BY FEMI ADEKOGBE
He is an illustrious son of Nigeria. A detribalised Nigerian, an achiever par excellence and astute businessman who contributed immensely to the growth and development of Nigeria. Happy Birthday to Dr. Michael Ishola Adenuga, GCON.
When he turned 70 last year former President Muhammed Buhari extolled the philanthropist for his courage, humility and dedication to nation-building, always placing the interest of the nation first, and welfare of the people. Buhari applauded him for ensuring that all his ventures and investments uphold human values of empathy, appreciation, trust and respect.
From Mike Ibadan Grammar School, in Oyo State, to his adventure in United States of America where he bagged first and second degrees, Adenuga has always been focused on his journey to the top.
He later returned and started with the family business which he successfully repositioned before moving to global business. These yielded fruits after few years and he moved into banking with two banks, Equatorial Trust and Devcom.
From Banking, he progressed to other key sectors of the economy including Oil &Gas and later Telecommunications. He also has other international companies across the globe
His numerous achievements and massive philanthropy has not gone unnoticed. He has bagged many national and global awards, including the highest individual honour for a private citizen in Nigeria, GCON, and many others of high note like “The Companion of the Star of Ghana’’ from Ghana and “Commander of the Legion of Honour’’ by French President, Emmanuel Macron.
His company, Consolidated oil was the first indigenous oil company to strike oil and produce it in commercial quantity, while in the telecoms sector, his company, Globacom which got its licence two years after others had started operation was the first to make what they said was impossible possible. Other networks had claimed that “per second billing” was impossible. But the Adenuga-led Glo made what they called impossible a possibility.
By August, 2003, Globacom launched its services with special effects, the elusive per second billing was introduced, and other networks had to follow suit immediately.
Glo subscribers, after 20 years are fully connected to the network and are enjoying access to high quality products and affordable telecom services. One of the outstanding contributions of Globacom to the nation’s telecom’s industry is its Glo 1 submarine cable. The company is the first African telecom company to single handedly build an international sub-marine cable, Glo-1, connecting thousands of kilometers of national fibres to all parts of Nigeria and currently enabling digitalization across all spectrums of the Nigerian economy and beyond.
In Sports, the company for many years, sponsored the Premier League, then known as Glo Premier League, the national teams, the Supporters Club, Glo CAF Awards,Glo Soccer Academy, Glo Golf Tours among others. Dr. Adenuga’s personal donations and sponsorships cannot be quantified. At a point he paid the salary of the coach of Super Eagles, Berti Vogts.
Sponsorship of the nation’s cultural festivals is another forte of Globacom. It is the biggest corporate supporter of Nigerian arts and culture in Nigeria with festivals including Ofala in Onitsha, Ojude Oba in Ijebu ode, Lisabi in Abeokuta and others under its sponsorship.
In March 2024, Globacom, Glo 1 submarine cable was the hero in Nigeria when it remained the only cable standing when massive internet outages were reported in Nigeria and in some parts of Africa, following damage to international undersea cables supplying the country with connectivity.
According to reports, the damage affected major undersea cables near Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire and has led to internet downtime across West and South African countries.
Telecommunications companies and a number of banks in Nigeria which relied on the affected cables for internet services were affected by the outage which lasted for many days.
However, Glo 1, owned by Globacom, was not affected by the damage as Data users, internet service providers and financial institutions which run on Glo 1 have continued to operate normally all though the period.
Industry analysts believe the sturdy nature and resilience of Glo 1 International Submarine Cable is the reason the damage did not affect the cable.
All these has shown the tenacity and resourcefulness of the man Mike Adenuga and he remain God’s gift to the nation
Happy Birthday to the trail blazer. Many more years of God’s blessings ahead,
