Mike Adenuga: 71 Colossal Steps on Stardom

Williams Orji

Birthdays are meant to celebrate personality, works and sanctity of God’s grace in our lives. It is an avenue to reflect on who you are, whom you have been and where you are heading in your future endevour. Therefore, at a time like this, firmaments of heaven will open again to welcome the torrents of best wishes from friends, associates and family, as Chief Dr Mike Adenuga CSG GCON, marks his 71st birthday anniversary on the 29th of April 2024.

Therefore, it’s another year of celebration and thanksgiving when Nigerians and entire world stand still to celebrate this quintessential business mogul whose presence and positive contributions to the world stage have continued to defy the bookmakers, even as many have continued to ask, what makes Dr Mike Adenuga this thick?

Mike Adenuga’s history is already well-documented and imbedded in the annals of historical record that graces our humanity. But most importantly, notwithstanding the acolytes so far received as a result of his many humanitarian gestures to Nigerians and the world at large, retelling of his deeds and impartation on people’s lives on this auspicious time of his birthday, will continue to be a way of affecting and moulding the mindsets and characters of future Adenugas in generations to come.

Such impact on generations to come, emanates from his knack to make all things he put his hands on to succeed – from his businesses to private endevours, Dr Adenuga has been a pillar that builds many successful conglomerates, and has grown and touched many lives as God blesses his hustles.

His outstanding posture in the business world has attracted many aliases to him. In some quarters he is known as the Guru, while in others they call him the Bull, even as some compatriots in the business world  have taken it a niche further to refer to him as  the Spirit of Africa, howbeit, Dr Adenuga  has  always  made a significant impact in anything he touches his hand.- be it business, social humanitarian.

That tenacity and poise to make things work for him, pushed him into defining and pursuing his dreams, asserting his independence and chasing his life ambition early in life, thus by 1979, he has made his first millions at the age of 26, through the display of trading skills of selling clothing materials and soft drinks, that can only be seen in his Ijebu linage.

By the time he had grown to his thirties and going to fifty, Adenuga was a ready a household name in Nigeria business community, which is principled on the culture of attending to backbreaking hard work, which thus shaped him for his ambitious business adventures later in life.

Within that period he founded many fast-moving and thriving companies that are entrenched in banking, oil and gas telecommunications, real estate and construction, etc.

His oil and gas business is aptly represented by Conoil (formerly Consolidated Oil Company); banking sector of his business interest was anchored on Devcom Bank and Equatorial Trust Bank, which later merged with Sterling bank. In construction, Dr Adenuga is said to have a substantial interest in Nigeria biggest player in that sector, Julius Berger PLC.    Perhaps his catch, where most Nigerians feel his impact is in the area of telecommunication through Globacom, a company that has been adjudge one of the biggest and most innovative in an all in-inclusive mobile phone services, with operations spread across Nigeria, Benin, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.

His coming into telecommunication industry brought a relief to Nigerians. Since the launch of Glo mobile  operations on Per Second Billing, Nigerians now pay for actual time spent on a call instead of the practice of billing customers N50 per minute even when the call cuts off at just 2 seconds.  The coming of Glo also crashed the cost of SIM card from N30,000 to N6,999 and later N100, thereby making it possible for low income earners, students and artisans to own GSM lines today It is now one of the most recognizable brands across the continent.

The network currently has over 60 million subscribers, and is the most preferred network in Nigeria, with a vast network of already laid fibre crisscrossing all parts of the country. The Globacom network comprehensively covers over 400,000 communities, all the 36 states and all major highways.

With many of his blue-chip companies, Mike Adenuga has touched lives, resuscitated carriers and kept faith with those who have lost the hope of living again. From the country Nollywood industry, where he has shown so much commitments to actors and other players in the industry, to the media, struggling businesses etc, he have brought them into limelight and sowed seeds of growth in whatever they lay their hands in.

He has equally used his platforms to help the nation to navigate out of difficult situation. To this end, his platforms had sponsored many teams to international meets, and had helped to nurture upcoming talents.

An indigene of Oru, Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State,   Adenuga received his secondary school education at Ibadan Grammar School, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria and Comprehensive High School, Aiyetoro, for his Higher School Certificate (HSC). He worked as a taxi driver to help fund his university education. He graduated from Northwestern Oklahoma State University and Pace University, New York, with degrees in Business Administration.

As soon as he finished his studies in the United States, Dr Mike Adenuga Jr returned to Nigeria to join his mother in the family business, and it was under her tutelage that young Adenuga began learning the rope in handling multi-tasking businesses, probably from the business ideas and advises he got from his beloved mother.

Dr Adenuga Jr, who is the youngest of his parents’ five children, began showing that business skills by selling removable car stereos, probably sensing his business acumen, he was allowed to run the family saw mill factory in Ogun State.

His golden touch to business manifested instantly as went into the importation of saw mill equipment, then veered into importation of beer eventually hitting it big with his importation of lace.

Recounting those early days, Dr Adenuga told a story of how divine placement played a role in his business success. He disclosed that while he was returning to Nigeria from a trip in the United States he missed his British Airways flight and had to fly Swiss Air. He said that on the flight to Nigeria, he was lucky to sit next to the owner of one of the biggest lace manufacturing companies in Austria.

He narrated that before the flight could touch down in Lagos, he had decided to take the advice of this the Australian businessman, to give lace importation business a shot; an advice that paid off instantly. Later, he also went into tomato puree and vegetable oil. He was a sort of Jack of all trades and master of all by the age of 26, he was already a millionaire.

