The dream of every worker is to one day retire and enjoy the benefit that would accrue to him after his many years of active service. Every worker desires a life of ease and relaxation after retirement. National Oil (Conoil) workers always celebrate retirement because it is a dream comes true. This was the norm in the company until the arrival of Otunba Mike Adenuga. His arrival in national oil marks the beginning of sorrow for the 500 odd pensioners remaining on their payroll.

The Shell Group established The Shell Pension Scheme under its original name of Shell West Africa Staff Non-contributory Pension Fund on 1st January 1952. They registered the scheme with the Ministry of Trades now Corporate Affairs Commission as a TRUST SCHEME for the company’s employees on retirement. It remained a non-contributory scheme funded solely by the Shell Group when it was in control. When the Federal Government compulsorily acquired 60% of the company in the wake of 1975 indigenization decree, the government retained the scheme.

The Shell Group Pension Scheme that Conoil inherited in 2000 is still on in Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC). It has been in existence for more than 50 years.
Conoil has not added any value to the fund since its arrival in National oil in year 2000. Mike Adenuga ignored the statutory requirement that he contributes a certain percentage of the company’s gross profit to the pension fund before declaring profit after tax.

The pension account into which Conoil never contributed a kobo since it took it over has a balance of over a billion naira (both liquid and fixed asset) in 2006 when conoil purportedly audited its account. The fund has been a source of easy and interest fee fund for Conoil that has been running it according to their whim and caprice since then.
When Mike Adenuga took over as the core investor in National Oil in 2000, he suspended the 12% annual pension increase approved by the fund since October 1994. It did not bother the man that 71.96% of Conoil pensioners are earning between N3,360 and N7,499 at a time when minimum wages in Nigeria has gone beyond N10, 000 which is now N18,000.00. Otunba Mike Adenuga did not care about Federal government directive on harmonization of fringe benefits with basic salary when calculating pensions [govt. directive of 30th Jan. 1997, 11th May 1999, and 6th July 1999]. These ridiculous earnings still remains today after 10 years of Conoil misadventure in the once vibrant company called National Oil without a kobo increase!

The pensioners took Mike Adenuga to court in 1998 to compel him to release his stranglehold on their fund since the money does not belong to his company. This will enable the pensioners distribute the balance in the fund as they deem fit after Adenuga might have added his own contribution for using the money in the fund without paying interest since the years 2000.

Adenuga agreed to settle with the pensioners without the case coming up in the open court. The pensioners made the mistake of thinking they could trust Adenuga to be true to any agreement reached. The negotiation has been going on at the Mediation Centre of the Lagos High Court for a year and half without any end in sight.
Mike Adenuga and his lawyers have been frustrating every move by the pensioners to conclude the negotiation. The court had to write two strong letters to warn the Otunba when it became obvious that all he wanted was to let the negotiation drags on indefinitely.

Ten members had died as at the last count since the negotiation started. Adenuga’s lawyers always come to court singing the same song of not being able to see the Otunba. This has been going on for more than eight months despite each party in the negotiation reaching agreement on how to disburse the balance in the fund. It is either Adenuga’s daughter is getting married or EFCC invites the man to Abuja or one excuse or the other. The Judge asked on one occasion if Adenuga had become a god that mere mortal couldn’t see.

The pensioners (many of whom have been demoralized by the never-ending negotiation) are already getting suspicious albeit erroneously that they have been sold out by their executive. Given Adenuga’s penchant for the Babangida style, their fear might not be wholly misplaced.

Yet, Mike Adenuga’s daughter comes to this forum to defend her father against what she calls misconception of Nigerians about her father. What a laugh!

Oh Adenuga's daughter is on this forum ? well then she can take this massage and shove it up her daddy's big black filthy rich a[i]s[/i]s 

That man is so cruel and wicked ! he is such a hypocrite shelling out "millions" on teevee yet those who work for him are living in abject poverty

i thot charity was meant to begin at home  Adenuga is used to the remix of that saying I s'pose. My friend works his butt off all day with this useless

glo yet he cant even boast of a good phone like WTF and just before you say maybe hez not "so qualified" he finished well over the top of his class in OAU.

