By Ifeanyi Maduako

ONLY a few people knew that Obinna Iyiegbu who is also known as Obi Cubana’s mother ever lived in this world. A few people knew when she died. However, after her queen-like burial millions of people around the world today not only know her but will not forget her in a hurry. She didn’t have the renown or publicity like the queen of England while she lived, but her son Obi Cubana made her burial almost similar to that of the queen of England.

Obi Cubana deployed his wealth to give a befitting burial to the womb that gave birth to him; and some people are complaining about its lavishness. There should be no template or set standard for burial of loved ones.

People should bury their loved ones according to their individual financial capabilities. Obi Cubana is not a civil servant. He is not a political appointee. He is not a banker or a corporate service worker. He is a show-biz personality. He is into the hospitality industry.  

For long, he had maintained a quiet personality which is alien and in contra-distinction to his hospitality business. But he decided to utilise the opportunity of his mother’s burial to announce himself to the world. Yet, some people are complaining. Before his mother’s burial, I never knew or heard about Obi Cubana. I never knew that someone like him lives in this world. 

The publicity he got from his mother’s burial cannot be acquired even through multi-billion advertorials for several years. For those complaining about the lavish burial, how much should Obi Cubana have used to bury his mother? One million naira? If the burial was done with just one million naira, would that have pacified or made them happy? If Obi Cubana had buried his mother quietly even with a paltry amount, the same critics would have tongue-lashed him that he didn’t give his mother a befitting burial.

Obi Cubana was ready to spend all his money to send his beloved mom to eternity; after all, no amount of money is worth his mother. If money could save his mother’s life, she would still be alive today. Money should not be placed above human beings, whether dead or alive. In any case, the expenses for the burial were almost footed one hundred per cent by Obi Cubana’s friends and associates. Yet, some people are complaining. 

Should Obi Cubana have rejected his friends and associates’ burial gifts when they offered them? Even if he elected to bury his mother quietly, should he have locked his gate against his friends and associates when they brought those gifts? How many of these critics have ever rejected burial gifts from their own friends before?    

The primary purpose of money is to solve the needs of mankind. It is meant to be spent and not to be reverenced or revered. Those who have it could elect to spend it as they like. Spraying of money should not be regarded as an offence because squeezing of money during offerings and thanksgiving in churches and mosques is a worse offence. A pack of money sprayed still retains its neatness and strength than a squeezed one.

If nobody has ever been arrested for squeezing money into the hands of security agencies along the roads and in their offices, nobody should be disturbed for spraying money. Money should not be regarded as a god.

Obi Cubana used one stone to kill many birds. Today, he is a well-known personality unlike before the burial. His hospitality business and other chain of businesses will witness a spiral effect in growth henceforth. He attracted a lot of publicity or advertorial to himself, his chain of businesses, his Oba community, etcetera. Till tomorrow Obi Cubana will continue to trend. He did no wrong in the way he buried his mother. He is not a politician. He is not a banker.    

If not for his wealthy friends and associates that made the burial memorable, it would have been an unsung one. How many presidents, governors, senators, ministers and other political office holders attended the burial? Almost none or a handful of them, yet the burial is still trending. Obi Cubana is a strategic planner. If the dead could see what happens in the land of the living, his parents must be very proud of him.

Some critics are complaining about the lavish burial, and they forget that many poor people who provided essential services during the burial have kissed poverty goodbye. Many poor people who scrambled for money used what they got to pay for their house rents, children’s school fees and even set up small businesses.

Obi Cubana has pledged to empower 300 youths from his community with one million each. What have his critics got to say about that? How many of his critics have ever empowered anybody? The insipid talk of ritual money is balderdash. There is nothing like money ritual or ritual money.

Every currency in circulation is either printed by the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company, NSPMC, and distributed through the Central Bank and other commercial banks. The talk of a ritualist or diabolic person locking his room, chanting some abracadabra incantation and money falling from the sky is arrant nonsense. It is only believed by the gullible and the ignoramuses.

Satan or the devil cannot print the smallest currency to give to a human being. Money in circulation is either real money or counterfeit, no currency comes from spiritual power. If ritual money truly exists, African politics or scramble for political offices will be less attractive.

Armed robbers, kidnappers, bandits and terrorists won’t be risking their lives every day when they can simply sacrifice a soul or few souls and pronto, their rooms and houses will be filled up with hard currencies of all kinds. Obi Cubana’s money comes from hard work and the grace of God.

Maduako, a social commentator, wrote from Owerri