Mention Adenuga, and the next thing that comes to mind is Globacom
(Global Communications). But is this well-fed African all about Glo?
Worth a head-spinning $4.3 billion, Otunba (Dr.) Michael Adeniyi
Agbolade Ishola Adenuga (Jnr) is the 2nd richest man in Nigeria,
according to Forbes. That makes him the richest Yoruba on earth (I once
wrote a piece on Deinde Fernandez but he has refused to disclose his
assets).
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 29thApril, 1953. The Bull will turn 60 in about two
months when his 682-paged biography Mike Adenuga: African Business Guru
(written by award-winning Mike Awoyinfa & Dimgba Igwe) will be
launched. 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. Now, don’t ask me if I want to build one too…lol! He also has a
mansion in Ibadan and he named it ‘The Gold Digger’s Place’.
The billionaire is a descendant of Pariola, a very wealthy and
influential female trader born in the mid-19th 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. Worefa, 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. I must chip in here that in November 2011, 500 pensioners of
Conoil engaged Adenuga in a tussle over unpaid pensions. #AneyeToto!
There is something about Adenuga that caught my attention: 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. #Iyaniwura.
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. #HustlingThins
#IgboroORerin!
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? Anyways, just saying…lol!
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.”
In one of his very rare interviews, he narrates how he met an
Austrian businessman to Newswatch: “I went on a trip to New York and
when I was coming back, I missed my flight, being on British Airways, so
I had to fly Swiss Air and I sat next to the owner of one of the
biggest lace manufacturing factories in Austria. So, we were talking and
he got me interested in importing laces, and all sorts of things.”
Okay, you know why Iyaniwura had to point that out to you? Learn to
identify and utilize opportunities! Adenuga later reveals: “The secret
of my success is hard work, God’s blessings and luck.”
By 26, Michael ‘Aneye Toto’ Ishola was already a millionaire. Now,
chill. At this point, some critics will take him up saying that he
became fabulously wealthy by benefiting from the close and cosy links he
had with Nigerian military dictators. Well, that’s not a rumour.
Babangida’s oil minister, Professor Jubril Aminu came up with a policy
to grant licenses to individuals and encourage private sector
participation in oil exploration and exploitation. Otunba was one of the
first beneficiaries of the Petroleum Act (MKO Abiola of Summit Oil was
another). Upon getting his oil bloc prospecting license (OPL 113),
Adenuga went straight to work in the South Western Niger Delta Region
and in less than a year on 24th December, 1991, he struck oil in the
shallow (offshore) waters of Ondo State in his first oil well (named
Bella-1) becoming the first indigenous oil firm to do so. Other
Nigerians could not take the risk, and had sold off their licences to
expatriates. An incorrigible risk taker, he had hired an oil rig for $5
million BUT he recruited only Nigerian oil specialists to do the job (he
has always been a patriotic man). Since then, he has never looked back.
The first seed money that he used to start business was given to him by
his late mum. It was a modest sum but he used it judiciously.
#Iyaniwura.
At a point, he acted as a private middleman who got term-based oil
contracts from the Nigerian government in the name of Tradoil &
Crownway Enterprises while the UK-based Arcadia would handle the fuel
cargoes. He also built military barracks (and the Nigerian Defence
Academy, Kaduna with Lt. General Ipoola Alani Akinrinade’s younger
brother, Femi. Akinrinade, a former Chief of Army Staff, was the General
Officer Commanding, I Infantry Division, 1975-1979 at the time),
supplied the armed forces and the police with weapons while also working
as a distributor for Coca Cola, Nigerian Breweries, Cadbury, Guinness
and Continental Breweries. He was also a dealer for Peugeot Automobile
of France. For him, it was to ‘go into anything that gives me profit.’
With time, his fortune grew so amazingly that he was buoyant enough
to sink over $100 million into his own oil prospecting and drilling
company, the Consolidated Oil Company. This company, founded in 1990, is
the very first indigenous Nigerian company to discover, drill and
produce oil. And you know na, we are not talking of palm oil here….lol!
