My neighbour says he was finally rewarded with just the right idea of a gift to fascinate and intrigue Elon Musk. He had set for himself the task of giving the SpaceX founder a gift which, according to him, ‘Will kick his big brain into another kind of unusual motion. Something to occupy some of his obviously precious moments. Something to give him a real kick.’ What could he give the billionaire that would catch his fancy, he had wondered? Why Elon Musk in the first place? Did he know him from Adam, I asked him? He refused to answer me. He was looking for a gift idea and I was not helping him. Would an Eyo Masquerade statuette from Lagos do it? Or would a handmade leather mat from Birnin Kebbi do? Would a painting by Prof Bruce Onobrakpeya or any of our Masters do it? He wasn’t sure any of the gifts I suggested would fascinate Elon Musk when we parted and he returned to his house.

Later that night, the light bulb moment came for him: he would give the billionaire a painting of our container chaos! At first I didn’t know what to make of his idea when he shared it with me the following day. A painting of our container chaos. Why such a gift? The man is the world’s leading genius in solving transportation problems, he told me. The image may create a grin, a smile, or some intriguing reflection, any of which will be bulls-eye for my neighbour. So he got one of our good artists to do the painting. Unfortunately, the artist didn’t finish the work before Christmas. He’s still on it.