By Suyi Ayodele

“Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise”, Proverbs 6:6.

The business colossus and owner of Globacom, the nation’s giant telecommunication outfit, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jnr (GCON), is 72 years old today.

In celebrating the giant man of means on his birthday, I have decided to use the ‘thesis’ written about him 12 years ago as a link between the character of the man the entire world has been celebrating in the last two weeks and the characters of the locusts God, in His infinite wisdom, sent to oversee our affairs as a nation.

The ‘thesis’ was written by no other person than the maverick retired General and Military President, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), when Dr. Adenuga turned 60 on April 29, 2013. We shall come to that presently.

The essence of this piece goes beyond celebrating Dr. Adenuga. His life, his character and his attitudes as espoused in the IBB’s thesis of 2013 are referenced here to draw the attention of our ‘ruiners’ and rulers alike to the fact that what is lacking in our polity is character. And not just character, but good character.

The last one week has been very instructive in the history of Nigeria as our politicians set the agenda for the 2027 general elections. Nigeria, we all know by now, is a cruise. We elected, or we were told that we elected President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for a term of four years, with a proviso for renewal after the first four years. Unfortunately for us, and to the damnation of good governance, President Tinubu had hardly taken the oath of office on May 29, 2023, when the race for his second term began.

Thus, the President and his acolytes have spent the last 23 months plotting and ‘strategising’ for the second term ambition. This is one of the reasons why the government has not been able to address any of the litanies of problems confronting us as a people.

Rather, President Tinubu, who in recent times has turned out to be a ‘vising president’ with France as his preferred base, has engaged in all manners of arm-twisting to get everybody on board of his rudderless ship as he ‘consolidates’ his hold on the political landscape.

With the recent gale of defections that hit the half-dead opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) last week, it is crystal clear, even to the blind that the nation is on its path to a one-party State! The beauty of the defections of the opposition key figures to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), is the fact that when the looming calamity of a one-party State in the hands of Tinubu hits, no one will be spared; not the defectors nor the one-leg-in-one-leg-out PDP leaders, like the one who boasted that he would remain in the PDP but work for its downfall from within. Sadder enough, not those APC men and women who today are hailing President Tinubu as the “master strategist”, would escape the ruination!

A few hours after Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State defected to the APC last week with the entire PDP structures in the state, I got a call from an elderly fellow, who was worried about the character of our political leaders.

The old fella expressed disgust that former Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, who was also the vice-presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2023 presidential election, could defect to the APC. He asked: “What is Okowa looking for again?” My interlocutor was equally disturbed that the political class was inadvertently making a dictator of President Tinubu. He asked again: “What is wrong with our politicians?”

While I did not answer the old man’s queries on Okowa or other issues he raised, I nevertheless have no doubt in my mind about what the problems are with our politicians. Someone, long ago told me that “betrayal is the bedrock of our politics.” He could be right, and he could also be wrong.

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But I think that the major flaw is in the character of the political class. Beyond the issue of lack of clear-cut ideological orientation, the major fallacy of the show of shame going on in the name of everyone trying to get on board the ship of the ruling party is pure character deficiency.

While one also has no doubts that the present administration, in its desperate bid to retain power in 2027, would spare nothing, including harassing the opposition to buckle, IBB illustrates what makes a good man in his ‘thesis’ to Dr. Adenuga Jr. at his 60th birthday anniversary in 2013.

Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr. (GCON), I daresay, is a book, a voluminous book and a reader’s delight. He should be studied; he should be read. Our politicians need a lot to learn from the personality of the man many of his associates call the Great Guru (GG) or Mr. Chairman.

It is worthy of note that whatever Mr. Chairman has achieved today, and will also add as he ages, were not dropped on his laps like meteors discharged from the cosmic forces. No! Dr. Adenuga’s character, especially the ethos of an Omoluabi, the Yoruba measurement of good character and upbringing, played vital roles in projecting the business icon to this enviable height.

The first of that Omoluabi ethos is Adenuga’s fidelity to friendship. The man who holds the title of Apesin of Ijebuland has demonstrated that in many ways. But the one that comes easily to mind is his encounter with the monstrous government of retired General Olusegun Obasanjo in late 2005.

For whatever reason, Obasanjo, who then harboured an undisclosed animosity against IBB and was engaged in a battle of trust with his then Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, decided to vent his anger on the common friend of the duo, Adenuga. The man, Ebora Owu, according to feelers, asked Adenuga to admit that both IBB and Atiku had appreciable interests in the Adenuga’s many businesses, especially Globacom.

When the Ijebu man would not play ball, Obasanjo decided to go after him with the government’s attack dog, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Adenuga’s home then at the highbrow Oko Awo Close, Victoria Island, Lagos, was violated by EFCC operatives. The man remained undeterred. He held on to his known dictum of owning Globacom ‘bullet, powder and barrel’.

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When the harassment was becoming unbearable, rather than betray his friends, Adenuga decided to discomfort himself. While Obasanjo was assembling another ‘army of invasion’ in Aso Rock Villa to ship Mr. Chairman to detention, the man decided to surprise everyone. Abandoning the comfort of his home and the growth of his business concerns, Adenuga shipped out of the country on self-exile. He first landed in Accra, Ghana, and then later to Paris, France. For good 18 months, Adenuga remained in exile and did not return to Nigeria until Obasanjo completed his second term and a new President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, took over.

