Senate President Lawan’s senatorial nomination bid and the earlier Imo State Governorship election are two recent cases whose controversial outcomes have continued to annoy many people including retired and serving judges. A third case that may have such lasting impact is the controversy concerning what a candidate must score in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory as a condition for becoming president.  According to Section 134 of the Nigerian Constitution 1999, a candidate can only win a presidential election in Nigeria if he scores majority of votes at the election which must in addition not be “less than one quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory Abuja.”

Public understanding of the provision has remained contentious. Rather than joining those making premature comments on the subject, this article hypothesizes that head or tail, the electoral importance of Abuja’s hegemony is not one that can easily be discountenanced. If the judiciary decides that it is not mandatory for any candidate to win in the territory, the consequences of the decision may not be less than the impact of a contrary decision. It is therefore a battle that must get to the Supreme Court for the most senior judges of the land to conscientiously examine and interrogate. Thus, efforts must be made to prevent the subject from becoming one of those which erode the integrity of our justice system. For this reason, this is not a subject to be left to judges alone. Civil society groups need to undertake public enlightenment schemes that can prepare citizens to appreciate the rationale for whatever decision is eventually made.

Interestingly, some of the arguments so far canvassed concerning the subject are incorrect. The common belief for instance that the Supreme Court had in the past pronounced on the matter is false. In fact, the Judiciary has had no cause to deal directly with the question of the 25 percent of votes in the FCT because in all the presidential elections in Nigeria since 1999, each winner always met the requirement. It has therefore not come before the judiciary as a ground for reviewing any person’s victory. The presidential election of February 25, 2023 where the candidate declared by INEC as president-elect did not win up to 25 percent of votes cast in the FCT is in actual fact the first time the matter is coming up for determination. Those who have already formed an opinion that there is a precedent to be followed might be misled into violence if their expectation is not met. They need to watch it.

Is Abuja one of the states of the federation? This is a major question of interest to many but it is not a new question. The judiciary has answered it before, yet the question has refused to go away. To imagine that those still raising it are unaware that the question had been answered before by the judiciary is simplistic. On two occasions: the cases instituted by Okoyede (2001) and Musa Baba-Panya (2015), saw our courts affirming that Abuja is one of the states of Nigeria. The decisions were hinged on Section 299 of the constitution which provides that Abuja should be treated as if it were one of the states of the federation. There are several reasons why the decision looks suspect. First, what immediately follows the provision suggests that there is a limit to when, where and how the provision is applicable. This is because if Abuja is to be treated as a state at all times, it would not have been necessary for the provision to immediately detail how the legislative, executive and judicial functions of Abuja were to be handled. They would have just been left to run as states handle theirs. 

A second reason why not everyone is persuaded that the drafters of the Nigerian Constitution intended to make Abuja a state of the federation is their failure to change their other provision which says that Nigeria shall have 36 states. Why couldn’t they simply say 37? In addition, the same Constitution formally describes Abuja as the Federal Capital Territory(FCT).  There is also the issue of whether an entity is exactly same as one that is treated like it. One school of thought provides an interesting analogy; that if a man choses to treat his stepson as if he is his son, it does not change the fact that a stepson and a son are not the same in all respects – a stepson can never successfully claim to be the biological son of a stepfather simply because the stepfather treats  him as a son. Although the executive is known for deciding on which judgments to obey, it does not help the case of Abuja as a state that judicial decisions directing it to be so treated have never been obeyed by successive administrations.

