Bangladesh, Sept. 16 -- When Aliko Dangote said he did not consider having a son a priority, he was saying something that should make Nigerian families pause. Not because he is a billionaire, and not because his family circumstances are ordinary. They are not. But because the question of the male child has occupied such a powerful place in our imagination that many Nigerian families still behave as though a daughter can be loved, celebrated and educated, yet somehow remain an unfinished sentence until a son arrives.



Dangote has three daughters. Asked whether he still hoped to have a son, he said plainly that it was not his priority. He went further, saying he did not think a son would have done better than his daughters and warning t...