MIKE ADENUGA: The Iroko That Casts No Shadow Twice – By Bode Opeseitan
(A national heirloom to commemorate Dr. Mike Adenuga’s 73rd birthday)
In the hush of April 29, 2026, as Mike Adenuga turns 73, Nigeria does not merely mark a birthday, it contemplates a phenomenon.
His story has long escaped the confines of biography. What do you say of a man who built a telecom and energy empire while speaking so sparingly in public that each utterance becomes an event?
Yes, there was that rare press conference in Paris in 2005 when Globacom secured the CAF Awards title rights, but even then, he spoke like a man allergic to spectacle. His silence is not absence, it is architecture. His discretion is not retreat, it is design. He is a man who moves like vapour, yet leaves monuments in his wake. This is why Dele Momodu, one of Africa’s most iconic celebrity publishers, calls him “The Spirit of Africa”, a presence felt more than seen, revered more than revealed.
To understand him, one must leave balance sheets and enter the forest. There, in the Yoruba cosmology, stands the Iroko, Milicia excelsa, a tree so vast it is said to house spirits, so enduring it outlives dynasties. King Sunny Ade once sang:
Gbogbo igi lo’n be ni’gbo
K’ato f’Iroko joba
Iroko ni baba igi…
(Every tree was present in the forest before the Iroko was crowned king. The Iroko is the father of trees.)
The Iroko does not grow fast, but it grows forever. It can reach 50 meters in height, its trunk over 2 meters wide, its roots deep enough to defy drought, its timber prized for bridges, boats, and temples. It is not merely a tree; it is a covenant with time. Like Adenuga, it does not bloom to be seen, it endures to be remembered. And like the Iroko, he is not just tall in stature but in consequence, casting a shade that shelters industries, families, and futures. His recent partnership with TotalEnergies, an audacious asset swap unlocking deepwater LNG potential, signals not just commercial foresight, but a sovereign commitment to Nigeria’s energy independence.
What sets Adenuga apart is not what he avoids, but what he embodies. He does not curate visibility; he curates value. He does not chase proximity to power, though he lends his full weight to those entrusted with it. Instead, he spends his time building the infrastructure that makes power possible. Fiber-optic cables that stitch continents. Oil blocks that deepen national reserves. Payrolls that stretch across the continent. LNG fields that promise energy sovereignty. He is a rare African billionaire whose mystique is not a veil but a virtue, a refusal to dilute essence for applause. His legacy is not in the volume of his voice, but in the velocity of his vision.
A PLEA TO PERMANENCE
And now, a gentle appeal to the Iroko himself.
As you enter your 74th year, Dr. Adenuga, may we ask that you plant one more seed, not in oil or telecoms, but in memory. Let one of your most enduring gifts be the establishment of a Mike Adenuga Chair of Indigenous Enterprise and Legacy Studies at the University of Lagos, the University of Ibadan, or the Lagos Business School. Let it be a sanctuary for studying the intellectual DNA of Nigeria’s most profound business icons: Chief Timothy Adeola Odutola, Candido Da Rocha, Sir Mobolaji Bank-Anthony, Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu, Chief Shafi Edu, Alhaji Alhassan Dantata, Chief Lawrence Omole, Chief Isaac Ojo Ajanaku, Olorogun Michael Ibru, Chief Salami Agbaje, Alhaji Mai Deribe, Chief S.B. Bakare, Chief Augustine Ilodibe, M.K.O. Abiola, Sir Kessington Adebukunola Adebutu, Aliko Dangote, Arthur Eze and Dr. Cletus Ibeto. Let us ask: What made them different? What cultural, spiritual, or strategic codes did they carry? What can we extract, not just for case studies, but for nation-building?
This Chair would not be a monument to nostalgia. It would be a living curriculum, a repository of excellence, a blueprint for adaptation. It would teach young Nigerians that greatness is not a fluke, but a formula. That wealth, when rooted in vision and service, becomes legacy. That the Iroko is not just a tree, it is a philosophy.
Let this be your intellectual bequest to the forest: a place where future giants come to learn how the first ones stood.
- Opeseitan is an ex-staff of Globacom
