Richard Vedelago is 29 years old and worth more millions than he’s prepared to tell. ‘Money talks, but wealth whispers,’ he says with a smile, sitting back in the bar at Claridge’s – his idea – and lazily sipping an elderflower juice. That whispering is not, the oil, gas, property, telecoms and menswear tycoon goes on, typical of a Nigerian mindset: ‘Very loud, quite brash, larger than life -even if you’re just having a family meal, everything’s over the top all the time. writes David Jenkins for Tatler. So it’s quite fun.’ Real fun, he should have said. Nigerians all say they work hard and party hard, believe that they’re better at anything than anyone else, collect PhDs like confetti and are intensely entrepreneurial. ‘When mankind finally gets to Mars,’ chortles Ateh Jewel, who has both a film production company and a beauty business, ‘they’ll finda Nigerian already there, cutting a deal.’

What’s always been big is the wedding culture, enormous affairs with thousands of guests. Also big are the Lagos Polo Club and the Lagos Motor Boat Club, where all well-connected generations mix – and, no doubt, discuss the two almost identical, and large, yachts that sit next to each other off Victoria Island’s Carrington Crescent. One’s owned by Cuppy’s father, Femi Otedola -his net worth is an estimated £2.2bn – and the other belongs to Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, with a net worth of £10.1bn via a conglomerate ranging from cement to sugar refining by way of oil. He gave himself a £28m jet in April 2010, as a 53rd birthday present.
Dangote recently praised the government’s policies, and he, Otedola and many others have had close ties to Nigeria’s politicians – as has the ‘stupendously rich’ Senator Andy Uba, who’s married to Richard Vedelago’s beautiful sister, Faith, herself the founder of Faith Ministries, a popular and successful church. Richard has a ‘ginormous’ house next to hers in Abuja, which he describes as a slower and calmer place than Lagos – like ‘Washington to New York’. As well as that house, Richard has some dazzling cars in Abuja, including two Bentleys. There’s a market for expensive cars, despite the potholed state of most Nigerian roads, and Porsche has opened up there; its Cayenne 4x4s do well, as do Jeep Wranglers and the Mercedes G-Wagon. But one Nigerian told the Guardian that ‘I have a Bentley, a Porsche and a Ferrari. But people don’t travel by road any more. So the Ferrari in the garage hasn’t done 500 miles in three years.’ Vedelago had a Lamborghini in London, as well as a Bentley, but he drove it so little that he ditched it. He’d like to buy a Smart car to go to the gym, but friends jeer at the idea. ‘So I’m looking for a Porsche or an Aston Martin.’ He laughs. ‘Sounds bad, doesn’t it? A Porsche to go to the gym.’
Kola Karim does drive a very lovely, very yellow Ferrari Italia 458 here in London, one of two he was given by ‘generous friends - good friends’. He had it parked recently in Chelsea, ‘and this lady said her son wouldlove to have a picture with the car. I said, “Feel free.” And then she said, “Who do you play for?” I said, “Play what?” “Football,” she said. ‘What team did I play for? Was she being racist? No. But that was her understanding.’ The automatic assumption was that a prosperous black man could only be a footballer or a rap star. But Karim, a very successful businessman who’s taken his mother’s trading company into construction and oil, does indeed encounter racism. ‘Oh, yes. It’s normal. There’s a lot of ignorance around.’ Ignorance that ranges from stewardesses automatically shepherding you towards economy to policemen pulling you and your Ferrari over. ‘In the country recently, we went to lunch at a restaurant. We walked in, and the whole place stopped eating – it was like we were going to pull a gun and stick everyone up.’ Then some local grandees appeared and sat down with Karim – at which point other people from other tables felt it was in their interests to meet this funny foreigner. It’s happened as well to others in this article, at nightclubs in London and Paris. As for Cuppy, she was in Switzerland, interning at an oil-trading company, when the story about Oprah Winfrey being mistreated in a shop in Zurich was reported. ‘It was hilarious. [Store staff] were all over us. I loved it. I wish Oprah complained every time.’ Mind you, says one man, ‘I find green is accepted everywhere.’ ‘Yes,’ says Karim, only half-laughing. ‘When you’re wealthy, you don’t see it. Either the guy wants to collect your money, or not.’

Kola Karim
But far more important for Karim is showing that there are ‘better and better prospects’ for his continent. ‘Because Africa’s like a pair of shoes. You wouldn’t get good money for it if it wasn’t polished. If it’s dirty and it looks worn out, no one wants to buy it. We’re trying to show the world a side of Africa they don’t see.’ That’s why Karim was more than happy to let Ralph Lauren throw a party for him and donate 15 per cent of the Bond Street store’s takings that day to a charity of his choosing – one benefiting autistic children. ’396 people turned up. Very successful.’ (Misan Harriman helped set it up, and Cartier have been in touch with him about a similar event; he sees great potential in acting as a conduit between Nigeria and the West.) Kessie Edewor-Thorley was there, and Nacho Figueras, and two of Karim’s own polo ponies, outside the store – the other 10 were, as usual, at the Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club. Next year, Karim will focus on buying a farm in England and keeping his équipe there. He’s got another acquisition in mind, too: a Premier League football club.

‘If you imagine a continent of 900 million people who are football crazy, imagine the followership of an African businessman. Think about the marketing. It’s awesome.’ Even more so if his currently 12-year-old son were playing – he’s been scouted by Chelsea already. Meantime, the boy attends Bruern Abbey, while his older sister goes to Benenden and his younger one to ‘Holland Park Prep’. Karim’s son plays polo too, as does his brother, though Karim’s handicap’s gone down from +2 to 0, ‘with so much work going on. We’re the second-largest independent oil producer in Africa, by reserves [1.3bn barrels], and we’re building.’ No wonder he has homes in Lagos, London, Marbella and Miami.

http://www.newsofthepeople-ng.com/silverspoon-nigerians-taking-over-london/
http://amazingstoriesaroundtheworld..co.uk/2013/12/the-super-lifestyle-of-nigerians-in.html