Nigerian
Billionaire, Oluwo Antonio Deinde Fernandez is dead. News circulated
when Nigerian Journalist/Publisher, Dele Momodu took to twitter to
announce his demise.
He died at age 79.
Read this piece that someone wrote about him a few years ago.
Reputed To Have Not One, But SIX Private Jets. He Owns A Chateau In
France, Once Occupied By Napoleon Bonaparte, The Emperor Of France.
Friend Of Mobutu. Ally Of Kofi Annan. Associate Of Mandela.
He Is So Classy That
Whenever He Enters A Restaurant To Eat, Everyone Else Must Leave Because
He Cannot Eat With The ‘Commoners’. He Takes Over Entire Restaurants
For The Night To Avoid Encountering ‘RiffRaff’. (Chai! Poor Man Don
Suffer). Of All The Richest Nigerians I Know, None Comes Close To This
Man When It Comes To The Level Of Style, ‘Tooshness’ & Money-Backed
Aloofness. But Who Is He? How He Made His Money? His Marriages? Why He
Left His House For A Hotel?
Welcome to the world of one of
Africa’s richest men: HIS EXCELLENCY, OLUWO ANTONIO OLADEINDE FERNANDEZ,
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Permanent Representative
(see his writings to the President of the United Nations Security
Council and United Nations Secretary General on behalf of President
Ange-Félix Patassé of the Central African Republic in 1998 in the
pictures). When it comes to the most impressive and exuberant display of
the splendour of wealth, Fernandez dusts them all -by miles. The name
‘Fernandez’ is Portuguese in origin and shows that he is of the popular
Fernandez family of Lagos. Historical accounts show that the Fernandezes
were originally descendants of freed slaves from Brazil, where
Portuguese is the official language. Some of the first modern-styled
buildings in Lagos were built by the Fernandezes, and these buildings
are known for their spectacular Brazilian architecture. Portuguese
navigators were also the first European explorers to reach Lagos State.
Actually, they gave the state the name ‘Lagos’
For Ovation
magazine to feature a man in 40 pages says a lot about his prestigious
standing. Very secretive (not in a bad way or let me say he guards his
privacy jealously) and aloof (he very rarely comes to Nigeria where he
is from), this is one rich man in a class and mansion of his own -with
no rivals but maybe a few big cats. His wealth has dazed and fazed many,
and left even many more speechless. ANTONIO DEINDE FERNANDEZ. Okay,
enough of that. Let’s get some bits on him:
-He is the perfect
combination of a diplomat (you can also refer to that as ambassador),
businessman and yes, a gentleman. He is multilingual, tall and dark
(yeah, take a look at the pix again, will you?)
-Even though he
is Nigerian, he was appointed the Permanent Representative of Central
African Republic (CAR) at the United Nations in 1997 (ain’t that
classy?, but with the current turmoil in CAR, with former President
Francois Bozize fleeing the nation, things are hazy). -Fernandez is said
to have interests in the CAR’s oil industry (at a time, he was the
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Central African Republic).
That does not include his bauxite (for aluminum) exports, gold mines (in
Angola) and diamonds pits. He owns Petro Inett, an oil company. Petro
Inett is just one of them. He also has shares in View, Sandcat
Petroleum, Sanantonio, Goldfields, Voguehope, Grantdalem Inuola, Sandcat
Goldfields (cat, cat, now I understand those two cats…lol), Woods and
Petro Inett Equatorial Guinea.
-Before then, he had served as
the Special Adviser to the President of Mozambique on International
Economic Matters and from 1992-1995, he was the Ambassador-at-Large for
the Republic of Togo and Angola.
-He was also once the Consul for
Benin Republic (then Republic of Dahomey) (1966), made the Economic
Advisor to the Angolan Government in 1982 (just for perspective, only
Nigeria produces more oil than Angola in Africa, shey you gerrit?). To
be specific, he was a long-time adviser to President José Eduardo dos
Santos of Angola (he’s been ruling since 1975).
In 1984, he
was the Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Mozambique to
the United Nations. At a point, he was a Deputy Minister of Finance in
Swaziland.
-He has houses in Kano, built a tower for himself in
Lagos (where he was born in 1936), New York (where he is said to stay
almost permanently), Scotland, France, Belgium and the United Kingdom.
