By James Eze
Obi Cubana is trending today. But for what exactly? Did he launch a new expedition to the outer space? Has he discovered the vaccine for malaria? No. Not at all. For giving Nigeria the noisiest burial in recent memory. For propagating a flawed lifestyle. For subtly inciting the youths to make money by any means necessary. Huhh!
And if anybody was looking for what may have triggered 21 year-old Chidimma Ojukwu to kill her lover for money, the insane display of unbridled love of money in Oba is a good clue. We are still cooking this evil meal. By the time many Nigerian youths have had a ration of it, a forest fire will erupt that may be impossible to quench!
I don’t think that we should, in good conscience, recommend the ridiculous display in Oba to Nigerian youths if we are mindful of tomorrow. I have not come across any record of Obi Cubana’s investment in people or a list of people he reportedly built up apart from Cubana chief priest who even left him in a rancorous episode. If a record exists, I’d be delighted to see it. But this is really not about Obi’s public philanthropy or lack thereof. It is rather about how society acquiesces to a slow decline to a predictable demise!
Apart from folks in showbiz, I have this niggling feeling that most of the folks who put up that show in Oba are clandestine businessmen whose income sources are buried in shame. I think we should ask questions about these things. Any society that thrives in the wrong values will ultimately die!
Our society is on a steady slide to a slow death. We may choose to pretend that we don’t know that 80 percent of our youths are Yahoo businessmen and women. Are these the people who will provide leadership to our children? Are these the people who will go to global summits with brilliant and techy youngsters from Rwanda in the next 20 years? Are we planting the right values in our youths with this vulgar display of wealth which emphasizes the wisdom of making money at all costs?
I am not moralizing. I’m foretelling the future! How many incubation centers do we have in Anambra State for a state with innate ability for innovation and creativity? How can we play in the markets of tomorrow with the mindset that those who spray money in obscene display of base morality are the role models of society?
Indeed, how different are we from the first generation of noisy fraudsters whose praises Oliver de Coque sang to high heavens? What legacies did that generation leave that we remember it by today and what legacy will the current money-worshippers leave 25 years from now? When will this get rich or die trying mentality stop?
At a time when the buzzwords across the world are startups, incubation centers, innovation hubs and artificial intelligence, Nigerian youths are caught up in the whirlpool of ostentatious display of wealth and primitive showiness! This is an augury to a death foretold!
Well, mine is a minority opinion!
• Eze is an award winning poet and media manager.