The said 3G network is crap. nothing works on glo yet he spends all the money on those retards called glo ambassadors. if I dont see basketmouth's face on

a recharge card wont I buy ? so why spend 40million on a not-so-smart person to pose on a recharge card ? I really used to admire Adenuga for being such an

iconic business guru but now I can just like to insert his sim into his butthole and call the line till he vibrates into oblivion 

^^YOu have just spoken the minds of all informed Nigerians.

The painful aspect of the pension issue is that this money we are talking about does not belong to this man. All the pensioners want is for the man to release his stranglehold on their fund and let them share the balance in the fund as they deem fit. Many of the people the Otunba is playing duck and drake with their lives are well above 80s. These are people who served the company he now own with everything they had. Many of them rely only on the pension they are paid every month. How does the man expect these group of people to celebrate Christmas?

Please Otunba Mike Adenuga, pay these pensioners what belong to them; afterall you are not a member of the trust fund set up for them by Shell. If you want to live to the ripe age of these people you are using their money to trade, pay them what is their due. Remember that even if they cannot get justice from the court, they can get it from the man above.

I can just like to insert his sim into his butthole and call the line till he vibrates into oblivion

. .i could suggest other places for the sim besides Adenuga's butts

We took Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr. to court two years ago when it became obvious he is not interested in any increase in our pension. Many of us are over 80 years old. We served his company for many years. How many years more do we have left? All we wanted is to be able to enjoy the fruit of our sweat for the remaining time we have left. N3000 naira a month cannot guarantee this. We took our case to the newspapers but unfortunately, no Nigerian newspaper will touch our articles with a ten foot pole. I guess we are too small to fight a man of Dr. Adenuga's stature. The newspapers would not want to lose Dr Adenuga advert patronage! What a country.

How can someone who can afford to spend millions on his daughter's wedding and billions to sponsor football refuse 12% annual increase to a man that earn less than N4000 per month in his company? Some people forget that they can only oppress for sometime. There is someone above that will never permit oppression to go on indefinitely.

When the Dr. is celebrating his Christmas, he should remember there are group of pensioners in his company who will not even know it is Christmas.

googles:

Oh Adenuga's daughter is on this forum ? well then she can take this massage and shove it up her daddy's big black filthy rich a[i]s[/i]s

That man is so cruel and wicked ! he is such a hypocrite shelling out "millions" on teevee yet those who work for him are living in abject poverty

i thot charity was meant to begin at home Adenuga is used to the remix of that saying I s'pose. My friend works his butt off all day with this useless

glo yet he cant even boast of a good phone like WTF and just before you say maybe hez not "so qualified" he finished well over the top of his class in OAU.

The said 3G network is crap. nothing works on glo yet he spends all the money on those retards called glo ambassadors. if I dont see basketmouth's face on

a recharge card wont I buy ? so why spend 40million on a not-so-smart person to pose on a recharge card ? I really used to admire Adenuga for being such an

iconic business guru but now I can just like to insert his sim into his butthole and call the line till he vibrates into oblivion

Its a pity we live in this kind of hopeless country, no justice for the poor.

I really wish I had the power and resources to fight this bedeviled soul. . . He just paid dat high-class slowpoke Timaya a whooping sum of 87million

and yet paying these pensioners their dues, wat they worked hard for in their days is too hard for him to do. Wat a lawless country we really do live

in, depriving old men of their money and using dat same money to bring Beyonce to Nigeria to do a 5-minute performance while the owners are wallowing

in abject poverty. Same way my friend told me Adenuga sacked a colleague of his who adenuga did not like his shirt and thot he looked shabby. you

sacked a staff few weeks to xmas just because you did not like his shirt mehn, Nigeria is messed up. the rich continue to oppress the poor in a

frustrating manner.I wonder if its their aim to kill off or run all poor pple out of the country.

violent:

. .i could suggest other places for the sim besides Adenuga's butts

as long as hez not enjoying the exercise. . .all nice and good

I have lost count of the number of times i have heard such stories abt this man and his companies.
If he is what they claim he is,its really crazy and mean . . . shelling out millions every now and then for his brand ambassadors,makes no sense.

wow,if this is true,then i dnt know whats more inhumane than that

@googles ,u wicked no be small

but seriously i agree with u on all this ambassadorial bullshhit!

A lot of futile angst going on in here. Adenuga is just about as guilty as everyone of us who shells out small fortunes on frivolties while the poor around us can barely feed. Life is not fair, it never would be. I don't see the point in acting holier than thou just cos' we feel the man is a dollar billionaire and we ain't. . .and that we'd be a lot more 'humane' were we in his overprivileged shoes.