But that’s not all, he has accounts in the Cayman Islands, France,
Switzerland (I love that country joor), Ireland, Hong Kong, Scotland and
the United States. Don’t ask me of Nigeria.
-He surrounds himself with the finest, classiest and the most exquisite things that money can buy.
In
a divorce case with one of his former wives, it was revealed that he
splashed 200,000 British Pounds on his seven-storey townhouse to buy
1,000 books of gold leaf to ‘toosh’ up the already ‘tooshed’ cornices
and balustrades.
-A high chief of the Ogboni Confraternity, he
is highly revered in his Yorubaland and his family motto is: Aguntan
meji kii mumi ninu koto kan na (see images for the insignia). Okay, what
that simply means is that two rams cannot drink from the same
container. Or some people will say, there cannot be two captains on a
ship.
-He once married (some reports insist they were only
romantically linked) the Erelu of Lagos, Abiola Dosumu but they fell
apart and the Erelu of Lagos has since stopped using his name,
Fernandez.
Today, he is married to a beauty from Kano State. Her
name? Haleema, and has a daughter, Mahreyah. She is said to be of the
Alhaji Muhammadu Maude (also known as Maude Tobacco) family of Kano.
Alhaji Maude was the Presidential Liaison Officer for Kano State during
the Shehu Shagari presidency. A wealthy businessman, he made attempts to
become governor of Kano State in the 1980s but lost even though his
campaign was one of the most colourful and was associated with the use
of yan banga, local thugs.
In 2012, he denied reuniting with
Aduke, his former wife. The chief thundered: ‘It’s a big lie. It will
never happen, even in a million years.’
-He owns one of the most
luxurious homes in Kano State (with one of the largest horse stables and
farms in Nigeria, one of the Boko Haram battles in January 2012 during
which the pregnant wife of one of the Boko Haram leaders was reportedly
killed, was close to his property). But the house is now said to be
falling apart. Well, he doesn’t stay at home! He finished from Cambridge
University and Columbia University (business degree) and has been using
private jets long before people like Dangote and what is the name of
that man again o….ehen! Adenuga! started dreaming of a billion dollars.
-He
has been in the diplomatic business since 1966 so billions are not new
to him. He has direct contacts to some of the most powerful world
leaders, business executives and entrepreneurs. He is said to be very
close to leaders like Nelson Mandela and George Walker Bush -and they
address themselves by the first names. He surely pulls the strings. At a
time, he wanted to sue a decorating firm for publishing the pictures of
one of his properties that they had worked on. Okay o.
-A very
deft diplomat was also instrumental to the Bangui Agreements of 1997. He
has denied having any links with the Nkomati Accords signed in 1984
between Mozambique and South Africa, to which some have given him
credits. He gave brilliant speeches at the United Nations, and below is
an excerpt:
Mr. Fernandez (Central African Republic) I
take pleasure in congratulating Mr. Opertti on his election to the
presidency of the General Assembly at its fifty-third session, and I
pledge my delegation’s full cooperation. I commend his predecessor, Mr.
Udovenko, for bringing the fifty-second session of the General Assembly
to a successful conclusion. I take great pleasure in expressing my pride
in our Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan. His leadership and many
achievements during the short period of his tenure are highly
commendable. Just as this session of the General Assembly coincides with
the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
it also coincides, providentially, with the fiftieth anniversary of the
commencement of peacekeeping operations by the United Nations.
These
coincidences are striking because, while one was envisaged in the
Charter of our Organization and was the subject of painstaking
negotiations, the other was a chance development, not having been
envisaged in the Charter. Yet both have had a profound effect on the
influence of the United Nations in global affairs and on the perception
of the Organization by those whom it was established to serve and who
were identified in the opening words of the Charter as “We the peoples
of the United Nations”.
The double celebration this year should
also enable us to appreciate better the interrelationship between human
rights and peacekeeping. There can be no question of human rights being
enjoyed in a situation of conflict. Put another way, conflicts create
conditions for the most outrageous violations of human rights, since,
contrary to all international law and rationality, the most vulnerable
in society — children, women and the aged — are often targeted and
deprived of the most basic of human rights, the right to life.
