Mike Adenuga Centre: Another Promise Kept!

Bella Disu reminisces on father’s legacy
Not one with a jot of fickleness, Dr. Mike Adenuga has shown again that his word is as surefooted as his name. The Chairman of Globacom Telecommunications has made good his pledge to contribute to the cultural kaleidoscope of Lagos by delivering the Mike Adenuga Alliance Française Centre, as the centre is about to experience bust of activities in days to come due to completion of the architectural beauty. This latest gesture is in fulfilment of erecting a world-class edifice to serve as the new home of the Alliance Française in Lagos.

The speed and quality of work delivered speak volume of how dear the project is to the Adenugas. It was a hands-on kind of execution by Bella herself, who is a director of Cobblestone Properties that was in charge of the project.

Reminiscing about the challenging journey to delivering the state of art centre, Bella on her LinkedIn page, adjudged the experience as “A very emotional and proud moment seeing our signage up. The past 15 months have been a myriad of sleepless nights, site visits/meetings and relentless team effort; all to birth the promise of my father, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr – to create a hub for cross-cultural immersion and change the cultural landscape of Lagos. I present to you, the Mike Adenuga Centre: a world-class edifice and the new home of Alliance Française Lagos. While there’s a lot to unveil in the coming weeks, today we kick off with a bouquet of language classes! Bienvenue à tous.”

Bella, who is also a director of the Centre, is toeing a family culture initiated and perpetuated by his father over the years. Mike Adenuga and his companies have always had a deep appreciation for cultural endeavours in Nigeria. He has supported culture through film, comedy, theatre, and festivals. The corporate vision of the Adenuga brand is closely aligned with Alliance Française; as both entities will be creating a hub of cross-cultural emergence. Mike Adenuga’s philanthropic mind for cross-cultural ideas and development is one without geographical borders. In his view, building the bridge to the world requires building capacity in international languages; thus his decision to help with the right learning environment through the Centre.

The new architectural masterpiece is located at a prime site, sitting on a parcel of land at the intersection of three major roads in Ikoyi: Osborne Road, Alfred Rewane Road, and Gerard Road, which gives it very excellent visibility. Cobblestone Properties, Cappa & D’Alberto, and Baron Architecture came together to actualise the dream, which was inaugurated in July 2018, with France President, Emmanuel Macron, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, Mike Adenuga, Professor Wole Soyinka and other dignitaries.