MIKE ADENUGA THE ENYI I OF NIGERIA@70

Eleven years ago, I wrote the piece below to mark nine years of Globacom in Nigeria Today, I adopt it to celebrate Nigeria’s pride, Chief Mike Adenugu Jr on his birthday I do so knowing how it partly captures the picture of what Chief Adenuga has done for Nigerian sports. Today, Adenuga has an eye on entertainment, nay sports But he has good reason for the greater attention he and his Globacom now pay to the world of entertainment, the nongovernment backed or controlled creative sector that is now a huge employer of labour

Dakuku Peterside and Pat Utomi have, on different occasions, said that the sector was only thriving because it was not being run by government Nigerian government appears to be good in destroying than developing Check all areas where government is solely in charge and you’ll agree with Peterside and Utomi

The creative industry is enjoying all the morale and financial support from the likes of Adenuga who is impressed by their ingenuity and tremendous efforts And that’s Adenuga for you Show your potential and commitment to promote humanity and growth in any sector and he is there for you PATRIOTISM And that’s why he is revered and remains one of the big Nigerian heroes

Musicians, Nollywood stars, comedians and many more in the creative industry are daily singing his name He lifts them They will be among those celebrating this great Nigerian today

Ask Mike Itemuagbor, a foremost sports marketer and he will tell you many more you didn’t know Mike Adenuga did for sports The sports family which I’m part of will remain grateful to this great visionary of our time And we know he is still with us but the administrators must get their acts right to attract more of his goodies again Sponsorship is not donation As Adenuga marks his birthday today, it is my prayer that God continues to bless him with many more years in good health and prosperity CONGRATULATIONS, SIR.

Now enjoy the piece, first published 11 years ago, titled N9b IN 9 YEARS, KUDOS TO GLO AND ADENUGA

Nine years ago, there were long queues in Nigerian cities especially Abuja It cost more than 20,000 to purchase a SIM card when Nigeria introduced GSM telecommunications Globacom stormed the scene more than one year after and crashed the price to N5,000 Nigerians, in their hundreds of thousands, lined up to acquire Glo lines It was a massive relief to the common man as the cost even crashed further until it got to the current state where a hundred Naira can fetch one a sim card That’s what competition can do to an economy. Nigerians reaped from this economic factor courtesy Globacom. It did not end there. GSM charges were on minute by minute billing and Nigerians complained of reap offs as calls less than a minute attracted full one minute charge

Glo was on the march again They started second by second billing and others followed Nigerians were the beneficiaries of this Glo initiative Phones are for everybody and not only for the rich as it struck many during analogue era and the early stage of GSM phones

Globacom had made instant impact and it did not take them time to glow into sports Just barely one year in business Nigeria was to host the greatest sports show in Africa, the All Africa Games They did not want the event to suffer and had to lend a hand financially They became the official GSM partners of the Local Organising Committee, LOC

Leveraged from the visibility it exposed them Sports commands passion Sports is loud, noisy and sensational in all aspects including the reportorial duties of the media They all add to the huge entertainment that it is It has great followership Globacom tasted it and felt that it was good

They marched on. They became the sponsors of the National league, the national football teams and the supporters club. They went into athletics and sponsored the Lagos Half Marathon They have had a hand in golf and Squash Racket. When Nigeria hosted the Under 17 FIFA World Cup in 2009 Globacom was one of the sponsors Just on Tuesday they launched a football academy They have become synonymous with sports in Nigeria But have their efforts yielded commensurate results? I wouldn’t say so But that has been largely no fault of theirs

However, they are still to blame to some extent When a league in tropical Africa receives some sponsorship funding to the tune of about N500m to almost N800 m yearly that league should be worth the sponsorship But the football managers in Nigeria had other ideas and helped themselves rather than the league Why would Globacom share in the blame? There’s a difference between donation and sponsorship When you donate money to an organisation you don’t worry about what they do with it

It’s charity work But when you sponsor an event you have a right to know how the sponsorship money is being spent You expect certain mileage from your sponsorship And if you are not leveraging from it you have a right for a review based on the contract, anyway Sponsorship is not free, it’s no donation. And this is what Globacom did not appear to realise in the greater part of their sponsorship of the league in Nigeria

They failed to ask questions about their sponsorship money When they tried to do so the damage had been massive and the league was crumbling Globacom suspended their sponsorship and till date the Nigerian League has no title right sponsors two seasons after they said enough was enough Nigerian football has remained the loser It should not be so Nigerian sports should be richer going by what Globacom has invested since they started business in Nigeria

“We have invested about N9 billion into sports in Nigeria in the nine years we have existed,” Globacom’s Regional Director, Marketing communications, Charles Janarius said in Lagos last week It was in a dinner that reminded guests this is their 9th year of service and business in Nigeria

Janarius told me Globacom has not stopped sponsoring sports “We are still sponsoring sports and cannot stop as sports is part of life. We are still the sponsors of all the national teams As for the league, we hope that they get a few things right We are the sponsors of the league in Ghana and there the foreign leagues have not consumed everything The crowds still come to watch matches and the people still have passion for the local league We need to get a few things right in Nigeria and Globacom will renew the league sponsorship We have not left We are still there ”

Janarius freely discussed global sports including the Olympics and showed good knowledge of the sports industry What he said is a challenge to those running our football now The current managers have also not met expectations of Nigerians They have not lifted the league beyond were they met it Some argue that it is even worse

The loser is still Nigerian football The only good thing about the Nigerian league is that new Eagles coach is drawing players from the local pool Globacom may still return and make it better Their chairman, Dr Mike Adenuga Jr has passion for sports He will not let it die He is a patriotic Nigerian

Adenuga has been massive to sports. He has a massive frame, massive businesses which have provided massive employment for thousands of Nigerians It is no wonder that the Federal

Government will on Monday honour him with a massive National Honour, Grand Commander of Niger, the second highest award in the country

He deserves it. He is the ENYI 1 of Nigeria. Ask Orji Uzor Kalu what this title means and he will tell you the role Chief Adenuga played when Enyimba won the then elusive Champions League back to back