Next year, Globacom chairman, Dr. Mike Adenuga, will clock 70. He was 69 last week. Next year, when he reaches that milestone, I will write about his roles which Nigeria may have forgotten. I will tell millennials who make very long phone calls today that two decades ago, it was financially suicidal if we made such long calls. I will explain that at the beginning, we paid for minutes we did not use on the networks that existed before Adenuga’s Glo. If they don’t understand, I will ask them how they would feel if they made a seconds phone call and were charged for 60 seconds. I will tell them that it was that price regime Adenuga neatly defeated with his company’s per-second billing that came when its first call went out at exactly 11.45 am on Friday, 29 August, 2003.
The axe forgets but the tree remembers. I will also tell the too-young-to-know that at the start of GSM service in 2001 through 2003, a SIM card cost a minimum of N30,000 in Nigeria. I will admit that I could not afford one, my salary was N39,000 per month. I will write about the coming of Globacom and its selling of its own lines for N9,999 – and how, very soon later, it crashed it to N1 (one naira) only. I will speak about how all other operators ran after his initiative, panting and struggling to catch up. Like seeds on a windy day, his good deeds have spread far and wide. I won’t forget to add that Adenuga’s Glo also sold both SIM and handset for just N18,499. I will draw attention to lessons that we don’t have to be in government to impact lives and make a positive difference.
Next year April, he will be 70; four months later, his Glo will be 20. May we be here in peace and with very sound health. And may we not be missing when the time comes. There are very many stories to tell; and we will tell them.
and then