As he grew older with more financial muscles being added to his business empire, he decided to streamline his operations and look for investments in key sectors of the economy to concentrate on. That was how he began to structure the Mike Adenuga Group where he is Executive Chairman.

Despite his success, Adenuga believes business must have a human face, it must add value, it must have an impact and ultimately, be socially responsible. These are some of the core values that he considers before throwing his money into any investment. That is not all, he also firmly believes that the world is a field of battle and you must prepare to win, not some time but all the time He’s a mountain climber like the Tibetan Monk, who believes that you must survive all odds to get to the top

 Dr Mike Adenuga Jr is married to Mrs Titi Adenuga (nee Adewale), who provides the comfort and stability that motivate and drive him to conquer his world. His children are Oyin, Babajide (Bobo), Paddy, Bella, Eniola, Bimbo, Sade and ‘Niyi Jnr He also has grandchildren.

He was named African Entrepreneur of The Year at the first African Telecoms Awards (ATA) in August 2007. In May 2015, Adenuga made a takeover bid to purchase Ivorian mobile telecom’s operator Comium Côte d’Ivoire for $600 million.

In 2012, he was made Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger by the government of Nigeria. He holds a Yoruba tribal chieftaincy as the Otunba Apesin of the Ijebu clan. In 2018, he was decorated with the insignia of a Commander of the Legion of Honour by President Emmanuel Macron of France.

Adenuga was cited as one of the Top 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine in 2019. And the list of acolytes and awards so far received is endless.

To Dr Adenuga, the world stands still in salute to you this day as you step into your 71 years steps of stardom. Congratulations, the Nigerian Best!

•Williams Orji, a journalist, wrote in from Abuja

OPINION

An Urgent Need for Equity in Provision and Distribution of Healthcare Equipment

Daniel David Otobo

On the 17th of April 2024, I was at a prominent General Hospital in Abuja when I noticed there was no electricity. The back-up generator was not on, but the hospital’s inverters powered computers and intranet system. The backlight from the computers stood out as they were the only perceptible light in the otherwise pitch-black halls. I met up with a colleague who was trying to find a suction machine for a patient who had developed blood infections (i.e., septicaemia) following a urinary tract infection. In the emergency ward, there was a diabetic patient who equally had a blood infection and required suction. After a few minutes of unsuccessful search, my colleague opted for a makeshift suction device. These were emergency situations requiring prompt action, yet time was wasted trying to find life-saving devices in the dark. This is unconscionable, unacceptable, but far too common.

Nigeria’s primary, secondary, and tertiary health service delivery are led by the local, state and federal governments, respectively. In 2019, the Federal Ministry of Health reported Nigeria had 40,821 health facilities. Of these, nearly 35,000 were primary healthcare facilities, approximately 6,000 were secondary and less than 170 were tertiary facilities [2].  From a service delivery standpoint, the primary health levels are meant to handle basic non-surgical healthcare problems; the secondary levels are meant to handle emergencies and essential surgical care that does not require specialist attention. The tertiary levels provide specialist care, research, and medical training. Practically, this is not the case because every level handles any case that comes to their doorstep. Nevertheless, the allocation of resources still follows a hierarchical order that reflects the theoretical service delivery mandate. This disparity has led to an acute lack of basic medical equipment and consumables that has adversely impacted patient outcomes. This crisis affects primary and secondary care facilities disproportionately.

Back at the General Hospital in Abuja, the two patients passed away. It is important to note that the suction might not have averted this unfortunate outcome. However, it’s unavailability coupled with the lack of electricity are symptomatic of our health system. While some facilities lack this basic equipment, there are facilities that have an abundance of unused equipment in their stores. Often, they relegate old equipment to storage rooms when they buy new ones. In 2017, a brand-new linear accelerator, a machine used to treat cancers, was found in the storage room of the National Hospital Abuja. This was at a time when other tertiary facilities were limited in their management of cancer; however, the expensive device had been locked in its crates for 4 years up to that point [1]. Similarly, other tertiary facilities have ultrasonography machines that they no longer use, packed up in a corner, patronized by lizards and dust. Yet, there are so many secondary and primary healthcare facilities that lack ultrasonography equipment [3]. Some might argue that storing the old equipment is a contingency for when the new equipment breaks down but I believe we should consider redistributing some of this to other facilities across the country.

Our government has limited resources, so we must ensure that they are allocated efficiently. Hence, Procurement and Distribution Departments should ensure that resources are reallocated based on ongoing needs assessments. I propose they undertake a nationwide census of medical equipment and consumables followed by servicing refurbishment of all surplus devices with the aim to hand them down to other facilities. Lives depend on these decisions, and we cannot afford to lose them or waste resources. The Federal Ministry of Health should allocate funds for this exercise. The federal government recently approved funds for healthcare in Nigeria, this initiative should be taken into consideration [4]. 

While healthcare workers continue to strive to provide optimal care to each Nigerian, the lack of resources might require occasional improvisation, but there should be some level of basic equipment available. The facilities that make up the backbone of our health system suffer the brunt of the equipment inequity. Every Nigerian life is precious, so we must ensure that they are given a fair chance to avoid unnecessary disability and death.

•Dr Daniel David OTOBO is a fully licensed medical doctor in and from Nigeria. He had his Bachelors of Medicine and Bachelors of Surgery training at the Bingham University, Nigeria. He is certified in Trauma Evaluation and Accident Management, Certified in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights from Ghent University Belgium. He is Certified in Global Health from the University of Washington, USA. He is a certified member of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and an active member of the Global Surgery Working Group of the World Medical Association (WMA) JDN. He is currently a Global Surgery Fellow with Operation Smile at Virginia Beach, VA, USA.

Daviddotiz@gmail.com