Tributes are best sculpted and command better meanings, when there’s a relationship between the subject and the writer. The insider knowledge of what constitutes the meat of the article becomes personal and scarcely what you knew.
A cocktail of timeless interactions, dwelling on the good, the bad, and the ugly, which, if knocked down to shape, leaves your readers stupefied, effortlessly. You might have just shared new knowledge of an individual they would have thought they knew.
I have no such relationship with Dr. Mike Adenuga, a man many of his admirers call SPIRIT and several others nicknamed the bull.
Methinks he is spirit because you neither see nor hear from him. Yet, he makes things happen. However, with his monolithic domination of his enviable world, nothing better explains the moniker: bull.
Dr. Adenuga has somewhat lived a near pre-natural lifestyle, consciously typifying class and niche-carving. He also seems to several others, a mythical creature.
You cannot but imagine his enthralling presence, seldom witnessed only by a privileged few, many of whom daily attest to his life-changing generosity. That, again, for him, is a lifestyle.
Little wonder, Lanre Alfred, recently called him “The Enabler”.
But, this is it: either in controversy or admiration, his invincibility remains his greatest strength and weapon, deployed strategically at all times and with precision for results.
Nothing, yet, stands him out better than his pan-Nigerianism. He loves Nigeria and has made this a clear message with his many investments sprawling everywhere.
Believing in Nigeria and never loving it less despite its unceasing challenges is undeniably a mark of patriotism.
This is why, relationship notwithstanding, Dr. Adenuga deserves not just a good mention on his 70th birthday, but a lavish celebration.
Many happy returns, sir!