Thus, his fortunes are based on a tripod: telecommunications, oil &
gas and banking. He is also into real estate, food manufacturing &
processing (b*tter, cocoa cake and vegetable oil), domestic &
international market activities and aviation (not many know he is the
owner of Southern Airlines).
Under the General Sani Abacha regime, his Communication Investment
Limited (CIL) was given a conditional licence and frequencies to
operate. The licence has earlier been given to the Chagouris of Lebanon.
Obasanjo would later cancel all the approvals given to him by previous
governments. But a relentless fighter that he is, he told his men:
“Let’s go into this thing. Let us forget going to court and all that.
Let’s go under the new system and fight for the licence. We must fight
with everything we have to get the licence.” When he made a second
deposit of $20 million for Globacom licence, many scoffed at him and he
was told to stop chasing shadows. His brother, Demola says of those dark
days: “Mike lost $20 million, but he never lost hope. He never gave up
hope. He kept hope alive; that is one thing about my brother: he is an
eternal optimist. Something kept propelling him not to give up on the
matter. He pursued it and he eventually got the licence.”
For those who believe he is a proxy for IBB, sorry to burst your
bubble. They’ve been friends since the 1980s and have remained so till
date. Here is what the top-of-the-hill-residing, gap-toothed General has
to say about the widespread rumour: “We meet, we talk, like the good
friends that we are. But I also have one policy that governs my
relationship with friends that are very close to me. Whether it was
M.K.O Abiola, whether it is Mike Adenuga, and probably five or so
others, I don’t get involved in their businesses. You can go and ask
them.” The General went ahead to describe Mike Adenuga as a very loyal
and reliable friend, and one who never forgets favours, unlike many who
abandoned him when he left power in August 1993. He states: “When I left
office, a few of my friends honestly stood by me and I remain eternally
grateful to them. Mike is one of them. Another man who doesn’t want his
name mentioned any time I speak on this issue is one of them. What I
like about them is this: they appreciate whatever little effort you did
for them and so, they don’t abandon you.
Some people will tell you, ‘ah, when I was in the office, a lot of
people used to come to me, now I left office, you don’t find anybody.’
This is the Nigerian factor for you. But these characters remain close
and I honestly remain grateful.”
When his mother died, he gave her a most befitting burial in Ijebu
Igbo, Ogun State on 13th September, 2005. A carnival-like ceremony, it
was stormed by former President Obasanjo who buzzed in a helicopter
(that man and effizy sha…lol!) and when he entered the church, no one
else was allowed to come in except Titi Atiku Abubakar (wife of former
Vice President Atiku Abubakar and WOTCLEF Founder). Other guests: Aliko
Dangote and Femi Otedola. Governors of Lagos, Ogun, Taraba, Bauchi,
Niger, Kaduna and Imo also gave a new definition to the Yoruba parlance
of olowonshoreolowo (the wealthy always mingle with one another). Even
IBB showed up at the wake-keeping. But the Awujale of Ijebuland, who is
the Paramount Ruler of Ijebus was not able to attend because it is
against the tradition for the Kabiyesi to lay his eyes on a corpse. His
staff of office was placed on her hearse. Encased in a casket made of
gold, Mama Adenuga was laid to rest in a marble grave.
He faced a lot of troubles in the hands of fellow Ogun dude and
former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. In his efforts aimed
at procuring a telecommunications licence, he was thoroughly humiliated
by Baba Iyabo (some felt he was being persecuted because of his ally,
Atiku Abubakar who was then slugging it out with OBJ).
The following scenario occurred in Aso Rock Presidential Villa when
Obasanjo still held sway: “Okay, I would show you that I am playing God
and kuku (ultimately) destroy you once and for all” said Obasanjo; a
threat to which the frightened and weather-beaten Adenuga replied with
his knees crawling on the floors in Aso Rock and his palms stretched
full length in the charged, steamy atmosphere: “Sir, I am your son.