But truth be told, ALL rich men have such cold, exploitative tendencies. Nobody, and I repeat NOBODY would ever become a billionaire by being a nice guy. The world is a ruthless place, and there are too many hawks waiting to take advantage of the slightest hint of niceness on one's part to ruin one's business. Dangote, Femi, Jimoh, Okoya, et al (even the billionare pastors, names withheld). They are not 'nice' guys too, and their workers/subordinates would always have a mouthful of bitter things to say about them. Same applies to all the other billionaire industrialists all over the world. . .too many examples. I wouldn't blame Adenuga, I'd blame capitalism. And since we can't abolish capitalism, we must live with its ills.

I don't think I want to agree with pro01 prognosis that all rich men are evil. If this is so, it means we are all in deep shit because the poor will always be with us. The fact is, there are many humane rich guys we read about. I have even interacted with few of them. The trouble is, many of them like Mike Adenuga are just heartless. The money we are talking about is not even his money. Granted that the BPE made a grave error in transferring the money to his company when he bought into National oil, what stops him from releasing the money to their rightful owners since he is not interested in pension. I just pray that God will one day strike people like Adenuga and his ilk down and this world will become a better place for all of us. Amen.

I came across a website that is purported to be Mike Adenuga's foundation. If this is true, I would like Nairalanders to start bombarding the e-mail address by asking questions if it is true this man who dish out millions to artists and charities actually pay N3000 to pensioners in his company conoil and has refused to release the balance in the fund set up for them for their use even after agreement has been reached at the high court where they sue the man to. Is it also true he has compromised the judges in charge of the case?  The address is
info@mikeadenugafoundation.org

Oluti:

I don't think I want to agree with pro01 prognosis that all rich men are evil. If this is so, it means we are all in deep poo because the poor will always be with us. The fact is, there are many humane rich guys we read about. I have even interacted with few of them. The trouble is, many of them like Mike Adenuga are just heartless. The money we are talking about is not even his money. Granted that the BPE made a grave error in transferring the money to his company when he bought into National oil, what stops him from releasing the money to their rightful owners since he is not interested in pension. I just pray that God will one day strike people like Adenuga and his ilk down and this world will become a better place for all of us. Amen.

Am I missing something with the part in bold? Of course the poor will always be with us!!! Are you suggesting that a world will soon come where there'd be no poor people? Can you explain because I don't see any sense in that statement.

^^^
Abeg helep me ask them oh. I just don't understand at all. Next thing they'll say Adenuga is the root cause of poverty in Nigeria.

pro01, Adenuga might not be the root cause of poverty in Nigeria, he is part of the problem. Read the first post again. The man is holding on to over a billion Naira that does not belong to him. He suspended the yearly 12% increase approved by the fund administrators as soon as he bought into National oil in 2000. The pension fund was set up by Shell for its staff. He has not contributed a kobo to the fund since he became the chairman of Conoil. He is still paying N3000 Naira to 75% of the pensioners. If you are one of his staff, then I am sure you well aware of this fact and only playing with the truth. Why did he agree to settle out of court if he is justified in his action. The man is very much conscious of his public image but he wants to hold on to the fund for as long as possible. Go to the Lagos High Court Mediation Centre to confirm this if I am wrong. He will soon realise it is not everybody he can buy. Many of these people we are talking about are old enough to be your grandfather. They have served this country well in their various capacity. Come off it man. You can not defend wickedness like this.

wow! i have to say i wasn't aware of this. . . this is quite informative, tell me more.

playmate ;
The summary of the story is that Mike Adenuga is holding on to over a billion that belong to the pensioners he inherited when he bought into National oil. The pensioners protested to BPE that the fund is independent of the company the man bought but Obasanjo and El whatever his name is decided to ignore the pensioners. Adenuga took over the fund and suspended the yearly 12% pensions increase. That is why many of them are still earning N3360 till today. They took him to court through SERAC (human right). Because he does not want the public to know what is going on, he persuaded the court and the pensioners to negotiate how the balance in the fund would be disbursed among the pensioners. But the man is not ready to release his stranglehold on their pensioners unless forced. After two years of negotiation which the Lagos High Court said beats all records, the man is refusing to sigh the agreement reached which his own lawyers signed. The pensioners have now taken him to the court of public opinion. Any social sites you find Nigerians, the pensioners are there. Seven pensioners had died since the never ending negotiation including my brother. They have now decided taking the case to open court which Adenuga dread come January 2011. I rest my case