As
we define and refine our Organization’s responsibilities in
peacekeeping, which, by common consent, is now taken in its broadest
sense to mean the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts,
let us always be conscious that the universal enjoyment of human rights,
one of the major aspirations of humanity, cannot and will not be
achieved unless we devote as much effort to the elimination of the
conditions that provoke the violation of those rights.
I believe
that it is with this fact in mind that international organizations,
whether global, regional or subregional, have been devoting considerable
time to devising effective means of preventing, managing and resolving
conflicts in their various area of competence. Of course, the United
Nations, with its unique role as the only global Organization invested
with authority for the maintenance of international peace and security,
is, appropriately, taking the lead in these efforts….
-In
1987, his American wife of 25 years, Barbara J. Fernandez, filed for
divorce, and the proceedings of the case was at the Supreme Court of the
State of Connecticut (Barbara Fernandez v. Antonio Deinde Fernandez
(13283) and the case ‘involved the applicability of the doctrine of
diplomatic immunity to an action for marital dissolution and equitable
property distribution.’ As at the time of the divorce, Barbara Fernandez
stated ‘an international businessman and diplomat who has admitted to
being one of the richest men in Africa. He heads dozens of companies,
and I believe his net worth exceeds $75 million.’ She (plaintiff) also
stated that, in her opinion ‘the defendant could easily sell or transfer
assets that are relevant to her claims for relief.’ (Fernandez vs.
Fernandez).
-Ambassador Antonio Deinde Fernandez ‘claimed
diplomatic immunity by virtue of his status as an ambassador to the
United Nations for the People’s Republic of Mozambique’, and moved that
the court dismiss the entire suit for lack of personal jurisdiction. A
waiver was later provided, and the full text of the waiver went thus,
providing: ‘Limited Waiver of Immunity.’ ‘Pursuant to Article 32 of the
Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the People’s Republic of
Mozambique hereby waives the immunity extended by the United States of
America to Ambassador Antonio Deinde Fernandez under the provisions of
the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations to the following limited
and restricted extent only…’
One very unique thing about
this Yoruba high chief is that unlike many other moneybags in Nigeria
today, he did not make his money in Nigerian public office but rather by
working as a suave and most talented diplomat FOR other nations of the
globe, at a time when IBB and others were struggling over coups to rule
Nigeria, he was already dealing with governments one-on-one. He has no
traceable business or investment in Nigeria and stays virtually
permanently outside the country (na your money o but nothing for we
people of Nigeria,not even a tashere foundation or school tabi hospital.
No lele o, Baba God at the top is watching all of us on His Samsung
Galaxy). It is quite unfortunate that quite little is known about him
(haha, I know how much I wrote on Adenuga na…lol!) because of intense
privacy (which he has every right to), and what that means is that we
may never know his real worth. At any rate, I stick to Forbes and
Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index which lists Aliko Dangote as the richest
black person on the third planet in the Solar System. Maybe a day will
come when the Big Masquerade, the Afobaje (Kingmaker), the Custodian of
Prosperity & Panache, Olori Ogboni Agba (Supreme Ogboni Chief) and
Olori Oluwo (Head of the Occult) of Lagos, will come out and displace
the Kano tycoon. If that day comes, this piece will be rewritten. Let’s
take a good look at some of his titles, honours and awards (he is a
tribal Yoruba chief and said to be one of the most prominent members of
the Ogboni Confraternity):
His Excellency, AMBASSADOR, CHIEF ANTONIO DEINDE FERNANDEZ.
-His Imperial Highness Garsan Fulanin Kano (Kano State, Nigeria).
-Baron
of Dudley (England). -Grand Officier de l’Ordre National du Leopard
(Grand Officer of the National Order of the Leopard, the Democratic
Republic of Congo)
-Grand Officier de l’Ordre du Merite Centrafricain (Grand Officer of the Order of Merit, Central African Republic).
-Grand Officier de l’Ordre du Mono (Grand Officer of the Order of Mono, Togo).
-Commandeur de l’Ordre National du Merite du Gabon (Commander of the National Order of Merit, Gabon).
-Officier
du Ouissam Alaouite (Officer of the Ouissam Alaouite, Morocco where the
descendants of the Alaouite dynasty rule as kings. The present is King
Sidi Mohammed VI)
Thanks for your time.
IYANIWURA.