He is there, quiet, unobtrusive, self-effacing. But he’s also there like a bull. Powerful, forceful, effective, high-octane. Sometimes you see him, most times, you don’t.
That is Mike Adenuga Jnr for you, the illustrious son of Nigeria, Africa, and the world, who turns 70 on Saturday, April 29.
He means different things to different people, and many things to many people. An investor, huge one, with tremendous national and global recognition. A czar of the oil and gas industry. Telecommunications. Real estate. Banking. Construction. Hospitality. Entertainment. Sports. And many others.
But to me, the greatest defining aspect of the Adenuga persona is that he’s a real human being, one with a heart for men. From his lofty height, where he keenly watches what is going on around him, and around the world, he sees human frailty, human needs, and intervenes as necessary. His philanthropy is legendary, done without fuss, without aggrandizement or preferment. He just strikes like lightning, and then vanishes. He does it for all men. High, low, known, unknown. Sportsmen and women, people in entertainment, arts and culture, all sectors.
Peter Fregene was the Nigerian goalkeeper of my boyhood. He manned the posts for the Green Eagles, as well as ECN and Stationery Stores Football Club, from the mid-1960s, to the early 80s. He was so very athletic, and did daring things to keep the ball from getting into his net.
Fregene retired, as we must all inevitably do, and bad days came for him. He retired into penury, as happens with most of our sports heroes and heroines. He was living from hand to mouth.
And fate dealt him a further blow. He went down with stroke. That agile flying cat, kicking, jumping, prancing, could no longer move his hands, nor his legs. Sad, very sad.
You know that in our country, when you are in such state, you are on your own. Strictly. Unless God shows up. And He did for Fregene, through a man called Mike Adenuga Jnr.
One day, emissaries from Globacom, one of the many conglomerates owned by Adenuga, turned up at Fregene’s dingy abode. They brought him succor. Money, food, change of clothes, and many other goodies.
When you are sick, and also poor, you feel sicker. At death’s door. But let there be an intervention, like Fregene had from Adenuga, and life flows back into you, gloriously. Even if you eventually die (no man has power over that eventuality), you die a happy man. Thankful, rejoicing.
And you know what? After Adenuga’s emissaries saw Fregene, they didn’t want it publicized. Mum was the word, till it leaked out. A good leakage. And how many of such interventions have been made? Hundreds. Thousands. Innumerable. Quietly. Big Brother watches, and acts, inconspicuously. What your left hand does, don’t let the right know. This Adenuga!
President Buhari loves men like Adenuga. When he was emerging as possible President in the build up to the 2015 election, there were jitters in many sectors, including the business community. Would this staid, almost ascetic man from Daura let us be? Or would he come after us like an avenging angel? Won’t he come back with draconian laws of his military days, which would send us scampering for cover?
Source: The Nation
