Businessman Obi Cubana has urged Nigerian youths to desist from seeking wealth through illegal means, stating that he does not have “soap” to cut for anyone.
Speaking in an interview with BBC Pidgin on Tuesday, July 20, Cubana who made headlines recently after shutting down Anambra with lavish burial for his late mum, said he got his breakthrough when he made his first million naira after his National Youth Service Corps program in Abuja.
He said it was in Abuja that he was introduced to the real estate business, where he met a client who wanted to furnish a house. After furnishing the house for the client, Obi was gifted N500,000, as he also made over N600,000 in profits for the job.
According to him, “That was the first N1.1 million I made before I joined contract work in Abuja. I signed a contract with PPMC, made a little money, then bought my Mercedes V-boot. I invested the money I made into a garden beer parlour before I established Cubana Group.
Miracle can’t give you money because the pastor needs money the more than you. Native doctor can’t give you money either. If you want money, you have to work hard.
If you are in your 20s, work now. I am 46 years (old), I have done my first half. I don’t know why someone who is just 20 years (old) will say he has not made it when he still has 50 years 60 years ahead. There is no soap to cut for anybody, there is no soap anywhere, work, pray, be good, make your own soap.”
Defending the spraying of naira notes at the funeral of his mother Ezinne Uche Iyiegbu last week in Oba, Anambra State, the Chairman of Cubana Group Obi Iyiegbu, aka Obi Cubana, told BBC Pidgin in an interview published on Tuesday that he could not dictate for his guests how they would spend their money.
“Why would I plan to make people lavish their money, to bathe with it? They own their money and decide how to spend it. Those people are not people I can tell ‘do this or do this’…but I feel that they just wanted to show me love,” he said.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Act makes it illegal to spray naira notes as it is considered to be ‘abuse and defacing’. Violators risk “imprisonment for term not less than six months or fine not less than N50,000 or both”.