Please don’t be angry with me.” Obasanjo: “I shouldn’t be angry? Why
shouldn’t I be angry? See you now. You would come and prostrate and when
you leave here, tomorrow, you would go and be publishing your adverts,
abusing me. No be so (Is that not true)?” Adenuga lost $20 million (N3.2
billion) when he was denied the license not even after he had donated a
multi-million naira library to Obasanjo’s Bells University of
Technology in Ota. But he didn’t give up. He applied again.
He would send people to beg OBJ and on occasions, he would prostrate
to the Ebora of Owu as a Yorubaman but the former president would stare
into his eyes and thunder: ‘I would not give you my licence!’ He would
then mutter some curses. But Adenuga was undettered. He was always full
of hope and optimism (that is important, I tell you). At another point,
IBB tried to intervene on the issue of Adenuga’s licence with Obasanjo.
The Commander-in-Chief was enraged, and accused IBB of using Adenuga as a
screen to protect his vested interests. IBB denied the allegations and
told Obasanjo that the so-called security report on the issue was a
figment of the imagination of his EFCC boys. Obasanjo practically
ordered IBB out of Aso Rock, and shouted at him as he left ‘‘Get out,
just go!’ ‘. Still in his yet to be released biography, he talks of how
Obasanjo demanded a sum of £ 1 million donation (N250 million) from him
for his Presidential Library Project. Adenuga had no choice but to drop a
quarter of a billion naira as the Chief Launcher.
In the book, the scenario was described thus: “Adenuga had gone to
Abeokuta with Dr. Yemi Ogunbuyi for the occasion and the duo had decided
to go to greet Baba first. But they were intercepted by a man in a
white Kaftan robe who turned out to be Obasanjo’s cousin. The cousin
politely said Baba wanted to know how much Adenuga was going to donate.
Incidentally, Adenuga had raised this question with Ogunbiyi on their
way coming. ‘How much do you think I should donate to this thing?’
‘I don’t really know may be N100 million,’ Ogunbiyi suggested.
‘That’s exactly how much I have in mind,’ declared Adenuga.
“Now the question from Obasanjo’s emissary was curious and unusual,
he thought, but nevertheless, he had no choice but to inform the man
that he planned to donate N100 million, thinking the man would be very
impressed. Wrong. Obasanjo’s cousin brought out a piece of paper and
handed it to Adenuga. ‘Sorry sir, but Baba says you can’t donate less
than that amount,’ the man had written.
“Inside the piece of paper was the sum of N250 million scribbled in
Obasanjo’s handwriting with a red pen. ‘No problem,’ Adenuga told the
emissary, wondering if others were subjected to the same experience, but
also knowing he dared not ask anybody, lest he be betrayed. He later
showed Ogunbiyi the piece of paper. ‘I’ll give anything he wants,’ he
told Ogunbiyi. ‘I’m afraid of that man o. N250 million is about the
price of an oil well,’ Adenuga added.”
Never far from the corridors of power, he was arrested in July 2006
by operatives of the Economic & Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Mobile policemen and security agents numbering about 70 were mobilized
to arrest the titanic mogul. In a commando style reminiscent of the US
Navy Seals, they stormed his Lagos residence, pulled down his gate with
hammers, generators, welding equipment and other heavy machinery, and
flew him to Abuja.
He was questioned for some hours before he was released, then he
visited the Aso Villa. What actually transpired that day, only Chineke
knows but he was so traumatized and when reports were coming that he may
be rearrested and prosecuted, he left for London and did not come back
until a new government was in place. He has had his brushes with the
law, and at a time, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) sealed up
his oil companies for allegedly evading taxes of about N89 billion. Some
believe he, alongside other tycoons are stifling Nigeria’s development
while some people sharply disagree highlighting his contributions to the
economy. What do you think?
At this juncture, it is worthy of mention that Otunba Adenuga is one
of the most heavily-guarded billionaires in Nigeria. Some reports
indicate that he is actually the most heavily-guarded. You will never
miss his retinue of fierce-looking bodyguards. He has been described as
extremely paranoid about his personal security but you will know one
reason for this later on. A man who guards his privacy jealously, his
Victoria Island office is underground and he was very rarely seen in
public until recently.
