THE STORY OF A HARDWORKING FATHER (MIKE ADENUGA) AND HIS CHILDREN.

Worth a head-spinning $4.3 billion, Otunba (Dr.) Michael Adeniyi Agbolade Ishola Adenuga (Jnr) is the 2^nd richest man in Nigeria, according to Forbes. That makes him the richest Yoruba on earth.

This reclusive billionaire has one rule that no one can change: he will only get across to you when there is the need for it, but you cannot get across to him. And when he wants to get across to you, he does everything possible to track you down. Nobody in his office gets letters or invitation cards without earlier notice irrespective of where they originated from. You just can’t reach him, and if you work for a courier company, it is nearly-impossible for you to deliver a package to his office. You feel the swagger? That was just an intro, let’s roll!

Although his roots are in Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State, he was born in Ibadan, Oyo State on 29^thApril, 1953.The billionaire is a descendant of Pariola, a very wealthy and influential female trader born in the mid-19^th century. Apart from being the ancestor of the Adenugas, Pariola would also produce the Adetonas, the family of the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona.

Upon his birth, his father was so overjoyed at having another son that he named him after himself. His elder brother, Demola explained that he was not given the name because as at the time of his birth, the fad was to bear purely Nigerian names. Otunba was the last child so his father took the opportunity to name him after himself. He would later die in 1993 in a car accident and his son did a superlative re-burial for him in 2005 with one of the most expensive coffins on earth.

While at IGS, he and his brother (Demola) were nicknamed ‘Ad Belly’ for their huge stature and protruding bellies. Both used to cross the Ogunpa River (which they called River Jordan) whenever they felt like sneaking out of school. They took the huge frame after their parents. Demola was more of his dad while Mike took everything, including his business skills, from his mum. As a child, and under the supervision of his mum, he hawked goat feed, and picked up the street wisdom that came with it.

Although Mike was more fashionable and even introduced his elder brother to the latest wears and perfumes, he still had to seek his help when it came to academic matters. His mother had always been quite cautious about the adventurous and somewhat rascally nature of Mike. She really did not want him to go abroad to study & wanted him to join his brother who was studying biochemistry at the University of Ibadan. She reported him to a commissioner of police in Oyo State then but he encouraged Madam Juliana to let him go, perhaps, that was God’s plan for him. His mind was made up. He was leaving Nigeria. And he left. When he also wanted to dabble into the very risky oil and gas sector and do what no other Nigerian had done before (drill oil), she made her fears known again thinking it was a senseless gamble. He calmed her down, and he would later announce to her excitedly: ‘Mama, we found oil!’ Today, his Conoil PLC is the largest indigenous oil production company in Nigeria operating six producing oil blocks in addition to owning ¼ of the Nigeria/Sao Tome Joint Development Zone Block 4, which has been proven to have almost one billion barrels of crude oil and about one trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Some people, like Dele Momodu, his mentee, believe Adenuga is actually the richest man in Africa.

Mike Adenuga was so big at birth that he was called John Bull in the hospital. His parents: Chief Michael Agbolade Adenuga Snr. was a school teacher while his mum Chief (Mrs.) Juliana Oyindamola Adenuga (nee Onashile of Okesopin, Ijebu Igbo) was a businesswoman. She got married at the age of 17, learnt sewing and succeeded greatly as a dressmaker. Well-educated, she was made the Iya Alaje of Ijebu-Igbo and the Yeye Oba of Ijebuland. He studied at the Ibadan Grammar School (IGS) before jetting out to the US to read Business Administration with a focus on Marketing. While at Ibadan, he was very impressed with the Cocoa House (then the tallest building in Africa) built by the Awolowo government. He dreamt of having such an edifice of his own one day, and today, we all know Mike Adenuga Towers. Located on Adeola Odeku Street, the 13-storey edifice which took him 13 years to erect dazzles with gold-on-granite finishing. You just can’t miss it! The first time I saw his building, I was mesmerized. It has a landing pad for a helicopter and was opened in 2004 by Atiku Abubakar. 

There is something about Adenuga : he would never disobey his mother. The late matriarch had enormous influence over her son, and the only time he went against her directive was the oil business issue. Friends say that whenever there was any disagreement, just mention his mother’s name, and he would mellow down. Such was the degree of tremendous respect he has for his mother.

While studying in the 1970s, he had to survive and raise his school fees by working as a security man and a taxi driver, an extremely dangerous job for a blackman in the crime-ridden boroughs of New York -Staten Island, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. His curiosity in Nigeria where a little Mike tugged the steering wheel with drivers amused them, and they taught him how to drive. This, he made use of as a means of survival. If you are thinking he drove those shiny yellow New York cabs, you are wrong. He drove an unregistered jalopy and had to ply areas where the police would not harass him. It was as a taxi driver that he met a man named Dele Giwa, who was also surviving as a cab driver.

Giwa would later be blown out of existence in 1986 by Nigeria’s first parcel bomb. As a student in America, Adenuga suffered and laboured for months as he was not getting a kobo from home. He knew the consequences, faced the challenges and triumphed. He might not have finished schooling without his extra efforts. Did I tell you that he also worked as a waiter and a mortuary attendant in the US? Yes, he did. And by the time he came back to Nigeria then, he was with a bushy beard.

