By David-Chyddy Eleke
Truly, I love Obi Cubana. His mien, his smiles, his business sense. Dude is not unaware that he is a big brand in Nigeria today, and he guards his name jealously.
At public events, other ‘celebrities’ will be feeling like celebrities, until Obi Cubana walks in. Then they will begin to hustle to take pictures or shake hands with the real celebrity, hoping that camera will capture them, so they can post them on social media.
I just stumbled on a video online, which had a misleading caption about a native doctor chilling with Obi Cubana in their hometown at an event at the weekend.
The video was posted by an ally of the native doctor, and the intention was to show that the native doctor chills with guys like Obi Cubana. I watched the close to 10 minutes video and almost couldn’t find Obi Cubana in it. All through the video, the native doctor was feeling like Lord, and people flocked around him to take pictures. An obviously hired/paid cameraman captured every of his move, including where he was abusing the naira just like Bobrisky, who will soon finally move to Kirikiri.
Somewhere at the tail end of the video, Obi Cubana was captured exchanging pleasantries with some people. From nowhere, the native doctor appeared behind him, and Obi turned and acknowledged him, shoke hands with him and quickly distanced himself from the native doctor the same way you would do a leper, for fear of contracting the disease.
Then the video found its way to the social media with the caption; “Native doctor chilling with Obi Cubana at the weekend”.
I just love guys like Obi Cubana. After working so hard to get to the top, you need to guard your name jealously, lest others (albeit fraudulent ones) use your name to strengthen their weak names. Obi Cubana is now a big name, and the owner of the name knows so. A name that top government officials feel free to appear in pictures with and associate freely is not a small one.
A man whose wealth was made known shortly after his mother’s burial, and with doubt in their minds, EFCC invited him for questioning and he still came out clean, is not a small name.
A man who has taken to the media to speak about his days of little begining and the steps with which he rose, needs to be protected, else others will rubbish it. (This is not to say that I’m not aware that to attain some level of wealth, some water could passed under the bridge).
They are many people who display stupendous wealth, but we do not know how they began. Some just travel abroad, show up with inexplicable wealth, build hotels, establish companies, and if you ask the source of their wealth, they point to their companies. But truth is, what we truly should have been shown is what birthed the initial monies with which the companies and hotels were established.
It is so normal today to display wealth without having a day time job. I’m so worried for this present generation of young people. Everything to them starts and ends with money, and how much of it you have.
I have worked hard to shape the psyche of my four boys, but as hard as I try, I have failed; or so I think. Just recently, there was a discussion among my children. They spoke so highly of a certain noisy Awka Bitcoin trader. They said the guy drove to a location close to my house, and in celebration of his birthday, he stood at the open roof of his car and sprayed money until people almost injured themselves trying to pick some. Another Bobrisky in the making.
“I want to be like him when I grow up”, one of my son said. He continued; “If you see the kind of cars he is driving ehhh! Guy, I heard he is so rich (the appellation ‘guy’ and ‘Oga’, are the new ways my children address themselves when they hold conversations these days. How they picked them, I do not know).”
When I want to listen well to them, I stay in my room and behave as if I was asleep, just to give them the freedom to discuss, while I eavesdrop and form opinions about their maturity.
For children that I have tried to tame, shape their psyche to think this way shows how others out there do.
In today’s world, it is not about how you made your money, but how much of it you have. That is why the kind of role model children should ordinarily have, to be able to grow into usefulness have been discarded for those who have money, no matter how unexplainable their wealth are.
That is why a certain guy in my neighborhood always openly proclaims to his friends; “Bros forget ooo! We Yahoo boys, we sabi chop money ooo. We no dey look back when we dey spend”. I’m sure to toast a young girl and be sure not to get no for an answer, he would probably be telling them, “if you no gree, na you go lose oo, me I be yahoo boy ooo.”
For guys like Obi Cubana who have refused to lend their names to native doctors to shine, I say kudos. Evil will never triumph over good, but even at that, I feel for the present and coming generation. Moral decadence is now something to be proud of.
This post is actually meant to wish Chief Obinna Iyiegbu (Obi Cubana) a happy birthday as he celebrates his 49th birthday next week Friday. Happy birthday Sir.
