Not many Nigerians can say they’ve stood inside the Holy Kaaba beside their president. Abdulsamad Rabiu, chairman of BUA Group, can. He was amongst these allowed in when President Bola Tinubu visited Makkah for Umrah, the lesser pilgrimage, and he referred to as it a deep blessing.
That alone wouldn’t put a person in the President’s nook, however what about the file round it?
At a dinner for the delegation in Makkah, Rabiu stated it was the third the group had held with Tinubu since arriving, and it’s believed that he might need pledged the enterprise neighborhood’s backing for the President’s re-election. It is the identical again house.
In October 2026, Rabiu met Tinubu at the Presidential Office in Abuja to align his corporations’ operations with authorities aims. He has additionally referred to as on First Lady Oluremi Tinubu to coordinate private-sector assist with the administration’s Renewed Hope social initiatives.
Rabiu’s personal footprint is industrial. BUA Group’s pursuits span cement, sugar, meals processing, and infrastructure, and his investments have added to home manufacturing capability and employment.
He speaks up for the insurance policies too. After consultative visits to Aso Villa, he credited the administration’s reforms with bettering the overseas alternate setting and knocking down meals costs. It simply so occurs that each are essential in the sectors his companies occupy.
The Presidency returns the praise. Tinubu has marked Rabiu’s birthdays, together with his sixty fifth and 66th, with state statements calling him “a partner in nationhood” whose investments complement the authorities’s financial agenda.
A presidential delegation attracts enterprise leaders, and Oando chief govt Wale Tinubu was in Makkah too, alongside governors and senior officers. A public look doesn’t describe a personal relationship, and Rabiu, one of Nigeria’s wealthiest businessmen, has a standing constructed on his personal industrial file.
Still, three dinners with the President in one journey is a seat near the desk. The administration’s momentum that Rabiu has pledged to again is one thing that voters might need to think about in the common election in January 2027.
