Glo customers, for the most part, did not experience the internet downtime and black out that many of us experienced in the past few days.
The reason for this is not far-fetched.
Mike Adenuga, the owner of Glo, was so intentional by making sure that Glo has its own submarine cable that passed through from Bude, a seaside rural town in north Cornwall, England and traversed seventeen countries, including Ghana, before terminating in Nigeria.
By going from Europe to the West Coast of Africa, it avoids the more turbulent but cheaper to maintain MENA region (Middle-East and North Africa).
Glo-1 is the name of the submarine cable that Glo owns, and the chairman of Glo spent $250 million to make it a reality in 2019.
To tell you much of a big deal, this is Nigeria has seven submarine cables; Glo 1 is the only submarine cable landed and funded by a private individual.
The Nigerian government or institutional investors are responsible for the remaining sub marine cables.
Sat 3 submarine cable, owned by former NITEL, was funded by the Nigerian government.
Private investors with substantial funds and deep pockets led by Fola Adeola and Funke Opeke , founded Main One Cable and provided the funding for its arrival in Lagos.
Facebook, Google, MTN, and private institutional investors funded the other four submarine cables, which makes it possible for Nigerians to connect to their internet seamlessly, but one man, just one man, took $250 million from his bank account to fund a whole submarine cable.
The late Wigwe met Mike Adenuga for the first time in his life last year during his 70th birthday last year , and he said something that was so fitting.
“sir Mike! You are a national icon and deserve to be celebrated every day. At the moment, you are the first and only individual in Nigeria to have funded the landing of the submarine cable from Portugal to Nigeria. No other person has been able to surpass or do this.”
And he is right.
The bull as he is called no, Dey, follow us do social media, like Tony Elumelu does.
He is an introvert who stays on his own a lot. That is why you won’t see him at parties organised by his fellow billionaires.
But one thing you can’t take away from him is that he is a man of extraordinary wealth.
But more than anything else,
He has cemented his place among the pantheons of icons who contributed their quota to the digital literacy, advancement and development of our country.
