to have received the award since inception. He was honoured for his “remarkable contribution to the development of the French-Nigerian relations and appreciation of the French culture.”
Is Macron simply driven by ambition and an overarching bid to improve the fortunes of his nation? Only time will tell.