Category: Glamour

Abimbola “Bim” Fernandez is the gorgeous daughter of a gemstone super-rich Nigerian billionaire, Ambassador Deinde Fernandez. The 24-year-old beauty who is the daughter of the late Aduke that succumbed to colon cancer two years ago has registered her presence in the league of international music stars.

Bim as she is fondly called is a U.S-based singer who is currently making waves. Abimbola decided to pursue her dream of becoming a music star after the demise of her mother. The rising music star doesn’t need to aspire to a life of wealth and luxury as her billionaire dad, Deinde Fernandez, is said to worth a staggering $8.7 billion.

Adaeze, former beauty queen and wife of international football star; Joseph Yobo is expecting the couple’s second child. Her friends threw  a baby shower in her honour last weekend at Le Meridien Istanbul Etiler in Turkey. In a video that was released on instagram recently, the expectant mother revealed that she is expecting another boy. “I’m having a baby boy, another boy.

The ex- MGBN who is also a step-daughter of former football player, John Fashanu married the Fenerbahce S.K player in a midnight ceremony five years ago after a brief courtship.

In 2011, Adaeze was ranked 92 in a list of 101 Sexiest Soccer Wives and Girlfriends, as compiled by Bleacher Report and in 2014; she was listed as the 4th Most beautiful African Sportsman wife.

Chief Sunny Odogwu, Ide-Ahaba of Asaba, has been rich as long as he has been around, being one of the early millionaires in the country.

Now in his late 70s, Odogwu is a reputed businessman, with interest cutting across different areas of the economy, including telecommunication, shipping and publishing.

His Grand Hotel in Asaba is one of the best in that part of the country and information filtering in to revealed that the Delta born billionaire is still  not resting on his oars.

Insider revealed that his Grand Hotel Asaba, Delta state has been undergoing a facelift to give the hotel more leverage with competitors and the new project we learnt is gulping huge sums of money.

Abolaji Razaq Alausa, also known as Abohla Razac, is the brain behind wave-making Razac Gear Clothing Company in Dublin, Ireland. But success did not come to him on a platter of gold. He shares with Adetutu Audu his journey to the top and why style is an attitude.

How did you come about Razac Gear Revolution?

My childhood experiences lead to the creation of the company. If there was a free and accessible handcraft and technical centre for a man like me when I was growing up, I wouldn’t have gone through all the ugly experiences I went through. Each time I remember there are still many young people going through what I went through, wandering out there without direction, I believe I can make a difference.

Razac is my Muslim name (meaning the Provider and Sustainer in Arabic). After I finished from college, the thought of moving to the next level came to me at the entrance of the company registration office in Dublin where I went to re-register the company name as Razac Clothing Inc. After a brief deliberation with my former colleague, I added my name to it.

What were your initial challenges?

The challenges of creating a value for a brand from the scratch abroad,

especially when you are campaigning for unifying nationalities, without government funds or grants or help from any source means you have only you

to start, to deal with everything. When campaigning for global unity

you have to learn to endure, accept, tolerate, be humble, share your knowledge with people before they willingly believe in you. You have

to dream with your family, co workers and communicate your dreams to

the world before creation. After designing shoes and T-shirts with my social welfare payment weekly allowance, I realised that few Africans loved it on me but were not bold enough to wear it. I was only attracting some ethnic groups like the white community and I didn’t feel represented. I was labelled a mad man, a racist and called discriminatory names. I felt bad about it.  People thought I should get a job first before establishing my own. But I couldn’t work in a fashion industry because we had to travel to London for work experience and I could not get a visa to travel. I decided to get any job as the pressure was high. I needed money to support my family. I couldn’t keep most of the jobs as I was always sacked either for daydreaming with a busy colleague, challenging the manager for a rule to be changed or talking about irrelevant issues on the job. I was sacked from my last job because I was caught selling t-shirts to colleagues at work and I went back to the streets.

When would you say the breakthrough came?

