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The Dark Links of a Multimillion-Dollar Empire: How NASCO’s Founder Became Entangled in Terrorism
The death of Ahmed Idris Nasreddin, a 96-year-old businessman in Rome, passed almost unnoticed by the world. Despite his vast fortune, estimated at nearly half a billion dollars, his passing did not make significant headlines.
Nasreddin’s legacy, however, is far more than just that of a wealthy entrepreneur; it is a story that intertwines with the world’s deadliest terrorist organization, Boko Haram.
Nasreddin was the founder of NASCO Group, a conglomerate that started in Nigeria’s Plateau State. From humble beginnings, NASCO grew into a $460 million empire, with interests spanning industries including food production, pharmaceuticals, real estate, and energy. Over the decades, NASCO became a household name in Nigeria, a trusted brand known for its biscuits, cereals, and other food products.
NASCO’s Beginnings
Nasreddin’s journey began in Asmara, Eritrea, where he was born in 1925. He later moved to Jos, Nigeria, where he built his business empire. What started as a small manufacturing venture eventually expanded into a massive conglomerate with operations across West Africa. NASCO became synonymous with quality products in Nigeria, and Nasreddin was celebrated as one of the country’s most successful businessmen.
However, the public image of Nasreddin as a shrewd yet benevolent entrepreneur was a veneer that concealed a much darker reality. Behind the success of NASCO was a man who had cultivated connections with some of the most dangerous Islamist groups in the world.
Plateau State’s Official Response
Following Nasreddin’s death, Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong released an official statement praising the contributions of NASCO to the state’s economy. “NASCO has over the years remained a major employer of labour in Plateau and continues to contribute to the economic prosperity of the State and Nigeria at large through tax revenue and corporate social responsibility,” the statement read. This praise reflected the importance of NASCO as a business entity in Nigeria. Still, it also glossed over the troubling associations that Nasreddin had cultivated over the years.
The Zamfara Scholar and the Birth of a Movement
The story of Nasreddin’s connections to terrorism begins not with him, but with a prominent Islamic scholar from Northern Nigeria. In 1955, Abubakar Mahmud Gumi, a 33-year-old scholar from Gummi in present-day Zamfara State, embarked on a pilgrimage to Mecca.
His name?
EDITOR’S NOTE: Sheikh Ahmad Abubakar Gumi is the son of Abubakar Mahmud Gumi.
Gumi’s Arabic proficiency caught the attention of both Ahmadu Bello, the Premier of Northern Nigeria, and King Sa’ud of Saudi Arabia. Upon his return to Nigeria, Gumi became a central figure in the Northern Nigerian Islamic community, where he began to preach a message of Islamic purity.
Gumi’s teachings centered around Wahhabism, a conservative interpretation of Islam that he had encountered in Saudi Arabia. He railed against what he saw as the corrupt practices of Sufi Muslims in Nigeria and sought to cleanse Islam of these practices. His influence grew, and in 1978, he founded the Jama’atu Izalatil Bid’ah Wa Iqamatus Sunnah (JIBWIS), commonly known as the Izala Movement. This organization became one of the most influential Islamic bodies in Nigeria.
Over time, Gumi’s teachings, combined with the ideology of Wahhabism, laid the groundwork for a more radical interpretation of Islam in Nigeria—one that would eventually give rise to groups like Boko Haram.
The Rise of Boko Haram and NASCO’s Alleged Ties
Boko Haram, an Islamist militant group that emerged in the early 2000s, has been responsible for some of the most devastating attacks in Nigeria’s history.
The group’s ideology is rooted in a desire to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria, governed by strict Sharia law. Boko Haram’s violent campaign has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced millions of people.
The connections between Boko Haram and global terror networks have been well-documented. However, what is less known is the role that businessmen like Nasreddin allegedly played in financing these networks.
In 2006, the Nigerian government’s Financial Intelligence Unit took the extraordinary step of freezing all assets linked to NASCO Group Nigeria Limited. The government suspected that Nasreddin was involved in funding Islamist terrorist organizations, a move that shocked many who had long viewed NASCO as a reputable company.
Yet in 2021 he is not only a free man, but a powerful free man, with access to federal ministers, state governors and President Muhammadu Buhari himself.
The investigation revealed that Nasreddin’s financial dealings extended far beyond Nigeria. He was linked to a web of global terror networks, including the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), a precursor to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
These revelations were part of a broader crackdown on terrorist financing in Nigeria and exposed the extent to which individuals with seemingly impeccable business credentials could be entangled in supporting global terrorism.
A Tarnished Legacy
The revelations about Nasreddin’s alleged involvement in funding terrorism have cast a long shadow over his legacy. While NASCO remains a cherished brand for many Nigerians, the story of its founder’s connections to global terror networks cannot be ignored.
The life of Ahmed Idris Nasreddin is not just a story of entrepreneurial success; it is also a cautionary tale of how easily a respected public figure can become ensnared in the web of global terrorism.
As Nigeria and the world continue to grapple with the complex interplay of business, politics, and terrorism, the legacy of Nasreddin serves as a reminder of the dangers that lie beneath the surface of seemingly benign business empires.
In the end, Nasreddin’s story is one of contrasts—of wealth and power, of philanthropy and terror, of a man who built an empire that became a household name in Nigeria, yet whose connections to some of the world’s most dangerous groups have forever tarnished his legacy.
Source : DAVID HUNDEYIN
The connection of any process to the end product of its use in time and space are two different things all together and connecting such process to it’s application in the future is in itself criminal.
The presence of some scholars and students of the Boko Haram group from the Izala Islamic principles as taught by late sheikh Abubakar Gumi, the Izala movement and other Islamic groups in Nigeria has nothing to do with heinous activities of the Boko Haram insurgents. The analogy does not hold water, as the insurgents claim to do it in their own thinking’s and are even opposed to and continue to pursecute all other groups.
Following similar analysis, you can condemn Christianity to the activities of the murderous cult of Reverend Jim John’s of the Guyana tragedy or other similar Christian extremists groups.
You can ask well condemn science and scientist of nuclear energy for destroying Hiroshima and Nagasaki or Alexander Kalashnikov for the murders around the world.