Nothing has shaken up Nigeria in recent times than the astounding burial of Obi Cubana’s mother in Oba town in Anambra State.
The social media space was entirely taken over by all makes of accounts concerning the larger-than-life-and-death burial ceremonies.
The published cash donations made by the committee of friends of Obi Cubana read like the annual accounts of some banks There was the revelation that one of the hotel-cum-club-owner’s friends had sent a trailer load of cows for killing at the burial. Another friend stood out to be counted by putting a trailer laden with Hero lager beer on its way to Oba. Exclamations of ooh and aargh reverberated across the six geo-political zones of the country as news of the razzmatazz in Oba swept the waves.
There were loud screams in some quarters against such an uncouth and vulgar display of wealth especially in the dreary times Nigerians are living through. There was the other flank of ovation for the man of the moment, Obi Cubana, who had seized all attention through the outlandish exhibition.
Let’s take this quote from Oscar Wilde: “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”
Anybody is at liberty to bury a loved one anyway he wishes to, crucially if he is not pulling the dough from the coffers of the government.
Obi Cubana got into town the who’s who of Nigeria – heavy politicians, classy celebrities, eagle-eyed police honchos, moneyed captains of industry and business, high-flying musicians, trending public figures, and glamorous women etc.
If the burial was taking place in cities like Lagos or Abuja or even Onitsha, it could easily have been taken in the stride of the general public, but the convergence of moguls happened in rustic Aboji village of Oba town in Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State.
There were videos of alluring ladies swimming in the ornate swimming pool while being sprayed with dollars and assorted currencies by the excited guests.
Money was sent flying in the air all over the place, and the attracted locals dived for cash with the agility of legendary goalkeepers.
Then there were the mighty moguls who dished out money in bundles because they did not want to waste time undoing the wraps.
To give him his due, Obi Cubana should be saluted for serving to reflate the economy of his hometown through this once-in-a-lifetime outing.
For antagonists who had posited that Obi Cubana should have instead directed his friends to make their donation towards building a hospital, for instance, it needs to be understood that these show promoters cannot be served with a decree on how to spend their cash.
These are the showmen show-business: if there is no show, there is no business!
Even so, at the thanksgiving church service on the Sunday after the burial, Obi Cubana pledged to gift a million Naira to each person selected from 300 different families in Oba as a start-up fund in business. That’s a cool N300 million in community service! The prospect of projecting three millionaires in a jiffy in a rural area takes the cake.
I bow and tremble and faint for this showstopper that is living up to his title of Okpataozuora, to wit, he that earns the money that serves the needs of all. It is little wonder then that the chairman of Cubana Group, Obi Iyiegbu, the billionaire fondly hailed as Obi Cubana is the trending topic in the social media space. Celebrated singers such as Davido, Phyno and D’Banj upped the ante of the show in which the otherwise showy Odumeje serv
ed somewhat as a back-up act. Even wonder-boy Wizkid was advertised as forgetting his birthday because of the Cubana show in Oba!
I must not end this matter without citing the report that the Federal Government of Nigeria approached Obi Cubana to loan some hardly needed money to the country! Well, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has since denied the report as Fake News.
The son of teachers, Obi Cubana attended the prestigious Dennis Memorial Grammar School (DMGS) Onitsha and University of Nigeria (UNN) Nsukka; so he by no means belongs to the class derogatorily labelled as “illiterate-money-miss-road”.
The conservative types of Nigeria will of course pan Obi Cubana and friends for primitive public ostentation, but I prefer money being thrown about for the people to see instead of being conservatively stored in banks, abroad or in white elephant projects of the idle rich class.
Zig Ziglar said: “It is not what you have acquired that determines how far you go in life; it is what you do with it.” At some future date for sure, the 300 Oba youths empowered by Obi Cubana will splash the cash and there will still be cries of primitive display of wealth by some of us suffering from the tunnel vision of devastating inferiority complex.
Uzoatu, a poet writes from Lagos.