To speak of Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr.,the Chairman of Globacom,utter the name of a man who forged for himself,through life’s greatest odds,a throne in the firmament of giants. As he clocks 72,the sun bows in reverence,for it too has witnessed few mortals rise with such silent thunder,build with such relentless grace,and reign with such enigmatic might,writes LANRE ALFRED
Dr Mike Adenuga is no ordinary man. He is the superman cloaked in humility,a sovereign of industry who neither demands the limelight nor needs validation. He is not merely a Nigerian success story,he is a testament to the boundless possibilities of the human spirit when stirred by courage,conviction,and clarity of purpose.
Indeed,very few men are as gifted as Dr. Mike Adenuga. The poetry of his ascent radiates his glory through splendid enterprise,outstanding peerage,and a spirited lunge out of the trenches.
Interestingly,for a man who built his empire in silence,he commands the buzz of an awe-inspiring titan. Unlike his billionaire peers,his emergence hadn’t the thunderclap of applause; he did not emerge with the preening of a man eager for the spotlight. He arrived like dusk—quiet,deliberate,and majestic. There was no procession of cameras,no pre-written script of greatness. Just fire in his bones,vision in his soul,and the patience of a thousand storms.
In a world overrun by loud men chasing borrowed crowns,he built his own throne in silence and the world,recognising true majesty crowned him without being asked.
Now at 72,he stands as a man who has truly lived; he rises as a monument to willpower,discipline,and transcendent genius. He is not a product of privilege,but of persistence,the Bull who refused to break. Every fibre of his journey is woven with restraint and revelation,forged in the fire of rejection and the chill of obscurity,until he emerged,not with noise,but with nobility. However,behind the public image of Africa’s telecommunications magnate,oil industry disruptor,and financial powerhouse lies the lesser-known story of a boy who once manned goalposts on the football pitch of Ibadan Grammar School. This was a precursor to the role Adenuga would eventually play in shaping the destiny of his continent,according to a tribute penned by one of journalism’s finest,Mike Awoyinfa. According to him,long before the accolades and billions,Adenuga stood between goalposts,showing early signs of resilience,foresight,and leadership.
Family accounts suggest that his childhood was shaped by shared responsibility,as revealed by one of his siblings,young Mike would always be found on the football field,immersed in play. This glimpse into his early life underscores the paradox of his persona: deeply grounded yet instinctively drawn to loftier pursuits.
Even in the games he played,a deeper pattern emerged. Former classmates recall his fondness for a schoolyard game known as “Walk and Hit.” He preferred not to remain up front to savour victory but would rather return to his position as goalkeeper. It was a telling choice—he seemed most at home as the watchman,the protector,the strategist in the shadows.
Adenuga’s ascent did not follow a script written by convention. In defiance of parental expectations that he remain in Nigeria and study at the University of Ibadan,he charted a new path by securing admission to study in the United States. It was there that his perspective on marketing was shaped,particularly under the mentorship of a lecturer known simply as Professor West. These formative lessons would later influence some of the most iconic marketing strategies in the Nigerian telecoms industry.
His return to Nigeria proved to be another turning point. Encouraged by a friend,he joined the ranks of a generation that had studied abroad but chose to return home to help build the country’s economic foundation in the 1970s and 1980s. By his mid-thirties,Adenuga was already at the helm of Devcom Merchant Bank. By 37,his success was catching attention,even if he remained outside the usual circles of celebrity. A major national newspaper once described him as a man “sitting on a mountain of fortune… not even listed in any ‘Who’s Who’… yet tending many lives.”
His move into oil exploration further distinguished him as a visionary risk-taker. Despite his mother’s caution that the business was a gamble akin to throwing money into a bottomless pit,he pressed forward. That persistence paid off spectacularly on Christmas Day in 2005,when his rig,Trident VIII,struck oil in Okitipupa. The find made Adenuga the first Nigerian to discover oil in commercial quantity,a landmark achievement that underlined his strategic patience. He later took a $10 million loan from the African Development Bank,not out of need,but to establish financial credibility on the global stage. The loan was repaid swiftly,enhancing his reputation as a calculated and disciplined businessman.
His entry into telecommunications marked another audacious leap. At a time when even seasoned entrepreneurs approached the sector with caution,Adenuga recognised the timeless need for communication. He famously predicted that people would always talk and use data,and on this premise,he launched Globacom. The company quickly distinguished itself,not least through its radical pricing strategy dropping SIM card prices to just one naira. Industry insiders recount how the move sparked a frenzy,with long queues stretching for blocks in places like Saka Tinubu and Awolowo Road. It was not merely a commercial tactic; it was a gesture that broadened access and redefined the market.
In the process,Adenuga introduced features that would become industry standards—per-second billing,cheaper call rates,and national network sovereignty. Globacom became more than a telecom company; it became a platform for empowerment. His disruptive entry into the sector has been likened to Henry Ford’s impact on the automobile industry,a moment where accessibility,innovation,and mass appeal converged to reshape an entire ecosystem.