His biographers say of him: “Yes, Mike Adenuga is more of a spirit. A
spirit who is hardly seen in public, who hardly grants media
interviews, who jealously and zealously guards his privacy, who shuns
publicity of any type and who even in the past, paid PR and media
consultants full-time to ensure that stories about him and his pictures
didn’t appear in the media at all… For Mike Adenuga, elusiveness is the
word. He is the “Invisible Man” of fiction turned real. A man who’s
always playing hard to get. Now you see him, now you don’t. The fact is
you don’t even see him at all…”
Still on his elusiveness, Soyinka narrates his experience, calling
him a magician: “I can’t remember when last I saw him or spoke to him.
Adenuga has a vanishing habit. He would just disappear.” At a time,
there was supposed to be a meeting with the Bull in London but WS never
saw him and he left in anger. Soyinka continues: “All I know is that I
see Globacom advertisement everywhere. I also know that Adenuga supports
sports, especially football. I wish he could do more for the arts.
I have sat him down once. I told him: ‘Listen, you have the money and
the enthusiasm, but we have the ideas. Let’s sit down and work together
and let us do more for the arts. He would agree, but I said, he would
then disappear. He has this vanishing habit. My wish for Globacom is
that they would do more for the arts. I feel envious about the amount
Globacom is committing to sports. I wish I could get his attention
sufficiently to do even half for the arts. If Adenuga is reading this,
he should stop running away. He should come and sit down with me so that
we can do something for the arts.” Otunba later apologized
(sweet-mouth..lol) and they made up.
Stanley Ebochukwu, Editor-in-Chief of BusinessDay (I like that paper
die! ) says: Adenuga is somebody one would call an enigma. You can’t see
him, if you want to see him. If you call him, he can’t take your calls.
But if he wants to see you, he would see you. And if he wants you to
see him, you would see him. Most businessmen tend to behave that way,
because of the fear of people.
But if you think that is all about his disappearing acts, listen to
what his fellow billionaire and Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote has
to say about him: “I haven’t seen Mike for a very long time. I don’t
have his number. I don’t know where to reach him. Even if you put a gun
on my head and you ask me to lead you to Mike, I will never be able to.
He is just nowhere to be found. Mike is a mystery to me.” The most
surprising thing about this is that both of them have their residences
on the same lane in Victoria Island. Amazing!
The Evil Genius and Nigeria’s only military president, General
Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida had this to say about the suave and debonair
Ijebu billionaire: ‘One thing stands out uniquely about it (Globacom).
It is the brain of a Nigerian. He is really trying to make it the
leading telecommunication outfit, not only in Nigeria, but also in
Africa. Adenuga is a very serious businessman. And he is not a
flamboyant man who goes to sleep, folds his arms, saying business is
doing well.
No, he works very hard. I think he is worthy of emulation.’ #Gbam!
Una don hear am with your ears. Nobel Laureate and also fellow Ogunite
(abi how I go call am na…lol!), Wole Akinwande Soyinka also gave his
full support: ‘He is a young entrepreneur I have come to admire. I like
his drive. He sought me out when he was to begin his Globacom business. I
thereafter made enquiries about him. I was actually told by somebody
whose judgment I respect that Mike Adenuga is somebody with enormous
drive and ideas. And he said I should give him as much help as I could. I
checked him out and I discovered that he likes challenges. He has the
drive to deliver.’
His elder brother, Otunba Demola Adenuga says of him:
“Mike is the star of the family. Not just our family but the whole of
Nigeria. I see him as my benefactor. I should not be ashamed to say
that. He has helped me in all facets of life.”
In another piece written by Mike Awoyinfa and Dimgba Igwe (I say the
finest authorities on him), they narrate the words of one of Adenuga’s
closest associates, Dr. Rafiu Ladipo: “He takes risks and he is ready to
stick it to the end. He never gives up. Is there anything he touches
that doesn’t turn into gold? He is such a determined person. He is
always charging like a bull. When he wakes up in the morning, he thinks
about his business and nothing but his business. He is not a socialite.
