Not many Nigerians can say they have stood inside the Holy Kaaba beside their president. Abdulsamad Rabiu, chairman of BUA Group, can. He was among those allowed in when President Bola Tinubu visited Makkah for Umrah, the lesser pilgrimage, and he called it a deep blessing.
That alone would not put a man in the President’s corner, but what about the record around it?
At a dinner for the delegation in Makkah, Rabiu said it was the third the group had held with Tinubu since arriving, and it is believed that he might have pledged the business community’s backing for the President’s re-election. It is the same back home.
In October 2026, Rabiu met Tinubu at the Presidential Office in Abuja to align his companies’ operations with government objectives. He has also called on First Lady Oluremi Tinubu to coordinate private-sector help with the administration’s Renewed Hope social initiatives.
Rabiu’s own footprint is industrial. BUA Group’s interests span cement, sugar, food processing, and infrastructure, and his investments have added to domestic production capacity and employment.
He speaks up for the policies too. After consultative visits to Aso Villa, he credited the administration’s reforms with improving the foreign exchange environment and pulling down food prices. It just so happens that both are important in the sectors his businesses occupy.
The Presidency returns the compliment. Tinubu has marked Rabiu’s birthdays, including his 65th and 66th, with state statements calling him “a partner in nationhood” whose investments complement the government’s economic agenda.
A presidential delegation draws business leaders, and Oando chief executive Wale Tinubu was in Makkah too, alongside governors and senior officials. A public appearance does not describe a private relationship, and Rabiu, one of Nigeria’s wealthiest businessmen, has a standing built on his own industrial record.
Still, three dinners with the President in one trip is a seat close to the table. The administration’s momentum that Rabiu has pledged to back is something that voters might have to consider in the general election in January 2027.