Nigerian businessman Aminu Dantata, 94, leaves a legacy of enterprise and a lasting story of his peacemaking among captains of industry.
Aminu Dantata, who recently passed at the age of 94, was an illustrious man of the north and grandfather of 121 children. As a skilled peacemaker, he brought two of Nigeria’s wealthiest and fiercest rivals to the table of reconciliation.
The year was 2021. Nigerian billionaires Aliko Dangote, of Dangote Sugar, and Abdul Samad Rabiu of BUA Foods were going at each other on the pages of newspapers while the media was raking in huge sums of money from paid advertising.
Each day, Dangote Sugar would put out an advert accusing BUA Foods of flouting Nigeria’s sugar policy. BUA would respond with counteraccusations. The feud seemed to have no end, until Dantata put together a reconciliation meeting with other interested parties.
The feud started after BUA opened a new sugar refinery in Port Harcourt in January 2021 to boost Nigeria’s sugar supply. But Dangote and industry behemoth Flour Mills were unhappy about the development and wrote a petition to then-minister of trade and investment, Niyi Adebayo, accusing BUA of “threatening the sustainability of Nigeria’s local sugar industry”.
Dangote and Flour Mills said they had received assurances two years prior from the Nigerian government that no new refinery would be allowed to operate in the country, in line with the government’s backward integration policy. In this case, the argument was that BUA Foods’ construction of a new sugar refinery violated this policy. Backwards integration refers to a business expanding into businesses, which make up their supply chain.
“The impunity with which BUA has contravened the provisions of the NSMP [Nigerian Sugar Master Plan] has placed the other players who are abiding by the regulations not only at a significant disadvantage, but has discouraged them from undertaking the huge investments that would deliver the desired objective of 100% local production of sugar,” Dangote and Flour Mills said in a joint petition.
Amid the raging feud, a reconciliation meeting was convened by representatives of the state and federal government.
“The meeting was seen as the zenith of other similar efforts to reconcile the two giants by the governor [Abdullahi Ganduje]. Alhaji Aminu Alhassan Dantata played the role of a father during the meeting,” the governor’s spokesman said in a statement.
Father of all
Dantata was a uniting figure and was seen as a father of all, especially because of his age, success and longevity, says Jaafar Jaafar, a Kano-based journalist.
“Dantata was a rich man before even Dangote and Rabiu were born, so they respected him and he was one of the few that could summon them to a meeting,” says Jaafar, publisher of the Daily Nigerian newspaper.
He was a father figure as he was one of the last men standing in that generation and he earned the respect of all, especially in Kano
He adds that even when the late Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero, died and his late children were spoiling for a fight, it was Dantata who was called in as an arbitrator.
“He was a father figure as he was one of the last men standing in that generation and he earned the respect of all, especially in Kano,” Jaafar says.
The last man
The deceased was the last surviving son of Alhassan Dantata, believed to be one of the wealthiest men in British West Africa in his lifetime between 1877 and 1955 and also the great-grandfather of Dangote. This familial link made Aminu Dantata the granduncle of Dangote.
Following his father’s demise, Dantata took up a role as deputy managing director in Alhassan Dantata & Sons. However, by 1960, he was running the company after the death of his older brother, Ahmadu, and began expanding its portfolio especially in the area of trade, real estate, and oil and gas.
Even though Aminu became the head of the family business at a young age, he didn’t sideline his late brother’s children. Rather, he brought them up and taught them the ropes. By 1978, his nephews, Usman Dantata and Ahmadu Dantata and grand-nephew, Dangote, had started their own businesses.
In 1961, he was elected to the northern House of Assembly and by 1968, he was appointed Kano State commissioner for economic development, trade and industry.
But he never ventured fully into politics beyond this point, choosing instead to focus on his business. His generosity and non-partisanship thus made him respected by all, to the extent that it became customary for presidential aspirants to pay homage to him whenever they visited Kano during campaigns.
During the 2023 election campaign, President Bola Tinubu nearly prostrated before Dantata in a rare display of deference. Even after his inauguration as president, he bowed before Dantata when the elder statesman visited him at the Presidential Villa.
Last wish
By the age of 36, Dantata already owned a private airplane and often remarked that he had grown weary of life’s mundanities, having seen it all.
In a candid interview with the Daily Trust newspaper, the renowned business mogul expressed a profound sense of emotional fatigue. “Honestly, as I am right now, I am just waiting for my time. I no longer enjoy life anymore. I hope I depart this world in good faith,” he said, reflecting on his state of mind in his later years.
He claimed to have houses in every part of the world.
On 28 June, Dantata died in Abu Dhabi and was showered with encomiums by Nigerians from all walks of life.
President Tinubu said Dantata’s death was a “monumental national loss because of his sterling contributions to Nigeria’s economic growth and development”.
Former vice president Atiku Abubakar, an opposition figure, urged Tinubu to immortalise Dantata.
The business mogul was buried in Medina, Saudi Arabia in line with his last wishes. His oldest surviving son, Taju, now runs most of his business interests.
Source: https://www.theafricareport.com/387503/how-nigerias-aminu-dantata-ended-the-dangote-bua-sugar-war/
