Dangote Vs Rabiu: Kano Unable To Broker Truce Between Two Brothers Who Turned Rivals

“Have they released another thing,” was the surprising response of a high-ranking traditional ruler in Kano when THE WHISTLER called him to comment on the feud between the two billionaire sons of Kano—Aliko Dangote and Abdul Samad Isyaku Rabiu.

Since Friday, November 3, when the Dangote group accused Rabiu’s BUA Group of being behind alleged media campaigns against the company in a seven-page advertorial, and BUA’s subsequent shocking revelations, the two men have been the subject of public commentary in the media.

But while the business community watches the unfolding disputes between the two biggest business players in the country with concern, the Kano elite is paying attention with trepidation.

The two men are said to be engaged in what many people in Kano called “ego war” in the last two decades with several efforts to reconcile them breaking down on each occasion.

The ego war had broken out several times in the past but the recent one was ignited by a seven-page advertorial sponsored by the Dangote Group which accused Rabiu’s BUA Group of fighting it through proxies. It accused the BUA Group of attempts to instigate a probe into alleged money laundering at companies run by Dangote.

In its own response, the BUA Group said the advertorial was a “very cheap attempt at blackmail” against it, and revealed that it had been a victim of Dangote’s alleged vicious underhand dealings aimed at crippling it since 1991. The company said its history with Dangote was that of resilience and endurance.

“The people of Kano are not happy about what is going on between the two men,” said a top businessman from Kano who’s a mutual friend of the two.

“I don’t think anybody will intervene again in their problem for now. Alhaji Aminu Dantata has intervened together with some Kano elders but they fell apart.”

Many commentators on social media had sided with Rabiu, saying they believed his claims more than that of the Dangote Group. But a traditional ruler in Kano who did not want to be mentioned said the two men had divided the state.

“Each of them has people supporting them in the state; the state is divided and everyone is just watching for now. Even their mutual friends are staying away and just watching,” he said.

Another businessman in Kano said what is between them is “just money competition. They’re friendly outside but they both sabotage each other. It’s an open secret.”
But it had not always been like this.

Friends Turn To Rivals

They had been friends from childhood, growing up as children of wealthy Kano businessmen. Dangote’s father, Mohammed Dangote, was a rich businessman who married the daughter of Alhassan Dantata. Dantata was reputed to be the richest businessman in West Africa at the time of his death in 1955.

Abdulsamad Rabiu’s father, Khalifa Isyaku Rabiu, who died in 2018, was a foremost industrialist in the 70s and 80s when Samad was growing into adulthood. Parents of both men were said to enjoy cordial relationships during their lifetime while their children grew up around one another in Kano.

But the ties appeared to have loosened after each established their own businesses. Dangote established a small trading firm in 1977 and relocated to Lagos after receiving N500,000 from his uncle. He began his own trade in commodities, including bagged cement, rice and sugar.

The rivalry appeared to have suffered in 1988 when Abdulsamad Rabiu established his own trading company — BUA International Limited – for commodity trading. Just like the Dangote Group which existed before it, the BUA group also went into import of rice, sugar, edible oil and flour.

Today, both men are running different Nigerian conglomerates dominating cement and sugar manufacturing. In January 2022, Abdulsamad Rabiu was reported to be the second richest man in Nigeria and fourth richest in Africa with a net worth of $6.7 billion while Aliko Dangote maintains the number one spot in the continent with a net worth of $16.4 billion. This is according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

While we may not yet know when or how the bitter rivalry between the two men started, both have indicated in their recent statements that it’s about business competition. The Dangote advertorial had attributed alleged BUA Group’s sponsored attacks on it as borne out of “malice by a competitor.” The BUA Group had also alleged that Dangote wanted to run it out of business through alleged manipulation of the system.

The former governor of Kano, Abdullahi Ganduje, had reportedly intervened in previous disputes between the two men. But it’s not yet known whether the current governor of the state, Abba Yusuf, will be similarly disposed.

How Dangote Vs Rabiu Swept Hadiza Bala Usman From NPA

One of the reasons Hadiza Bala Usman was removed as Managing Director of the Nigeria Ports Authority was because she was allegedly moving against Rabiu’s BUA Group in order to favour Dangote who she was said to be very close to.

Usman caused the NPA to summarily decommission and shut down the BUA Ports and Terminals Limited, operator of Terminal B, Rivers Port, Port Harcourt, in 2019 for what it termed security and safety reasons.

But the BUA Group denied the claim, saying it had actually sought the NPA’s permission to perform remedial works on some parts of the terminal that were vandalised.

The BUA Group said the NPA action happened at a time when it had just invested hundreds of millions of dollars in putting up flour mills, a pasta plant and a new sugar refinery to be commissioned in October of that year. It described Bala-Usman’s action as arbitrary and high-handed.

BUA Group Chairman Has Tinubu’s Ears

Abdulsamad Isyaku Rabiu is said to be close to President Bola Tinubu, and is one of the business leaders in the country that have the ears of the president.

He has visited the Presidential Villa several times for talks with President Tinubu since his inauguration on May 29.

Rabiu’s ex-wife, Hanatu Musawa, is also a minister in Tinubu’s cabinet. She’s the Minister of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy.

THE WHISTLER was informed that Rabiu donated N500 million to Tinubu’s presidential campaign.

“It’s one of the things against Hadiza Bala Usman. She favoured Dangote over BUA. But Tinubu prefers BUA which is why you see him in and out of the villa,” a presidency source said while talking about the Tinubu ministerial list.