To make the attainment of 25 percent of the votes cast in a presidential election mandatory for Abuja treats it differently from other states. Perhaps that is a strong point because states are supposed to be equal in the eyes of the law. But that is not the only case where Abuja is virtually a stand-alone entity. Indeed, there are too many things found in a state that are nowhere in Abuja. It has neither its own governor nor a legislature. The president serves as its governor while the national assembly makes laws on its behalf. Why would such an entity be regarded as a state when it does not have several things that states have? What appears obvious is that although Abuja is not a state, it is a special Nigerian territory that can attract certain provisions such as the 25 percent requirement. To start with, it is the only part of Nigeria where citizens especially civil servants are attracted from all over the country through the principle of federal character to cohabit. Every presidential candidate ought to be able to score just 25percent of votes cast in such a location of diverse citizens that is a miniature Nigeria

It is also important to note that for a candidateto be elected as governor of a state, such a candidate must score 25 percent of the votes cast in at least two-thirds of what makes up a state. Considering that no one disagrees with the fact that the president is the governor of Abuja, is it too much for Abuja to be a mandatory place where such a president should meet that requirement? Many would agree that Abuja where a president stands-in as governor ought to be where the 25 percent requirement is not negotiable. Otherwise, there would be no basis for a president who could not attain that basic requirement to be imposed on the people of Abuja who apparently didn’t vote for the particular president. Ordinarily, this should not give room to debate, but unfortunately the subject has been so politicised that supporters of different parties are not likely to take any decision on it lightly. This is why the judiciary needs to take a comprehensive look at the subject once and for all. 

At the same time, a decision which categorically makes Abuja, the 37th state is likely to agitate those who would see it as an attempt to give more states to the North. In 1967 when General Yakubu Gowon turned Nigeria into 12 states, the North and the South had 6 states each. Some Nigerians didn’t think it was fair toin later years give  the North 19 of the 36 states, leaving the South with only 17. To elevate Abuja to a state thereby increasing the gap between the North and South respectively to 20: 17, is perhaps not the best way to attain the much desired unity in the country.  Our apex court can help stabilize the polity by halting the situation in which our constitution specifically provides for 36 states, yet we seem to have 37. The lessons of two-third of 19 states which we faced in 1979, ought to have persuaded us away from a figure that is odd-numbered. Otherwise, problems of two-thirds of 37 which await us in future can be resolved now.

In a tragic sense, Sudan is somehow lucky. Its leading political figures, who also happen to be combatant generals, have not hidden their differences beneath a façade of mutual deceit.  They have instead allowed their differences to blossom into an open bloody confrontation. The two top generals who also happen to be the top political citizens of a nation with many hidden wounds have spared no effort in coming into the open to display their differences and clashing ambitions. These differences also happen to reflect the many hidden complications in Sudan’s national life: religious differences, economic interests, political ambition, a politicized military, big power transferred aggression and the aggressive strategic goals of big powers.

When an animosity between two rotten warlords blossoms into a shooting war, it opens the path to either a national meltdown or some kind of settlement. It is either the stronger force subdues the weaker and dictates the terms of a peaceful settlement or an equilibrium of forces is achieved in which case peace through negotiation becomes the only path open to all. In the next couple of weeks, Sudan may have to migrate from the present rage of clashing warlords to a full civil war, yet another in a series since after independence in 1956.

In a little over a week, Khartoum, the capital, has been transformed from a scraggy sprawling city in the sun into the battlefield of an undeclared civil war. A contest for power supremacy between two corrupt ambitious generals has reopened the window for familiar military adventurism. The bloody rivalry between the two topmost senior military and political leaders has exploded into a real combat situation between factions of the Sudanese military and security forces. War planes, tanks and other weapons of war are being used freely as troops shoot into civilian population centres in Khartoum and beyond.

The raging confrontation is between the forces of General Abdul Fattah al-Burhan, Commander of the Sudanese Army, against those of General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commander of the Rapid Support Force(RSF), a paramilitary security force. Both are semi autonomous forces competing for pre-eminence in the post al- Bashir era. Both men happen to be the topmost political figures, Head and Deputy  respectively, in an interim semi military government presiding over the country after  a series of shifting power arrangements after the toppling of Omar al Bashir in a 2019 coup led by both men. Both men also staged a coup that wrested power from the revolutionary civilian coalition of civil society groups whose protests facilitated the ousting of al-Bashir’s three decades of Islamist authoritarianism.  

