THE FUSE

The year was 1970, and the Nigerian Civil War had just ended. Cletus Ibeto was 17 years old, broke, and standing at the starting line of what he intended to make a business. His only assets were a leather bag his brother had given him, a Biafran round-neck suit, and a parcel of APC analgesic tablets he had picked up from an abandoned hospital in the wreckage of what had once been Biafra. He sold the suit. He sold the bag. He sold the tablets. The combined proceeds, a sum of a few British pounds, became the startup capital for a commercial empire that today carries an estimated net worth of $3.8 billion (approximately N5.9 trillion).