To achieve the first, he supervised a discretionary oil licence bid round. At the end 11 Nigerian businessmen who had achieved success in other areas were issued licences. One of them was named Mike Adenuga. He was 37 years old and had become a millionaire selling soft drinks and lace materials. The son of a teacher father and business woman mother, he had earned two degrees in America where friends say he drove a taxi to augment what his parents sent him.
One year after the licence round, Mike Adenuga’s Consolidated Oil (now known as Conoil) was first among the 11 to hit first oil and in commercial quantities. Conoil quickly validated the federal government’s thinking that Nigerians could play big in the oil and gas industry if given the opportunity.
Thirty two years down the line, Conoil is the stand-out success story from that exercise with six oil producing blocks highlighting Adenuga’s doggedness, diligence and entrepreneurial acumen. Conoil engine oils and lubes are nationally recognized as some of the most pocket-friendly in the market in a clear instance of the company adhering to the business principle and brand purpose of putting people over profit.
On Friday April 29th Dr. Mike Adeniyi Adenuga Jr, GCON, mercurial businessman, quiet philanthropist, serial entrepreneur, Africa’s second richest man and one of the most garlanded Africans in France marked 69 years on planet earth. The occasion was marked in the public domain with outpourings of tributes riffing on his business acumen, innovative business approach and large heartedness.
The occasion of this birthday however provides a good opportunity for one to look past the man friends and foes like to call “The Bull” in order to critically analyse his place and significance in Nigeria’s business ecosystem.
Credit: Vanguard Newspaper.
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