The raging bloody confrontation has degenerated into a blood bath.  Casualties have mounted and order has collapsed. Close to 300 deaths have been reported with over 3,500 injured. Most of the victims are innocent civilians and international workers according to independent journalists and observers. The diplomatic community has been badly hit with United Nations offices and diplomats’ residences openly ransacked and looted. Disturbing cases of open harassment of female diplomats have been reported. Attempts by the international community to broker a cessation of hostilities has led to two failed ceasefires that collapsed within minutes of being announced.

The African Union(AU) has, as usual, been generous with condemnations of the violence with a basket of resolutions and threats, calling on both sides to come to the negotiating table. The United Nations has in turn joined in ritual condemnations of the fighting and its tragic fallouts. Meanwhile, the hostilities are assuming the character and dimensions of a full blown civil war.

The origins and drivers of the resurgent violence in Sudan go beyond a mere interpersonal power tussle between the two very corrupt and ambitious political and military overlords. It goes down to the strategic issues and factors that have always defined the country’s existence and recurrent crises. The primary conflict is that between a growing popular democratic wave and the long standing conservative Islamist power establishment that was the basis of the three decades long Omar al-Bashir hegemony. The pro- democracy forces led the 2018 street protests and revolution that helped topple Omar Al Bashir’s 30 year autocracy remain alive. They had started with agitations and street protests for greater accountability and a better standard of living. Pitted against this nascent populist democratic wave is the conservative Islamist power core of the Sudanese state. The current power structure led by both Generals  Hamdani and Dagalo are thinly disguised factions of the al-Bashir regime.

It would be recalled that the popular uprising softened the al Bashir autocracy for toppling by the military. In turn, the two dueling generals staged a coup that upstaged the popular revolution,  refusing to cede power to the leadership of the popular movement.

In many ways, a perennial power tussle between factions of the usurping military leaders has become the centerpiece of Sudan’s political life in recent times. It has consistently sidestepped the transition to popular democracy which remains the major issue in the post al-Bashir era. The compromise that legitimized the now crumbling semi military administration remains an attempt to forge a tenuous balance of ambitions between these two dominant forces on the one hand and the popular civil society  coalition on the other.

Predictably, therefore, the appearance of uneasy political stability that would lead to the planned democratic elections later in two years was more an appearance than a reality. It has now burst into the bloody confrontation on display in and around Khartoum. It is unlikely that the two dueling generals and their followers will be willing to sheath their swords for as long as they still have forces and formations under their respective command and control. Already,  deal to subsume the paramilitary Response Force under the larger umbrella of the Sudanese Armed Forces has fallen apart.

Strategically, Sudan’s peculiarities may escalate the present confrontation. The interplay of internal political interests may be overwhelmed by international conspiracies and interests occasioned by a convergence of Sudan’s strategic location and internal composition. The United States has always seen Sudan as something of a precarious and suspicious rogue nation  that needs to be constantly kept under watch because of its deep Islamic leanings and sporadic terrorist affinities. Sudan was for a long time a hiding place for jihadist terrorist and fundamentalist organizations associated with a long tradition of anti-Western activism. These range from Yassir Arafat’s temporary refuge in Sudan in the days of the Black September organization. Similarly, al-Queda found refuge in Sudan in its formative years leading President Bill Clinton to send cruise missiles to bomb suspected  terrorist havens in Sudan in the run up to the emergence of Osama Bin Laden.

As a result, the two opposing tendencies in the global Islamic world have sought and found allies within the Sudanese political leadership. At different times, Iran and Saudi Arabia as well as their client states and allies in the Middle East have courted different regimes in Sudan. Even now, major interests in the Middle East are tending to support either of the two warring generals. Egypt and Libya have assumed opposing alliances in the ongoing confrontation.

At the present time, the Russians have emerged to further complicate an already complex scenario. They have seen an opportunity in the establishment of a naval base in Sudan as an opportunity to counter long standing US and Western influence in Sudan. Similarly, the Saudi’s remain interested in exploiting the political fluidity in the Sudan to advance their interests. Others like Egypt, Libya and the UAE have of late weighed in in a running jostle for regional influence and pre eminence. Sudan’s neighbours like Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan  and even smaller African authoritarian regimes all have an interest in the contest for supremacy among Sudan’s ambitious and politicized military leaders.

