Cement: BUA Chairman’s Obsession with Price Blackmail

Abdullahi Goronyo

To a discerning mind, it would appear that the Chairman of BUA Cement, Abdulsamad Rabiu relishes playing to the gallery, whenever the issue of price of commodities like Sugar and Cement becomes a public debate. Granted, he is a major player in those two sectors and it would be expected that his stake on contentious issues like the price of Cement or Sugar should be reasonable, well-grounded and reassuring. However, more often than not, his position has turned out to be a gratuitous insult to the psyche of the public particularly the consumers of those commodities. 

Recall in 2016, the BUA Cement Chairman, to the excitement of unsuspecting consumers, had announced that he would bring down the price of cement when he increased his production capacity with the then expected completion of some of the production lines he had embarked upon. It turned out that Abdulsamad was just flying a kite to deceive the people that he is public-spirited as the price of his Cement ran pari passu with his other competitors at the end of the day.

On June 18, 2021, the BUA boss issued a press statement and embarked on a wild goose chase, denying any plan to increase the price of his Cement. He had said “As a responsible corporate entity, we refuse and reject associations with any actions that are deemed capable of projecting any industry we operate as a cartel. Hence, whilst we respect that the said company has decided to increase their prices, we are not questioning the reason(s) why but would like to make clear BUA’s position on a price increase.

“The timing is not right for any increase on BUA’s part, and we do not have any justifiable business reason to increase our prices (ex-factory) anytime soon. We therefore urge our distributors not to panic as well as not engage in any arbitrary hike in the retail price of BUA Cement,” Curiously, 16 days later, BUA cement price was jerked up. Who is BUA fooling? And who was he trying to get at by whipping up public sentiment against the price of cement then.?

In 2019, the BUA Chairman came again with his antics of admitting that Cement price was too high in Nigeria and that he would bring down the price. He had told shareholders at the Annual General Meeting of the Company that the management had concluded plans to sign an agreement with Sinoma CBMI of China for the construction of three new cement plants of three million metric tons per year in Edo, Sokoto and Adamawa States of Nigeria, which will be completed by the end of 2022. 2022 has come and gone, Abdulsamad Rabiu had prevaricated.

At another time Rabiu was quoted as saying: “Even though this cement policy is a good one, it must be done in such a way that a lot of players must come in and participate. There is no point in making a policy that only one, two, or three people are able to benefit from that policy,” adding: “That does not make sense. I am benefiting from this policy, but I know it is a bad policy. So, whilst the policy is good, the way it is being administered is not good. You can’t have a policy that restricts so many people from participating; at the end of the day, you are just creating a monopoly.”

The pertinent question is: If you are not comfortable with a policy you’re benefiting from, why can’t you excuse yourself from the benefit from such a policy? Why create an impression of an existence of a cartel which does not want the cement industry liberalised, in order to maintain their strong hold on price of cement when you are also a major player reaping from the high price of cement?

The BUA Chairman is again treading a familiar path he has trodden before. He told an assemblage of his company’s shareholders in Abuja on Thursday August 31, that the completion his company’s two new factories in Okpella and Sokoto by the end of the year would trigger a reduction in the price of cement. Abdulsamad obviously rehashed his fallacy just because of the current issue surrounding the price of cement.

It leaves much to be desired as to why Abdulsamad engages in his usual business of blackmail by painting himself as cement price messiah when in actual fact the price of his own BUA cement was never cheaper than that of his competitors. I challenge anyone to go take a market survey of the price of cement. It appears he is all out to undo other competitors by inciting the people against his competitors with the use of price of cement as a bait. It is his old trick.

Abdulsamad Rabiu should stop this blackmail and hypocrisy and let Nigerians breathe. The true test of his claim will be to see the price of his BUA cement cheaper than others in the market which presently is not. Enough of this cement price propaganda. The consumers are wiser now!