The breakthrough first came after much wondering; I had a vision

without direction. I was challenged by my mentor, Dayo Olomu.  One day, when I attended one of his seminars in London, he said that to make a real change, one must be the change. Blood ran through my spine when I first heard that, the voice was like an angel spoke to me. I felt that is it! I decided I should be the change instead of complaining; if I couldn’t get a job, why not create one? If I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth, I could create platinum on my body. Razac Gear was born.  This has helped us in learning the power of leverages and networking. I am blessed to be able to recognise talents, to involve people who I think are smarter than me in the business to help strengthen my weakness.

Where do you draw your inspiration from?

When I first started designing, the inspiration came from asking questions. Why are things like these? Why are the Nigerian Nollywood actors wearing New York inscribed t-shirts on the screen? Why wearing London inscribed t-shirts on the streets of Dublin? Why do we buy known brands just because of the logo without knowing what they stand for? Why not create a purpose built centre for learning, that would increase employment, production and decrease the rate of poverty? I

imagined I could change that. I started with ethnic brand with the hope

that people would want to represent themselves. The inspiration is timeless; I express my dream through fashion and style and writing. I design a mindset

dream, a frequent coming vision. I believe in simplicity is elegance.

I have also learned to build the business around my core values, my

beliefs. So, it is a lot easier when you are living your dream. The passion is my driver. We stepped on toes; logistic problems, delay, disappointments and fulfilments questioned our credibility and integrity.  I realise I am fully responsible.

What is your definition of style?

My definition of style is attitude. For instance, when visualising pants (trousers) on ladies I try to focus on the style to bring out the design and not specifically on camel toe. In the big picture, we don’t want to turn heads, we want to break necks. Since my style must always have been seen in any design before the creation, I am justified for the outcome.

What would you say is your key to success?

Being a Nigerian has helped me in different areas. I understand class. I rediscovered myself. You can become whatever you aspire to be. Anything in life has a price tag to it. You can either pay the price by staying the same and complaining or you can make a positive difference. I have learnt a lot of lessons, self discovery and many questions answered. I became spiritually improved as I prayed hard. I realised that the same skills, intelligence, beliefs, knowledge and determination one uses to commit anything negative is the same one can use to impact a positive change. One only needs a twist in the right direction. Just like a job applicant would pray before attending an interview and a businessman would pray to build a successful business empire.

When I realise that everything starts from the inside, I stop blaming people for my mistakes. We have designed exclusively for special occasions, for musical groups, individuals, according to their requirement. We are able to cloth my mentor, Dayo Olomu, the celebrity motivational speaker in the UK .The campaign is on- going and so is the challenge. Razac Gear’s vision is to become one of the world value created brand, the brand the world will take pride in; a brand from which each of many different groups will be making its own creative contribution. Aspire to become available on 10 major high streets of the world.

Tell us your best and worst decisions

The best decision was sending myself back to school. No worst decision as I

think you are winning even when you fail because you learn from the

experiences. I lived three lives; (1) when I was growing up, (2) the one life threw at me (3) the present life I created by myself. I am living my long-term dreams, I am doing what I love, and I am fulfilled.

Would you say your background shaped you into who you are? Can you share this with us?

I realised my second-to-none passion for fashion at the early stage of

life but without the opportunity to actualise it as I lost my dad at the age of 12. My mum, a poor widow, had five of us to support, including our youngest sister who was aged eight to feed. I was the only son and second to the last born. At 21 years old, a young man without any money to sponsor his university education, no future prospect, I had to go on the streets of Lagos hustling to fight poverty. I didn’t come to Europe by flight, I dreamt it, but I couldn’t see myself flying on air. I trekked down. I was introduced to a man who promised to take us to Europe by road within few hours but eventually turned to five months. He absconded with our money and left us stranded on the beautiful north African Sahara desert with lots of mountains to climb, valleys, seas to cross, mission to achieve, energy and hope. That’s a topic for another day. This has helped and exposed me to appreciate the elegance in nature. I underwent determination, fear, focus, prayer, struggle, self belief, courage, the values of shelter. I learnt from meeting new people from different backgrounds, religions, races and cultures. I suggested and we created our own boat to cross seas, we became our only friends and family, we must love and help each other to triumph and survive. Hope, dreams, patience are the heroic solution at last.