As it turns out, contrary to the prevalent notion that Sudan is merely a vast arid semi desert country, the country actually contains 10 percent of the arable and fertile land mass of Africa. In addition, it has an abundance of natural resources. Its oil reserves are the main attraction for an increasing Chinese presence in the country. It also has abundant gold and uranium resources in which both its immediate neighbours and major international players  are deeply interested. Therefore, there is a convergence of international interest in the current instability in Sudan which may make the confrontation degenerate into a full blown civil war with deeply interested external players intent on finding lasting foothold.

For the international community especially both the United Nations and the African Union, a quick resolution to the sudden violent eruption in Sudan is now imperative before the parties ossify into combatant footholds with friends abroad. Sudan should be more  than a casual engagement. The international community will have to untangle the web of complex interests that are at play in the Sudanese crisis. The Sudan crisis calls for the highest display of diplomatic dexterity to sufficiently assuage the interests and reassure the combatants.  A ceasefire leading to dialogue is the only way out.  A quick resolution is imperative if the escalating humanitarian tragedy is not to worsen. Most importantly, the challenge in Sudan is first and foremost that of restoring the original sanctity of the civil society coalition that pressured al Bashir out of power. This should be quickly followed by the restoration of civil authority through a democratic election and return to civil rule. Continuing to sweep the prodemocracy current under the carpet of warlords can only prolong the crisis and plunge Sudan into yet another avoidable civil war. Sudan is boiling from an urgent desire for genuine democracy, not the superficial contest of the huge ego of ambitious war mongers and  power oligarchs.

For Nigeria, the evolving tragedy in Sudan has far fetched repercussions. The United States initiative with its special military mission in AFRICOM will be in peril if Sudan crumbles in an all out civil war. Sudan holds a delicate geographical place in the international effort to contain the spread of jihadist terror in the Sahel. 

Happily, the Nigerian political landscape has evolved beyond the point where politicised generals have privatized commands that can be used to hold the nation to ransom. It is perhaps a happier place to be in the hands of rough political entrepreneurs than be caught in a cross fire between armed warlords funded by the state.

City FM is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Hey, could you please allow me to begin this piece by making two important explanations. First, I deliberately chose to recall the novel  Cyprian Ekwensi published in 1960 because I wanted to recall

in the minds of those who have read that unforgettable story how something as ordinary as a traveler’s passport could form an important part of a book.

Now, an ordinary passport has become an important national discourse, and who knows, a judicial dissertation on it could soon become one of the burdens weighing on our over-burdened judiciary. Oh, Ekwensi’s book had the intriguing title of “The Passport of Mallam Ilia”

My second explanation; ordinarily, to call a Moslem Mallam is to call him a scholar or leader. I have the example of Mallam Aminu Kano, the extraordinary leader of the Northern talakawa to guide me. His followers included both Chinua Achebe and Wole Syoyinka, let alone Abubakar Rimi, Tanko Yakasai and Bala Usman. In these present times, Nasir el-Rufai has prefaced his name with that title. So, too, my good friend and respected journalist and newspaper Editor, Mallam Garba Shehu.

The 2023 election must go down in Nigerian history as the most disappointing and most dramatic. Or, has there been an election in which a newspaper, such as the Premium Times, have openly published that it had reviewed the results relating to a state (Rivers) using materials uploaded in INEC confirmed portal and arrived at a result totally, radically, dramatically, unmistakably different from the result INEC announced?

According to that online publication, Labour Party’s Peter Obi, won the presidential election there, and roundly defeated All Progressives Congress party’s Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the man on whose head INEC had placed the victory crown pertaining to Rivers state election as well as nationally. I have waited for INEC to show the Premium Times how a want of brains on the part of its Reporters and Editors could have led to that conclusion – but that reaction has yet to come, surprisingly.