As a student in North Western Oklahoma State University, the school slogan was ‘Ride With Pride’, and he would later transform it to become ‘Glo With Pride’, when he launched Globacom.

After graduating, he headed straight for Naija, and without wasting any time, started utilizing all he learnt. He did not seek any paid employment but took the risky road of entrepreneurship. He took over the management of the family’s small sawmill in Ogun State and was also selling removable car stereos at the same time as he had noticed the problem caused by the rampant theft of car stereos. Civil servants awash with the Udoji Commission salary raise were buying cars but thieves would do away with the car stereos. With Adenuga’s stereos, people could then park their cars, detach the stereos and go to bed. Simple. And he made cool cash. If you want to make money too, look around you, find a pressing problem and create a much-needed solution.

By the age of 22, he had delved into the business of commodities, general merchandise, construction, importation (of mainly sawmill equipment, tomato paste, wines, beer and textile materials (especially lace) made in Austria). Why is my mischievous mind thinking that good fabrics and chilled beer are integral components of an Ijebu owambe parry.

Believe it or not, there was a time when Adenuga was so reclusive that it was nearly impossible for you to see even his picture in the newspapers. He even hired consultants to blank him out of the media and the general public. His daughter, Bella, corroborates this: “My dad has always been a kind of quiet person. It was Globacom that shot him into the limelight.”

He actually saved the National Oil & Chemical Marketing Company (NOLCHEM) from the jaws of death. He bought it and transformed it into what many of us now know as Conoil Nigeria place, one of the most profitable entities in Nigeria. NOLCHEM was the first indigenous petroleum products marketing company, and the current Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Adeyemi Ajimobi was a Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, he joined in 1979.

He is divorced from Fola, his first wife and the court awarded him the custody of the children and even the pregnancy Fola was carrying at that time. She was immensely pained by the court’s judgment. Today, he is married to Joyce Titilola Adenuga (nee Adewale). She had come for a job at Devcom Merchant Bank owned by Otunba when he was enchanted by her natural beauty.  

Chief Michael Adenuga is the father of eight children. Read about them below.

•  Ms. Adetutu Oyindamola Emilia (first child & daughter, sociology-graduate, Yoruba-movie addict, former executive board member (Conoil), concierge shopping expert, & Atlanta, Georgia-based fashion retailer. One of her most memorable days was when she met Christian Louboutin, the French luxury shoe and bag designer who autographed her emerald shoes in New York. She was so overjoyed she found it hard to wear them. She loves cooking and a quiet life). 
  
• Prince Michael ‘Bobo ‘Babajide (his first son and executive director, Conoil). Hear him: “I have a lot of respect for my Dad, but I’ve always been very ambitious, I’ve always had my own dreams and aspirations in different ventures. For instance, when I was in the university, I took classes in Filmmaking because I have plans to go into film production in future. But for now, that is not in line with the family business. However, that’s something I want to do later in life as a person. So, in addition to what the old man has been able to put on ground, I also have these goals I want to achieve and I believe that one must give them a try.” On how he manages to combine his dad’s and his own private business, he says: “It’s very possible; it can be done. Don’t forget I’m still a director in Conoil; I just want to take some time out to launch the business. When you bring a business and people accept it, all you do is to create more awareness and ensure that it gets to the consumers through adverts and promotional campaigns. Once that is done, you have little work to do. Meanwhile, we can still tie everything into the family business, but this time around, I want to get the business running first.
  
• Tunde ‘Paddy’Abolade. A car freak, he is the Group Executive Director, Globacom. He sure cherishes the limelight. While cruising out of Awolowo Boat Club in his black Porsche Carrera, he once gave out a sum of N5,000 to a physically-challenged beggar. 
  
•  Abimbola Beenu
• Belinda ‘Bella’ Olubunmi Ajoke (got married to Jameel Adetokunboh Disu in a fairytale wedding in April 2010. The first time they met, she introduced herself as ‘Bunmi Marquis’, and did not reveal her identity as Otunba’s gal), she is also the Group Executive Director, and one of his buildings. Bella Place on Ligali Ayorinde Street, Victoria Island Extension was named after her. He did name a lot of things after her. Once obese (runs in the family), she said she was able to shed the excess fat because of the tenacity she learnt from her dad who used to call her Benbe (chubby). She says he doesn’t joke with his exercises, and hits the gym by 1.am everyday, he used to play squash a lot but stopped after an accident. She entered university at the age of 14. Now Mrs Bella Jameel Disu.
  
• Eniola ‘EnnyBoy’,
• Folashade ‘ShadyGirl’,
• Adeniyi ‘NiyiBoy’.

But there is one thing their father does not do to his children: over-indulge them. He taught them to be hard working and trained them to use their brains and not rely on anyone. His daughter, Bella, very much attests to this. And with all his towering wealth, his friends describe him as a shy and humble personality, and would bow down to most people while greeting.

What a story. What a father. What a family. If our readers are to take away anything from this story, take away the fact that Mike Adenuga started from a Humble background and believed so much in his dream. It is also clear that he is a man that loves his family and works hard for them to have the best in life. Even though some of the children despite being hard working are leaving on the fast lane, we can only pray they slow down on their excesses and live to please God. Getting an opportunity to make wealth is one thing, converting them to actual wealth is another. Indeed the Bull has horns for such conversion. Let this story motivate you readers. Glo wherever you go. Become your dream.