I can never use that stupid glo line cuz i think it is wak. The money he pays to the glo ambassradors is just outrageous. I hardly see him do things to improve the life of the poor. Anyway God will judge. I event learnt that if u are a female seeking employment with him you just need to be set{front & back}and u've got the job though u have to sleep with him and he sacks anytime he feels like without any justification. Shameless fool.

The man is a good example of the Biblical saying: The heart of man is desperately wicked. I hope he gets what he really deserves.

sexybaby22 what you heard is a fact. I worked in National oil for 15 years, 2 of which I worked with the man when he bought into National oil. He sacks people at the slightest excuse and even base on hearsay. When he was told the those who works in the depots and aviation are all swimming in millions, he sacked all the staff in one day. That was the genesis of his problem with the staff he met in National oil. The two unions told him he cannot do such thing. We fought him to a stand still. Whenever any of us comes to ETB for transaction we are hailed as a hero because we did what they dream about but can never do. He told all of us to reapply for the job most of us had been doing for twenty years or more. We told him he only bought the company but not us. He hated the fact that NUPENG and PENGASAN to which I was a member existed in the company. The man is a tin god. We told him he has the money but we have the experience of running a marketing company after all we were among of top five. He did not like it. At one of his meetings with the staff, he told some of his executives that since his sixteen years in the corporate world he had never been humiliated like those rascals in National oil did to him. This was because a staff told him an idea he wanted to implement would eventually backfire. He hated people expressing opinion however good. He would sack all of us. He eventually did by way of his 'voluntary severance' that was not meant to be voluntary. Those who shun the offer were sacked eventually. I had only two years to qualify for retirement before I was told to leave. How about that? Proo1 you can defend the man from now till eternity, I have facts which you don't have unless you one of his paid apologists.

Pro01 you talk like you would do thesame if afforded thesame opportunity.
Well I cant say for certain that I understand the depth of the situation between Adenuga and Those pensioners so I wont start by raining curses on him or making hasty conclusions based on one part of the story, that will be unfair to the man and will run parallel to the justice that we pursue for this pensioners.
However, it is very inappropriate that more than 70% of his workforce are paid a paltry N3000 if that is true cos honestly I doubt that figure and I know how prepostrous Nigerian writers can be when they are out to achieve an aim, their journalistic embelishments at times makes me sick in the stomach. But if it is very true, then it should be rebuked and Mr Mike should be seriously reprimanded, that is a cruel thing to do. It is one thing for billionairs to be tough and frugal when it comes to cutting cost or not wanting to be exploited by workers and it is another thing to be unneccessarily wicked, Pro0! There is a fine line between them, dont generalize and make vague conclusions without first understanding the depth of the issues. If any billionair practices business the way it is alleged Mr Adenuga does, he will run into serious problems coz he will be so entangled with suits upon suits against him that he will end up settling people at very high expenses than he would ve initially had to. He is not the only one with people in his employ and pay roll, there are even people with more wealth and control of way bigger coperations, nobody goes under at their sight or the mention of their name. I see no reason for the self created mysteries and divinity, people will always respect and fear him no matter what, he does not always ve to demand it like he lacks it.

rhymz:

Pro01 you talk like you would do thesame if afforded thesame opportunity.
Well I cant say for certain that I understand the depth of the situation between Adenuga and Those pensioners so I wont start by raining curses on him or making hasty conclusions based on one part of the story, that will be unfair to the man and will run parallel to the justice that we pursue for this pensioners.
However, it is very inappropriate that more than 70% of his workforce are paid a paltry N3000 if that is true cos honestly I doubt that figure and I know how prepostrous Nigerian writers can be when they are out to achieve an aim, their journalistic embelishments at times makes me sick in the stomach. But if it is very true, then it should be rebuked and Mr Mike should be seriously reprimanded, that is a cruel thing to do. It is one thing for billionairs to be tough and frugal when it comes to cutting cost or not wanting to be exploited by workers and it is another thing to be unneccessarily wicked, Pro0! There is a fine line between them, dont generalize and make vague conclusions without first understanding the depth of the issues. If any billionair practices business the way it is alleged Mr Adenuga does, he will run into serious problems coz he will be so entangled with suits upon suits against him that he will end up settling people at very high expenses than he would ve initially had to. He is not the only one with people in his employ and pay roll, there are even people with more wealth and control of way bigger coperations, nobody goes under at their sight or the mention of their name. I see no reason for the self created mysteries and divinity, people will always respect and fear him no matter what, he does not always ve to demand it like he lacks it.

