Life And People
Mike Adenuga And A Critique Of Wealth -By Festus Adedayo
In Nigeria, it is time for the wealthy to even do more as governments are impoverishing and sliding more people into the poverty index. Helping the needy also immortalizes them. Like Esther, Queen of Persian King Ahasuerus, perhaps it is for this reason and season that their wealth is targeted?
Some weeks ago, Forbes released its exclusive 2023 billionaires ranking in Africa. Seven countries of Africa had 19 of their billionaires on the list with their worth combined being $18 billion. Nigeria had three of the nineteen African billionaires who also occupied the first ten positions on the Forbes Africa billionaires list. Aliko Dangote came first. He has held the first position on the list in the last twelve years. While South Africa’s Johann Rupert was ranked second, two of Nigeria’s billionaires also made the list. They are Mike Adenuga Jr and Abdul Samad Rabiu. While Dangote was ranked first with a wealth net-worth of $13.6 billion, Adenuga, Globacom Chairman, was ranked with a net worth of $5.7 billion and Rabiu, $7.4 fortune. While Egypt has six billionaires, South Africa has five; two in Morocco, Zimbabwe, Algeria. Tanzania shares one apiece while Nigeria has three.
Of the three billionaires in Nigeria, I am fascinated by the paradigms of their wealth and I want to use Adenuga as my takeoff point of analysis. One paradigm is the mythical conception of wealth as possessing a spirit that blows trumpets and seeks attention. Second is the wealth which, its owner having pulled themselves by the straps of their sandals to get to where they are, get naturally conduced to keeping their wealth in enclosures. The latter paradigm is explained in the philosophy of hunters. As they toil all day and night for games, they factor these travails into the games they eventually get. By so doing, they shrink the number of beneficiaries of the sumptuous flesh of the venison; that is even if they give it out at all. Yoruba approximate this, in the aphorism, B’ode ba ro’se, bo ro’ya, bo ba p’eran, ko ni f’enikankan je. It is a philosophy that is difficult to fault but whose fallibility lies in the inability of the wealthy man to see the intervention, in the first instance, of the Uncaused Causer – God – in their wealth.
Lucky Dube, late South African reggae musician, explained the spiritual value of wealth in his 1990 album, Blessed is the hand that giveth. In that song, Dube posed a critical question to wealthy men in the world:
What type of a rich man are you/Who doesn’t care about the poor people/What type of a rich man are you/Who doesn’t care for the helpless people/They’re reading the bible and understand what it says It says/Blessed is the hand that giveth/Than the one that taketh…/Are you feeling the happy/When you see another man starving?/Are you feeling happy/When you see another man with no food?
I may be wrong but it seems to occur to me that it is mostly wealthy men who go through the mills of suffering to acquire wealth or who have growing up experience of suffering who get to understand the self-regenerative power of wealth. Which itself sounds contradictory. Those who went through privations before they become wealthy should guide their wealth jealously, lest they return to the toils of poverty.
When I see wealthy men and women commit their wealth to the uplift of society, I am excited. The other day, I saw a huge Law Faculty built by Chief Mrs. Folorunso Alakija for the Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo in Oyo State. I have also taken time to study Adenuga Jr’s frequent demonstration of his love for humanity by helping several people in need. Those who know him say he wakes up bothered about how to change lives of the poor. In spite of his wealth, sitting atop several business conglomerates, he took the trumpet off his wealth, funneling changes into lives of individuals, cities and towns and ensuring that they feel the weight of his wealth, anonymously. He also promotes culture, the arts and actors without a whimper from him. No wonder when French president, Emmanuel Macron, visited Nigeria in 2018, he showered praises on the billionaire, even as he conferred him with French national honour of Commander of French Legion.
In the words of the holy writ, the poor will forever remain on earth. The charge from Dube is to wealthy men of the world to light a lamp that will shine in the lives of the growing poor people, especially in Africa. In Nigeria, it is time for the wealthy to even do more as governments are impoverishing and sliding more people into the poverty index. Helping the needy also immortalizes them. Like Esther, Queen of Persian King Ahasuerus, perhaps it is for this reason and season that their wealth is targeted?
