MIKE ADENUGA THE RESILIENT BULL AT 70 -Kemi Akinyemi

Suave businessman and chairman cum founder of Globacom, Conoil Producing, Conoil Plc and Cobblestones Properties, Dr Mike Adeniyi Ishola Adenuga (Jnr ), GCON, CSG, CdrLH, turned 70 on Saturday, 29th April 2023 Ever since, the celebratory dusts have understandably refused to settle Expectedly also, Nigerians from all walks of life rallied round to make the occasion a momentous one There have been tons and tons of tributes pouring in for a man who has touched lives in more ways than one.

Though life begins at 40, longevity starts at 70 Or as they often say, if seven is a lucky number, then 70 is ten times luckier Seventy years is a huge milestone One of the oldest and best-known references to this age comes from the Bible: “The days of our years are threescore years and ten ”

In an stress-prone country like Nigeria where life expectancy is pegged at 55-75 years, it is a very big deal to attain 60-65 years It is even a bigger deal tinged with undiluted celebration when someone hits the 70 mark, let alone if the subject is a billionaire of Adenuga’s standing, taking into cognizance the fact that he is the second richest Nigerian by dollar standard and someone who has constantly graced the Forbes list as one of the richest men globally

Adenuga cuts a picture of a larger-than-life personality, who, aside from having his fingers deep-rooted in every single pie and getting the most out of it, in the last 70 years, has experienced many wins and losses His neversay-die approach to life has made him achieve all there is in store for workaholics like him, and more are trickling in So, this new age is no mean feat. It is like hitting a jackpot of some sorts.

As a Forbes rated billionaire and Africa's second richest man, Adenuga commands ample resources, and has enough reasons to be a most conspicuous social figure But he has since chosen to be a virtually "invisible" and extremely reserved mega-businessman

Despite sitting atop a gargantuan conglomerate, he can also be rightly adjudged as the most inaccessible of the collossal business figures across Africa Adenuga intentionally steers clear of the probing lenses of media photographers and generally stays out of the news

Born on Wednesday, April 29, 1953, in Ibadan, Oyo State, and raised by his father who was a school teacher and a businesswoman mother, young Adenuga knew so early what ‘hustling’ was all about When you have a teacher-father whose reward is proverbially in heaven, there is that proclivity to scratch the ground to make ends meet. This exigency nerved him for the tasks ahead, and he found courage sufficient to carry him through thick and thin At a certain point, he resorted to driving taxi to fund for his studies in the university

The Guru, as they call him now, literally struck gold when he was just 26 years old, vending lace materials and distributing soft drinks In 1990, he received a drilling license and in 1991, his petroleum firm Conoil struck oil in the shallow waters of Southwestern Ondo State, the first indigenous oil company to do so in commercial quantity Adenuga is not your regular type of moneybags, he is a self-made hard worker Those who know him know that even as he has stepped up to the seventh floor in the stage of life, there is no guarantee he will slow down He is deeply involved in the day-to-day running of his financial empire which spans the telecoms, oil and gas, construction, real estate, banking et al Perhaps that is the secret of his amazing breakthrough

As a typical billionaire does, he makes good use of every opportunity available to him. During the oil boom of the late ‘80s, he did not waste time to apply for oil license, and in 1990, he started oil exploration with after obtaining a license for Conoil This was during the military junta of General Ibrahim Babangida when the industry was liberalized to allow individuals venture into it

Again, Adenuga saw another opportunity to plow into the booming world of the telecommunication industry in the late ’90s acquired a conditional GSM license from the Federal Government

It was not an easy task because the telecoms license was revoked a few days after he obtained it. He was to obtain a second one in 2004, when the federal government held another auction That was what gave birth to his Globacom, or Glo for short, which has now grown into other African countries like Benin Republic, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire, with millions of subscribers

The telecom company is considered a major competitor to the giant MTN group, and is still prospecting licenses in other West African countries

In 2015, Mike Adenuga acquired an Ivorian mobile telecoms operator “Comium” in Cote d’Ivoire for $600m.

As mentioned earlier, it has been a potpourri of gains and losses in the last 70 years for the Great Guru Mid 2020s, the head offices of his telecoms company as well as his erstwhile Equitorial Trust Bank were raided by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC This must have led him to relocate from Nigeria temporarily, but only returned when he was granted pardon by the then government of President Musa Yaradua.

By and large, Adenuga is a shrewd businessman who knows when to strike for gold He is an epitome of a large pocket meeting a large heart He is a giver, and we know that givers never lack So, there is a constant assurance of wealth flow even when it seems so critical

Nigerians have not forgotten in a hurry how Globacom, which entered the telecoms market very late because of the initial denial, changed the game with breaking the myth of per-second billing which forced already established networks to ‘reset their brain’

Modest on the outside, Adenuga is as generous as a philanthropist can be. He gives without batting an eyelid His family, staff and friends are not spared of a rub off of his milk of human kindness This has endeared many to the man who abhors publicity but does well operating at the background noiselessly

As we continue to bask in the euphoria of celebrating a man who has changed so many lives through his words and actions, we say, may your life be long, Dr Mike Adeniyi Ishola Adenuga, the resilient Bull