MEET THE MYSTERIOUS BILLIONAIRE BEFORE OTHERS

Of all the richest people in Africa, none comes close to this man when it comes to the level of style, he is a billionaire and he is got swag, i mean terrific swag. His level of swag is to the extent that whenever he enters a restaurant to eat, everyone else must leave because he cannot eat with the ‘commoners’. Welcome to the world of one of Africa's richest men, welcome to the world of Antonio Oladiende Fernandez. 

Born in 1936, his is most times addressed as his Excellency...so i am going to do the same. When it comes to the most impressive and exuberant display of splendour, Fernandez dusts most billionaires in miles. His swag is sooooo massive that ovation magazine featured him in 40 pages. This says a lot about his prestigious standing. A very private and sometimes aloof person, his wealth has dazed and fazed many.

The type you call perfect combination of a diplomat and a gentleman. Even though he is nigerian, he has been the permanent representative of central african republic at the united nations since 1997. While he has interests in the country’s oil industry, and he is also into bauxite (for aluminum) exports, gold pits and diamonds mines. He owns petro inett with shares in view, sandcat petroleum, sanantonio, goldfields, voguehope, grantdalem inuola, sandcat goldfields, woods and petro inett equatorial guinea. He has served as the special adviser to the president of mozambique on international economic matters and from 1992-1995.

The Officier du Ouissam Alaouite Award (Officer of the Ouissam Alaouite, Kingdom of Morocco)

He was the ambassador-at-large for the republic of togo and angola. He was also once the consul for benin republic (1966), the economic advisor to the angolan government. In 1984, he was the permanent representative of mozambique to the united nations. Wow! A nigerian held all these posts in other countries.

He has houses in kano, built a tower for himself in lagos, united kingdom and in new york where he stays more often. That’s not all, he has accounts in the cayman islands, france, switzerland, ireland, hong kong, scotland and the united states. He surrounds himself with wealth, wealth and wealth. The finest, classiest and the most exquisite things that money can buy. He travels around in a convoy of pink rolls royces. 

Do you know of any other moneybag who does that? And if you have the misfortune of entering a restaurant before him, you will have to vacate -unless maybe you are bill gates. His excellency does not dine where there are commoners. Take it or leave it. He splashed gb£200,000 on his seven-storey townhouse to buy 1,000 books of gold leaf to ‘toosh’ up the already ‘tooshed’ cornices and balustrades. It was revealed by his former wife that in one of his houses in France, the wine collection alone is worth about $1 million (nign160million).

His family motto is: "aguntan meji kii mumi ninu koto kan na". What that simply means is "that two rams cannot drink from the same container", put in another term "there cannot be two captains on a ship". Well, that’s correct, there is no other Antonio Deinde Fernandez (the big masquerade).

He owns one of the most luxurious homes in the same state of kano with one of the largest horse stables in Nigeria. But the house currently needs some renovations as some parts of it are coming down. He schooled in Cambridge university and Columbia university (business degree) and has been using private jets long before people likes Dangotes and Adenugas ever started dreaming of being billion dollar men. He has been in the diplomatic business since 1966 and billions has passed through his hands since then. He has direct contacts to the most powerful world leaders, business executives and entrepreneurs. He is very close to nelson Mandela and george walker bush, and whatever political or business strings needed to be pulled, count on billionaire Fernandez.

In 1989, his american wife, Barbara, also filed for divorce. She was awarded the 4 million pounds (over one billion naira) mansion in new york. In 2003, his wife, aduke, sued him for divorce for almost $400 million. Mrs. Aduke demanded for a divorce because he was excessively controlling in his behaviour. He once romanced the erelu of lagos, abiola dosumu but they fell apart and she has since stopped using his name, Fernandez. He is currently married to a beauty lady Haleema from kano state.

No one knows exactly how much the legendary Fernandez is worth as many call him ‘the mysterious billionaire’. He has two daughters.

Tittles and awards
A high chief of the ogboni confraternity, he is highly revered in his Yoruba land (his tribe in Nigeria),
The 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 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.
Grand officier de l’ordre du merite central African (grand officer of the order of merit, central african republic)