Then as sheer drama goes, nothing in Nigeria’s history could beat that nasty narrative from Adamawa state where a man who has no business with announcing a state’s result mounted a podium, and in the presence of the news media as well security agents, announced the result of a state while the collation of the election result was still on? On what foundation did that effort rest? Or was that official actually

following the example laid out for him by INEC headquarters? How could nothing have agitated the mind of that dysfunctional official that he was embarked on a disgraceful journey and was, apart from attracting odium on his person and INEC, was disgracing Nigeria? That sorry story added to the “sorryness” of the sorry story which Nigeria has become.

Yet, despite the sordidness of that dastardly act, another sordid aspect has been introduced into the annals of the 2023 election. And it has to do with the alleged passport of the APC candidate in the

presidential election; Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Sincerely, what has a passport got to do with the qualification of a candidate in the race to become Nigeria’s president in a free and fair election? We must accept that a constitutional demand is that a candidate in a presidential election must not have dual nationality. That is a given. But a passport? That is a big but. I checked the internet and found that “Applicants wishing to obtain a Nigerian Passport at the Consulate or any other mission abroad must be a Citizen of Nigeria”, according to information relating to the Nigerian Consulate in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Another internet check threw up this: “The Guinean passport is issued to citizens of the Guinea for international travel”. Yet, camouflage passports exist, and are designed to look like a real passport, issued

in the name of a non-existent country or entity as a security measure to make an important person look like “a not very interesting man from a not very interesting country”. But that would have made sense for Tinubu during the NADECO days, not after.

An article by Balogun Kamilu Lekan in NEWSNigerian asserted that “there are five different passports, and they are available to citizens depending on the factors warranting their needs”. Again, it is said there that they are available only to Nigerian citizens. What about various types of Guinean passports? Could a non-Guinean who offers special services to the country have one?

Yet, yet and yet again. What if Tinubu does not have a Guinean passport? He has said nothing about the allegation. And if that is another worthless allegation from the social media planet, it would

help if Tinubu would clear the air soonest so that Nigeria could concentrate on other matters. But by the way, where is Tinubu EVEN NOW? His whereabouts are a secret, perhaps to elude those scheming to be included in his administration….but this adds to the drama of the 2023 election. 

LAST week, I mentioned a former deputy governor of Lagos State, Alhaja Sinatu Ojikutu, who wants to renounce her citizenship and move abroad because of Tinubu’s emergence as the President-elect. Bode George, a former military governor and veteran politician, has for the same reason, also expressed a desire to emigrate.

It is sad enough when youngsters “japa” or flee to distant lands because they have concluded after much suffering that Nigeria has failed their generation and can offer them nothing meaningful. It will be particularly heart-wrenching if elderly folks take off to foreign climes at a time when they are supposed to be happily relaxing in a familiar home environment for the rest of their lives.

Statistics are not available, so I can’t swear that I am right. But based on conversations I’ve had with Nigerians from all walks of life, all age groups and different parts of the country, I am convinced that feelings of despair – which have been widespread for the past few years – have significantly increased since the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, crowned Tinubu in March. 

When you are declared winner of a controversial context amidst numerous complaints and are facing anger or indifference from a large chunk of the populace, you have two options at your disposal: You can either disdainfully ignore or viciously lash out at overt critics and those who simply cannot be bothered to respond enthusiastically to your presence on the public stage.

Alternatively, you can launch a charm offensive in places where you are unpopular, go out of your way to win hearts/minds and bend over backwards to perform so impressively that you wind up proving your detractors wrong and transforming lukewarm citizens into devotees.

If Tinubu gets sworn in next month and then manages to persuade Supreme Court judges to support him against opponents who have strong cases against him, there will be many things he can do to offset the bitterness his presidency will generate from Day One. If Tinubu is able to successfully cross these bridges at the end of May and whenever the Supreme Court is ready to deliver its verdict, I will list, on this page, the ways in which he can improve his relationship with the millions of Nigerians who didn’t vote for him.

But, for now, let’s focus on what needs to be done now. And one of the things that needs to be done now is for Tinubu to humbly visit Madame Ojikutu and Oga George and promise them respectful treatment if they jettison their exile plans.

The Adamawa flogging

I WAS horrified when I saw the video of a bleeding INEC employee in his underwear. It was all over the internet. He had been beaten up during last weekend’s electoral fracas in Adamawa State after being accused of corruptly subverting the will of the people. Violence is always wrong.