Indeed,Mike Adenuga’s journey from a football field in Ibadan to the boardrooms of Africa’s most influential industries is a story not of luck,but of layered choices,long-range vision,and an unshakable belief in the power of silent transformation.
In Adenuga’s world,enterprise becomes magic; the fondling of ambition from a delicate prod into a feral nudge. A push against the odds. Against adversaries and unforgiving fate. Only a titan like Adenuga could brave these challenges and carve from it all,an Eden. It’s a huge task; earth-born deities influence economies,politics,culture and cities. And if they are very assertive,they create not just the laws of government,but the code of mortal existence. However,no entrepreneur has been a god to as many vastly different worlds as Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr.
It is not easy to live as a detribalised Nigerian. For a multi-billionaire,every day is a somersault through blazing declamatory hoops. You know the heart of a patriot,however,from the way he relates with fellow citizens,irrespective of their ethnicity and other vast social stripes. His greatness manifests,especially,in how he treats those beneath him in all spheres of life. Not surprisingly,millions of youths see him as a quintessential mentor because of his guarded and understated lifestyle and business successes.
Dr. Mike Adenuga is hardly your random money bag,but a civilisation unto himself,a cosmos of influence where ambition and empathy cohabit in rare harmony. His businesses are not just profit machines; they are citadels of opportunity for thousands. Conoil stands tall as a keystone in Nigeria’s energy infrastructure. Globacom,with its sprawling green across Africa,represents not just a network,but a renaissance,a voice for the voiceless,a reach for the unreachable.
He has shown us that influence does not require noise. That dignity can wear the crown of wealth without losing its soul. That a man can rule boardrooms and bend markets without selling his humanity on the altar of excess.
It takes courage to be Adenuga. You have to travel aeons back perhaps to encounter a charitable heart like his. Much of his gestures stem from his ability to feel,visualise,and appreciate the miseries of society’s underprivileged and build livable lives for them from the ground up. Adenuga defies stereotypical projections of the multibillionaire as the shark next door,the deal-maker or the calculating prospector. There’s something about the feeling he imparts in all his acquaintances,that triggers a change in their circumstances
Adenuga’s bank of love is never bankrupt. He is the proverbial benefactor who was born into a world of iron,that he might make it a world of gold. The only lean aspect of his life is his pride. Blessed with a good heart and a fat purse,if he had his way,he would banish extreme poverty from the world.
In a world where most of his billionaire peers live like the Dead Sea,always taking in and never giving out,he is remarkably different. His kindness is like a magical spell meant to enchant hearts and lift weary souls so that they might fly. While many draw attention to society’s most pressing problems,he resolves them.
If the Chairman of Globacom were crowned the richest man in the world today,it wouldn’t matter to him. He had never been a sucker for worldly and ephemeral titles. Thus he’d keep doling out his fortune to nourish dreams and flesh the hopes of the starving.
If you ask him,he would tell you that he has not lived in a day,until he has done something for someone who can never repay him. While some billionaires toss satellites into orbit and strive to harness the sun,Adenuga commits his fortune to nobler,simpler objectives,like raising society’s underprivileged from privation to surplus.
His vision of giving is structural,intentional,and healing. He does not seek to soothe symptoms; he aims to dismantle the systems that create suffering. He believes that a nation’s best must rise to serve its most vulnerable. And he lives this creed daily.
It is this posture that endears him to world leaders,from Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu,who hailed him as a “believer in Nigeria’s manifest destiny,” to France’s President Emmanuel Macron,who praised him for his deep contributions to Franco-Nigerian relations and his cultural philanthropy—most notably,the majestic Mike Adenuga Centre in Lagos,an architectural ode to intercultural dialogue.
To understand Adenuga fully is to embrace mystery. He is not a man of excess words,yet his actions are epics. His life is a manuscript still unfolding—its lines etched in silence,its chapters turning with thunderous grace.
He is a master of perception,a seer of economic currents before they emerge. While others are guided by maps,he crafts his own compass. Where others see risk,he smells opportunity. His success is not accidental—it is alchemical.
The same mind that saw the future of telecommunications before it arrived,that laid pipelines of influence from Lagos to Lome,Abuja to Abidjan,is the mind that continues to imagine futures most dare not dream. And he builds them,not just for profit,but for people.
At 72,Dr. Mike Adenuga is more than a man,he is an archetype. He embodies what manhood ought to be in its purest,most potent form: strength with softness,wealth with wisdom,leadership with love. He has shown that the mark of a man is not in how loud he roars,but how deeply his actions echo in the hearts of others.
Notwithstanding his depth as an entrepreneur extraordinaire,philanthropist,and citizen of humanity,Adenuga covets no vanities,unlike other billionaires. He demands no free verses,heroic couplets,or ornamental rhymes to glorify his personage as a man. Adenuga is hardly given to such infectious vanities.
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