One Year After, High Society Remembers Billionaire Harry Akande

Society Watch

For many families around the world, the emotional and psychological torture forced on them with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 will remain indelible in their minds, as they lost several loved ones.

Among prominent personalities who lost their lives was the flamboyant billionaire, Chief Harry Ayoola Akande. When the news of his passing broke on December 5, 2020, many, including those who only knew him through the pages of newspapers, were shell-shocked.

It was not because the flamboyant businessman didn’t live a fulfilled life or that he didn’t live to old age, having died at 77. Rather, his colourful lifestyle even beat a kingly living. He was feared and respected at the same time and was just the type you could rightly describe as a man of timber and calibre.

He was affluent, connected, and good looking. He created his own world and literally lived it alone. He had an almost incomparable taste for the good things of life.

Legendary for his flamboyant dressing, he never settled for anything but the best in terms of class, taste and luxury.

Akande lived a lavish and colourful lifestyle that many, including his peers in the ultra-wealthy class, fantasized about. Indeed, the affable Agba-Oye of Ibadanland lived a life filled with bold achievements.

There used to be a saying that no real Nigerian could rival Akande’s charming extravagance. In fact, long before the arrival of Forbes’ Rich List or Fortune 100 on the continent of Africa, the late Agbaoye of Ibadanland was one of the first set of Nigerians to have been described with superlatives as a billionaire.

His death has, however, created a vacuum in the social circle. He would forever be remembered for lightening up social events and adding colour to functions whenever he sauntered into them.

In his 77 years of sojourn on earth, Akande successfully built many relationships across local and international bridges and would be remembered as one Ibadan man who had class, taste, and style and enjoyed his wealth to the fullest.