by Hauwa Gambo

You might not know Tatler, but you should. It’s one of Britain’s more upscale society magazines – which is really shorthand for elevated gossip. So when they make the point that a new set of “young moneyed Nigerians” have arrived, we pay attention.

The magazine in a December 2013 feature highlights the likes of TV host Eku Edewor, Rotimi Alakija, celeb manager Chin Okeke and an older set including Costain West Africa chairman Kola Karim as part of the new set of Nigerians makings things happen – especially in a country (the United Kingdom) where Nigerians are the “sixth-highest foreign spenders”.

According to Tatler, “Nigerians spend 300million pounds annually at British Universities and schools” and they also note we are investing over 250 million pounds in British property every year. And they wouldn’t be the British press if they didn’t know, amongst other more pointed snarky statements, that “All of which might seem jarring from a country of 170 million people, 70 per cent of whom live on under £ 1.25 a day.”

By the way, speaking of money, we are loving that mannequin pose in pieces from the Autumn/Winter 2013 collection of the lovely Jewel by Lisa.

Okay, so another excerpt:

…the budding oil and property mogul Rotimi Alakija – whose mother, Folorunsho Alakija, is the richest black woman in the world (oil) and dropped £100m on four flats in One Hyde Park (‘She didn’t mess around,’ says Vedelago, who helped sell them to her) – tells me a Nigerian champagne war in an American club ended with the winner spending £1.1 m, though Rotimi certainly wasn’t there: ‘That’s just silly. It’s not part of who I am.”

You can read the piece by clicking on the photos – from bottom up.

Now, what do YOU think?