Well I cannot guarantee that I would do otherwise, since I'm not given to hypocrisy in such matters. As you rightly pointed out, we have only heard one side of the story, and the logical thing is to also hear the other side in order to build a relatively balanced and constructive opinion. It is not my style to rush into an opinion on the basis of a one-sided exposition and the mass hysteria that follows it; sorry to say that such 'bandwagon' mentality is not indicative of sound judgment. I'm sure Adenuga and his people would have their own well-thought out reasons/justifications/excuses/explanations on the matter if one were to ask them. Only then can one determine whether the said actions stem from sheer, wicked inhumanity or from profound, inviolable business principle/necessary shrewdness.

Nonetheless, I still insist that anyone who ever became a billionnaire from commerce cannot and would not be a Mr. Nice Guy. The billion dollar empire would start crumbling no sooner than the industrialist starts running his business like a charity organization. To that extent, Otunba Mike Adenuga Jnr. is no different from all other capitalists in Nigeria and elsewhere. You previously mentioned having interacted with some rich men who are humane. There are people who would say the same for Adenuga. No one is saying that rich men, including Adenuga, are intrinsically incapable of being humane; the questions are: how do you define 'humane'? Humane to who? In what capacity is the humaneness exercised (personal or business)? Why? You see, just like the rest of us ordinary folks, rich men are also human - which means that they love some, are loved by some, hate some, and are hated by some. There  are those that Adenuga would have shown incredible acts of kindness and generosity - if you come in contact with those ones, they would have nothing but praises for the man. Everything in life is subjective and relative - someone somewhere would see you as good, others would see you as  bad. It's no different with Adenuga and the other billionaires.

On a final note, my learning makes it clear to me that there is absolutely no way anyone can become a billionaire without 'exploiting' (so to say) something - the system, workers, whatever. That is at the heart of entrepreneurship and capitalism. The fact that any one individual can accumulate so much wealth while others (including many of his or her workers) live from hand to mouth is inherently unjust - but that is what life is, and any of us that is rich, wants to remain rich, or wants to be rich MUST benefit from, and/or perpetuate such injustice; otherwise you should never aspire to be rich. There is no such thing as 'legitimate' wealth, from an ethical, egalitarian, humane point of view, trust me on that. Singling out Mike Adenuga for all these venomous and malicious attacks and moaning about how he is evil personified is an exercise that holds no appeal for me at all: they are all 'guilty', everyone of them (or us) that are entrepreneurs and capitalists. And I will be no less guilty even if it is a small, growing business that I run with few employees. For more insights on all these, I suggest you read the seminal anti-capitalism treatise by Karl Marx: Das Kapital.

Comeon! Its lik dat wit mst of our 'rich busines tycoons' their workers suffer, al dis complain is a waste here: email it 2 EFCC or whoeva or even 2 his inbox(ask his daugt) dis is suposed 2 be CELeBRitY SECTION! Dude, (whistles nd strolls off)

I agree it is not reasonable to to hear one side of a story and jump to conclusion. The man aroleolu gave an an e-mail address in one of his postings where you can contact this man. I checked the website that address is linked to, it operates from Mike Adenuga's headquarters. The address is from his towers. I am sure any e-mail sent to that address will get to him.
info@mikeadenugafoundation.org

Pro01 and his ilk who thinks Adenuga is justified in his wickedness to senior citizens of his company should also get it into their skull that the man would one day be a security threat to this country given the way he operates presently. Anyone who doubt this bleep should read Colonel (Rtd) Lawan Gwadabe's memo to the president on Saharareporters.com, http://www.saharareporters.com/news-page/raw-copy-col-gwadabes-secret-memo-jonathan-exposes-babangidas-hidden-wealth-mike-adenugas. The last part of the memo especially the part that concerns Adenuga should be well noted.