You can never catch him attending parties. He works Saturday, Sunday,
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday…He goes
on and on like that facing his business.” Reminds me of another
billionaire in Nigeria who works for 18 hours a day. Yes, you guessed
right.
Well, just like a raging bull after a doomed matador, he didn’t stop
his entrepreneurial triumph in the oil industry. In February 1990, he
made a bold entry into the banking industry. He floated Equatorial Trust
Bank (ETB). And later on, he launched his biggest and most ambitious
project ever, Globacom which drastically crashed the rates of phone
calls (I still find it very hard to forgive MTN for calling at N60 per
minute!).
His calm mien belies an underlying aggressiveness and relentless
determination of a tycoon. He can also be very ruthless with lazy and
incompetent workers (if na you too nko?). According to Mohammed Jameel,
Glo’s Chief Operating Officer (COO): ‘Two, three days after joining
Globacom, he called me to his office. The first day I met him, he was
very quiet. And I didn’t want to say anything.
I just watched him. Of course, a lot of my colleagues were there. I
was very impressed with him. He was planning to launch the brand
Globacom. I saw in him a lot of passion. I saw in him a lot of
commitment. I saw in him a lot of vision. He wanted the brand to
succeed. And the kind of figures he was talking about in terms of
subscribers and putting in infrastructure did really surprise me. Jameel
continues: ‘He is a very successful entrepreneur who can turn any
venture into good. He is a very, very aggressive manager. He is a very
target-oriented manager.
He is a manager who has a huge vision. He always thinks big. If you
are hearing him for the first time, you would think this man is just
joking. But he is not joking. Whatever he says, he is determined to
achieve it. He is very passionate about whatever you do with the
business you do for the brand. Even things like branding the street, he
gets into the details to get things right. And he doesn’t take instant
or spontaneous decisions. He has to think it across. He doesn’t take
decisions on his own. He respects the views of others. (something a lot
of people have to learn, especially those with coins and small small
change who at the slightest opportunity, insult others who disagree with
them. I added that ajasa myself!). He calls all of us and gives us the
opportunity to air our own views, share our thoughts, and share our
ideas. He also makes his own input and we end up coming up with a
collective decision. He lends his ears and mind to whatever is being
talked about; irrespective of whether it is the COO or the person
employed in the customer service.” #Gbam! Una don hear am again. Shey e
ring abi make I redial am? #Lmao!
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 the delectable Joyce Titilola Adenuga (nee Adewale) (see
pictures on our website). Okay, there is an interesting story here. She
had come for a job at Devcom Merchant Bank owned by Otunba when he was
enchanted by her natural beauty and endowments. According to Adenuga’s
early friend, associate and fellow IBB boy, Orji Uzor Kalu, he and
Otunba had a slang for heavily-endowed women.
‘Burkina Faso’, with Burkina standing for the heavy ‘fronts’ and the
‘Faso’ for the superloaded ‘rears’. #StopRollingYaEyes,AreYouALearner?
LOL! Adenuga did not prefer women with Burkina but remained ‘Fasoless’
(chai! Burkina Faso don suffer…lol! #AFCON). Baba prefers the complete
package. Otunba was titillated by Miss Titi, and today, the rest is
history.
By porschclassy.com
1.
Nigeria is home to seven percent (7%) of the total languages spoken on
earth. Taraba state alone has more languages than 30 African countries.
The importance of this fact is appreciated when one understands that
language is the “soul of culture” (as Ngugi wa Thiongo famously said).
It is language that births the proverbs, riddles, stories and other
aspects of culture that give us identity. UNESCO puts forward that the
world’s languages represents an extraordinary wealth of creativity.
Linguistic diversity correlates with cultural diversity. This means
Nigeria can look inwards and drive itself to become the greatest hub for
cultural tourism on earth, and consequently empower its citizens
tremendously in the process.
