.It’s all deceit
‘He has deceived Nigerians many times; so I will wait and see before I will believe him’
By Valentine Amanze
Stakeholders have hit hard on the Chairman of BUA Cement Plc, Abdulsamad Rabiu, for assuring President Bola Tinubu that he would slash the price of his product from N5,000 per bag to N3,000 beginning from January 2024.
The stakeholders, who spoke at various points in Lagos at the weekend, unanimously agreed that Rabiu was incapable of reversing the trend.
Stressing that he was only trying to curry favour from the president, they said that he had made the promise in the past without keeping it.
For instance, a cement retailer in Isolo, Lagos State, Mr Aliu Bolaji, doubted the ability of the BUA Group to reduce the price of its product.
He said that the BUA Cement boss had been making the promises for a long time only to increase the price of his products later.
Also read: SMEs key to global economic growth – Obi
His words: “Nigerians shouldn’t be carried away with sweet promise of Abdulsamad Rabiu. He has done it before.
“In fact, he promises and fails. I nolonger buy his products because one cannot predict them.”
Another retailer at Ejigbo Lagos, Mr Johnson Peters, said that he would only trust BUA Group when the product (cement) price crashes in January.
He said, “I will not be carried away by that promise untill he proves me wrong. He has deceived Nigerians many times; so I will wait and see before I will believe him,” he said.
He said that in Nigerian market what goes up hardly comes down.
“BUA Group is in the business to make money and not to lose money through price slash,” he said.
In Mushin, Lagos, a building contractor, Alhaji Bello Oke, said that it would be wonderful if BUA Group would reduce the price of cement from N5,000 per bag to N3,000 in January.
“If such is done, our business will strive,” he said.
In 2021, when a bag of cement was sold for N3,500, the BUA Cement boss said that the price of his brand could fall by 40 percent to about N2,200 if there was an increase in capacity and production; yet it did not happen.
Recall that the media was awash few days ago, after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had a meeting with the Chairman of BUA Group, Alhaji Abdulsamad Rabiu, where the later promised to crash the price of his cement brand from N5,000 to about N3,000 beginning from January 2024.
valoa2000@yahoo.com