But it seems that enraged mobs can be very effective because the Adamawa situation was quickly resolved. There was no time-wasting messing about. INEC and other authorities speedily stepped into the fray and prevented things from further escalating; and the PDP governor (Fintiri) who actually won was officially acknowledged as having triumphed over the APC candidate who initially refused to accept defeat.

I’m truly sorry that the APC candidate – Hajiya Aishatu Binani – lost because I am a feminist and would have been delighted if she had become the first female elected governor in Nigeria. But it is clear that the INEC Resident Commissioner (who didn’t hide the fact that he was rooting for her) misbehaved on her behalf. And I have, unfortunately, seen no evidence that makes me believe that she deserved to be declared as the winner. And I was rather embarrassed when she prematurely made a victory speech.

Anyway, the question I am asking is this: If INEC staff in Yola had not been harassed and flogged, would INEC have been so keen to solve the Adamawa problem so efficiently and fairly? As a friend of mine said to me yesterday: “Is jungle justice the only type of justice we can count on in Nigeria? If cheating, biased INEC staff had been thoroughly dealt with in other states during the elections, would INEC not have done much better?” 

Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor; and if one is a member of a captive population, economically speaking, one’s feet have simply been placed on the treadmill forever.” — James’Baldwin.

The great Irish poet and playwright, Oscar Wilde said “success is science, if you have the conditions, you get the results. No doubt, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr, the business mogul mastered the conditions earlier in life and held steadfastly on to it, getting results all through.
Adenuga’s trajectory right from his twenties has been a success story, starting from when he was an importer, to contractor and later an entrepreneur par excellence. By this time next week, Dr. Michael Ishola Adenuga, GCON will be 70 years old. 70 years of great accomplishments and outstanding successes. 70 hearty cheers to a reticent billionaire.

From the age of 26 when he made his first million running family business, Dr Mike Adenuga aka Guru made his first million at the age of 26 when many of his peers were finding their depth and since then it has been an achievement –filled journey all the way. From twenties to his thirties, he gradually stabilised the family business and transitioned quietly to the league of the nation’s top entrepreneurs

He founded the Equatorial Trust Bank and Devcom Merchant Bank before the age of 40. His weapon is his 100 percent commitment and focus which has seen him nurturing all his businesses cutting across all sectors of the economy to utmost success.
His journey started from Ibadan Grammar School, in Oyo State, Nigeria, from where he moved to Northwestern State University, Oklahoma, in the United States where he obtained first degree, followed by a Master’s degree in Business Administration at Pace University, New York.  It was after his American experience that he came back home and his entrepreneurial journey commenced.

Having successfully developed the family business in his twenties, he conquered the banking sector in his thirties and by early forties he had successfully made a unique incursion into the nation’s oil industry with Conoil.  At 50, the Guru founded Globacom, with people, power, possibilities as its strap line before Glo with pride later replaced it. He thus became the only indigenous investor to secure the GSM licence powerfully in the nation’s telecommunication industry.

The Olusegun Obasanjo’ s Government in 2001 licensed three GSM network operators, including MTN, Airtel which later became Econet /Vmobile/Celtel/Zain/and presently Airtel and also MTel. It was in 2002 that Glo Mobile, was licensed as the fourth operator and the country’s second National Carrier. Etisalat, a Mubadala Development Company became the country’s fifth while in 2007 when the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) introduced the unified licensing regime.
In 2001, Dr Adenuga ‘s Communications Investments Limited (CIL) also bided for a licence but was not successful. The company lost $20m. It later got the bigger national carrier package, Globacom, the only indigenous GSM Company operating in the country, with an outstanding record of achievements over the years.
Globacom rolled out services in August, 2003 with a mission to change the paradigm through innovative services in the country. It has demonstrated its commitment to creating value with its products and services, and empowerment of millions of Nigerians in the last 20 years

