· Nigeria’s billionaire magnates take war to media space
There is something unsettling about the lingering conflict between Aliko Dangote and Abdulsamad Rabiu. The Chairmen of Dangote Group and BUA International respectively, rattle the rafters of industry with their protracted beef.
In pursuit of individual interests, they have sent the spirit of discord through industry thus polarizing friends and associates and forcing them to take sides. But thanks to their enduring beef, men, women and groups with various and often conflicting interests are making a killing.
For instance, in the wake of their recent spat, both men flooded all the newspapers with over 50 pages worth of advertorial, calling each other out for perceived wrongdoing.
It is an open secret that the billionaire magnates have been embroiled in a very bitter and enduring feud for years. Findings revealed that their business interests have pitted them against each other for years and despite speculations that their feud may be over soon, its resolution doesn’t seem likely in the nearest future.
Their enduring warfare remains a conundrum to all and sundry given the fact that both men are from the northern part of the country; both of them are industrialists, and they both contribute to the Nigerian economy in no small measure.
These days, the billionaires have taken their beef to the mainstream and new media. Thus the newspaper pages and major online publications have become major sparring arena and boxing rings for the two men. In a nutshell, Dangote and Rabiu are locked in a bitter feud and media war that could only be resolved when one of them throws in the towel. It’s a sad and amusing case that requires a party to blink first and emerge the loser. But who blinks first?
At the moment, men, women and groups of mottled interests are cashing in on their lingering beef. Perhaps close friends and associates of Dangote and Rabiu would weigh in on the matter and counsel both men to bury the hatchet or keep from washing their dirty linen in the media space.
