There are growing concerns that the long-running feud between Dangote Industries Limited and BUA Group – two of the nation’s biggest conglomerates – has degenerated into enmity between their founders, Aliko Dangote and Abdulsamad Rabiu. The fact that both men are from Kano, and of the same generation has further fueled apprehensions that there is more to this than business competition. DIL and BUA have been engaging in press wars for over three decades now.
But what exactly is behind this media war? People in the Dangote Group I have spoken to claim that Rabiu has been instigating noxious publications against DIL because he is overwhelmed with personal envy against Aliko Dangote. ‘’There is nothing other than envy. They can’t stand our success. We control about 70% of the cement market, and they don’t want to live with that. It is sheer envy,” said a senior executive.
But the statement did not state exactly when these repatriations and swaps were made. ‘’We believe in Nigeria, and we believe in Africa. We are genuine and authentic about our investments, and we call on all relevant agencies to investigate our FX transactions in the past ten years and make public any infraction discovered or noticed,” a statement from the company said. This should be music in the ears of our monetary authorities.
No matter the causes of the quarrel between DIL and BUA, there is no doubt that it has run long enough and Nigerians would like it to stop. If this were a soap opera, it would have long been rested. Nobody has benefitted from this bitter fight and so, there is a strong need for BUA and DIL to sheathe their swords for the benefit of their integrity and the Nigerian economy.