Eighteen months of absence of the ownership in the life of a business like we have in the Mike Adenuga Group means a lot. Anything could have happened. And a lot indeed happened while the man was away. On his return, and in one of the meetings with his top aides, Dr. Adenuga acknowledged that a lot had taken place in his business.

Thus, in his reaction to one of the issues that arose, he intoned: “My absence for 18 months has corrupted all of you. Now that I am back, all that nonsense will stop!” (The Guru’s Memorable Quotes, 2nd Edition- an in-house cartoon-led magazine).

Capturing that singular incident, IBB, in his 2013 tribute to Adenuga at his Diamond birthday celebration wrote: “Mike, truly you epitomize hard-work, perseverance, doggedness, humility, diligence and patriotism. The fact that you treasure the virtue of true friendship and loyalty to any cause you believe in, gives you the cutting edge. I am eternally grateful for all the troubles you had to go through because of me in the hands of a regime that tried to derail our friendship and relationship.”

The smiling General also added these lines: “Even when you came under severe pressure by that same regime which I helped to nurture, to blackmail me in order to hang me, you remained eternally loyal and steadfast. Only a businessman of character, sound upbringing and virtue could choose friendship instead of his economic empire. Only a man of dependable poise, with an open mind and fear of God, would choose to sustain an age-long friendship instead of sacrificing the same on the altar of avarice, greed and economic interest.”

What are the lessons for the Hallelujah orchestra echoing the Tinubu-threatened-us-with-EFCC slogan to justify the mass defections of PDP and other political parties’ members to the APC in droves?

One, Adenuga could have succumbed and played along with his kinsman, Obasanjo, an Egba man. The Ijebu business icon could have placed premium on the economic gains that the enormous government patronage would have accrued to him by betraying IBB or Atiku. But he chose to be noble. He chose to stay committed to friendship and good conscience.

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Rather than betray his friends, he decided to suffer the ignominy of an exile for committing no crime. He abandoned his fame, his wealth, his comfort and family and left Nigeria. He literally swallowed fire so that his friends could drink water!

Beyond that, he risked the government coming after his businesses. He was not ignorant of what the Nigerian Government did to the late Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola’s business concerns. Adenuga never lost sight of the fact that such a fate could also befall him. But he allowed his character to come to play.

He realised that there would be a tomorrow. He opted for self-discomfort. Today, the entire world is celebrating him for who he is and what he stands for. His character delineation is loyalty! He did not shift base; he did not jump ship.

This is what the Nigerian political class which has copiously proven to be lacking in grit and mettle ought to learn. This is why it is possible for a man who contested to be vice-president in an election his party scored over six million votes, to jump ship at the slightest appearance of EFCC uniform by his gate! Ever wonder why our politics has not gone beyond this level of bread-and-akara dinner? Check the characters of those we call leaders, people without scruple!

Further in his 2013 ‘thesis’ on Adenuga, former President Babangida posited again: “Such tribulations are prices we have to pay for true friendship. Your ability to remain focused in the face of pressure coupled with your capacity to identify and nurture talents is the reason why you are MIKE ADENUGA. There can never be another MIKE ADENUGA of your orientation.”

This is another chapter of Adenuga, the Book, which the Nigerian political elite must read. Even those among them who claim to be offspring of the legend, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, are not better off. They, like the Avatar, Awolowo, once said; “Are like a bird of passage that lacks the quality of permanence”, as they keep jumping from one political party to the other! One politician once told me that “the hunger of four years is not a small matter!” Really! So, if we all belong to one political party, who will call out the government for not doing the right thing?

IBB said of Adenuga: “…your capacity to identify and nurture talents is the reason why you are MIKE ADENUGA. There can never be another MIKE ADENUGA of your orientation.” How true is this assertion? Yes, it is true that it is only God that is incomparable. When we take the discussion down to our situation and the improvements that individuals have brought to play in Nigeria, Dr. Mike Adenuga stands out! Will there be another Mike Adenuga Jr.? No doubt, not in this generation!

Mr. Chairman’s tenacity of purpose, “capacity to identify and nurture talents” and his ability to “remain calm, collected and unassuming, with an élan that is symbolic of humility and training, despite many achievements’, especially “when others are losing their heads as a result of unethical conduct and greed”, as penned by IBB 12 years ago, are indeed some of the virtues that stand Dr. Adenuga out in the Nigerian “society whose moral fiber has ebbed considerably.”

And in closing that chapter of the ‘thesis’, IBB, again, expressed gratitude by saying, “I remain grateful for being a true friend indeed.” How I wish that when the time comes and we are to write about these characters dotting our political landscape, we shall be bold to say they are indeed the friends of the people of Nigeria!

In closing this piece and as the world gathers today to celebrate one of the gifts of God to this generation, I wish Dr. Michael Adeniyi Agbolade Ishola Adenuga (GCON), The Book, The Great Guru, many happy returns at 72!

Agba yin a dale, Sir.