Beyond vanity, beneath pride, Halima Dangote treasures the name of her father. Perhaps because it carries her through curtains and clouds of prestige to haloed moons in circuits of pride. For reasons best known to her, the daughter of billionaire magnate and chairman of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has refused to adopt the name of her husband, Sulaiman Bello.
She prefers to answer to the name of her father hence she introduces herself as Halima Aliko Dangote over eight years after she tied the nuptial knots with her husband in a grand wedding ceremony in Kano state. Halima reportedly met her husband while schooling in the United Kingdom (UK). The duo fell in love with each other and subsequently got married.
But since they married in 2008, Halima has stuck her father’s name at business and social functions. The heiress to an expansive empire allegedly introduces herself as Halima Aliko-Dangote in her business and social interactions. Pundits believe that a woman should ditch her father’s name and adopt her husband’s name immediately after she marries the man of her dreams but Halima apparently disagrees with such cultural norms. She would rather stick to her father’s name perhaps because it imbues her with greater prestige and sense of pride. Being the daughter of a billionaire is enough fame already.
When you are now the daughter of one of the richest black men in the world, the entire black race should literally worship the grounds that you tread.
Men should bow and women should genuflect when you as much as look in their direction. If you were ostentatious, unruly and wild a la Paris Hilton, the world would wave it off as a non-issue; it comes with the terrain, they would say just to cover up for your excesses. But Dangote’s daughters are not moulded like other billionaire’s kids. They are modest and cool, almost Spartan and deeply religious.