Starting with per second which hitherto was said to be impossible, Glo under the leadership and guidance of Dr Adenuga entered the market with delightful products and services, alongside the elusive per second billing package, thus forcing other networks to follow suit to the delight of millions of Nigerians. The other networks which had been operating for two years before Glo were completely outwitted with Glo making what they called impossible a possibility.
Glo will be 20 by August this year and it has been a journey filled with great accomplishments. It has been two decades of outstanding firsts in the Nigerian Telecommunications Industry. It has remained the innovative network, in spite of rolling out its services two years after other networks have started operations. It recorded first in many areas including championing per second billing, first to implement 2.5 G network in Nigeria, first to implement 3g Network in Nigeria, first to offer 4 G LTE, first to offer Blackberry solutions in Nigeria and first to launch of submarine cable (GLO 1) which provides efficient and fast broadband internet services.

Glo remains a leader in the nation’s telecommunications industry. Presently it has over fifty million subscribers cutting across multinational corporations, decision makers in the public and private sector, students, artisans and those in rural communities connected to the network and enjoying access to high quality products and affordable telecom services,
Through Adenuga, a man that cannot stop giving out, Glo has remained a socially responsible entity. It has massively supported the Nigeria movie industry (Nollywood) and in Ghana (Ghollywood) with notable actors and actresses chosen as Glo Ambassadors. This move and many others had empowered African arts and culture.  The sponsorship of several cultural festivals in its areas of operation is another aspect of its Corporate Social Responsibilities which has resonated with the people. In addition to these are countless donations and support by Dr. Adenuga in different parts of the country, thus empowering Nigerians in different areas of human endeavour.

Globacom’s support has been outstanding. In Nigeria and Ghana, the company sponsored the national teams for many years as well as the League. The Supporters’ Clubs in both countries are also not left out. It is also remarkable that Glo sponsored the annual CAF Awards, which celebrates the best footballers and administrators in Africa, (male and female) for a decade. A period in which the profile of the award changed from a mere event to that of a major global sporting gala, attracting top personalities from different parts of the world.
It is also on record that ten years ago, THE GURU rewarded the Super Eagles who won the African Cup of Nations in South Africa with a whopping $1million and many more.

It was generally estimated that Adenuga spent over 25 billion to date to support sports in Nigeria since 2002.
Attesting to Dr. Adenuga’s massive contributions to the development of sports in Nigeria, former Sports Minister, late Bala Ka’oje said, “National Telecommunications Company, Globacom’s Chairman, Dr. Mike Adenuga spent over N3 billion to sponsor the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the then Nigeria Premier League”. It is generally estimated that he has contributed close to N30 billion to support the nation’s sports.

His other notable contributions include Golf tournaments known as Glo Golf Tour West Africa which offered millions of naira to winners. There were also different editions of the Glo Marathon with outstanding prizes for winners. Dr. Adenuga also established the Glo Soccer Academy which trained young footballers to kick-start their career in professional football. The finalists of the academy were trained in Dubai Soccer Academy and Manchester United Academy respectively.

Ten years ago, Globacom started the sponsorship of English Premier League live matches on Supersport, thus giving footballers in Nigeria and other parts of Africa the opportunity to watch live football matches and also follow their football clubs all through the season. The sponsorship of the matches is still running in 2023. A decade of live transmission of EPL.

Also in 2022, the Guru pulled another fast one when he signed a business contract in Paris between Globacom, and Eutelsat, the French Satellite conglomerate. Many communities across the country without access to internet links will benefit immensely from VSAT/Satellite-based internet service and Satellite-based community Wifi internet service, courtesy of Globacom. Another masterstroke from philanthropist par excellence.

On occasion of your 70th Birthday I wish you many more years ahead , in good health and filled with abundant blessings of God and like President Buhari said last year on your 69th Birthday, “I commend Chief Michael Adenuga’s nationalistic and patriotic position of always putting Nigeria first in his investment options, expanding opportunities for employment and business in banking, telecoms, oil and more recently focusing on empowering younger generation in entrepreneurship”., may God continue to enlarge your coast.
Happy Platinum Birthday to the cheerful giver and the nation’s number 1 philanthropist.