Who are the Cubanas? Obinna Iyiegbu, aka Obi Cubana Ebele Iyiegbu Paschal Okechukwu, aka Cubana Chief Priest

called Ibiza Club in Abuja, and, in 2009, established another club, called Cubana, in Owerri, Imo State (Oyediji, Tayo (2019-05-30). He named his business “Cubana”, and this has become his other name. He is the chairman of Cubana Group. Full list of the present Cubana Group establishments are: ● Rolex Hotels – Lagos ● Cubana Leisure Outfits ● Pablo Cubana – Lagos ● Crave Cubana – Abuja ● Grand Cubana Hotels – Abuja ● Opium Cubana – Owerri ● Cubana Night Clubs – Lagos ● Gustavo Cubana- Enugu

Cubana

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Obi Cubana is married to Ebele Iyiegbu.

Barrister Ebele Iyiegbu with her husband

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Below is the BBC Pidgin interview with Obi Cubana, which reveals more details about him.

BBC Pidgin Interview with Obi Cubana 12:46am on Jul 21, 2021

Obinna Iyiegbu, wey pipo sabi as Obi Cubana, don reveal inside exclusive interview with di BBC Pidgin, im life tori and journey. Di 46-year-old business man from Anambra state for eastern Nigeria wey dey into entertainment and hospitality business, from im hometown of Oba, Idemili South, Obi Cubana sidon to tok many tins, including about di early days of im business life. Di business mogul wey di burial of im mama for im hometown Oba over di weekend of 16, 17, 18 July, 2021, become di biggest tori for social media, tok about di role of im parents, im education and how im make im first N1m ($2,400). Over di weekend of 16, 17, 18 July, 2021, di burial of Obi Cubana mama, wey im do for im hometown Oba, become Nigeria biggest tori for social media and e get why. Tori begin fly upandan say Obi Cubana by Friday say go immortalise im mama wit pendant and neckpiece wey worth $100,000 and ceremony wey cost even more.

“E happun like dis becos we don promise our mama say wen she clock 80 years, di kain carnival wey we go do, nobody don do am for dis world,” Obi Cubana tok as im explain why di burial na tok of town. E say but wen im mama die before her 80th birthday, dem come decide to direct all di planning and energy for di burial.

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Obi Cubana at his mother’s burial

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First One Million Naira

Di Political Science graduate say after im comot school, e dey Abuja dey do National Youth Service (NYSC) for 1999 wia im serve for di National Assembly. At di same time Obi Cubana come enta Estate Agent work, dey sell land and real estate property. “Na for dia I hear 5% for di first time in my life!” But im big break come e say, as e bin meet one client wey give am house furnishing contract.

“We do [di job] well o, e dash me N500k...inside di job my profit come be like N600 and something [thousand], so na N1.1m be that.” Oda jobs later follow.

“I do small contract for PPMC, make small money that time buy my V-Boot [Mercedes Benz car], na so we come start life.”

Mama and Papa

Di business mogul praise im parents well-well for how dem raise im and im siblings, especially im mama, wey e say become everytin for dem since dia papa die 15 years ago. “Na she dey play di role of papa and mama… before you go she must pray for you, after she go pray for you,” di Lagos based businessman bin tok about im mama. E say im mama bin dey teach for for di primary school im attend: Central School, Oba.

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Money spraying

Obi Cubana defend di spraying of currency notes for di ceremony by guests, say na dem get dia money and so dem fit spend am anyway dem like. “How I go plan make pipo troway money, carry am bath? Di money na dem get am… na dem get dia money na dem get dia style.

2. Barrister Ebele Iyiegbu

Ebele Iyiegbu, a lawyer by profession, was born in 1979 in Obosi, Anambra State, Nigeria. She met her husband in Abuja and they got married in 2008. They have four children together, all boys, namely, Alex, Ifeanyi, Ebube and Kosisochukwu. Ebele Iyiegbu serves as the Director at Casa Cubana Homes; the Founder/CEO of The KIEK Foundation; and Legal Partner at Bryan Micheals & Associates. Ebele Iyiegbu’s KIEK foundation is a non-governmental organization established with the aim of improving the lives of the less privileged children in our society through quality education, healthcare, nutrition, and child’s rights governance.

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Obi Cubana and wife on Val Day, 2022

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Obi Cubana and wife on Val Eve 2022

Obi Cubana and his family on New Year Day 2022

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3. Paschal Chibuike Okechukwu, aka Cubana Chief Priest

Paschal Chibuike Okechukwu, popularly known as Cubana Chief Priest is, in fact, the chief priest and manager of Obi Cubana’s businesses. Cubana Chief Priest was born on 2nd April 1981, in Umuhu Okabia, Orsu Local Government Area of Imo State.

Obi Cubana with Cubana Chief Priest

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Cubana Chief Priest attended primary and secondary schools in Abia State, where he lived with his father, a shoe dealer in Aba. He later studied at Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Owerri, I He revealed that he attended a Catholic junior seminary, the Emmanuelites Junior Seminary, in Ohuru, Aba, Abia State. This institution belongs to the Congregation of Christ Emmanuel (C.C.E), a religious formation order for training of priests, founded by Fr. Prof. John Egbulefu. According to Cubana Chief Priest, his late mother had wanted him to become a Catholic priest, but sadly, he failed her during the seminary school days. Although, no regrets because, according to him, he failed in seminary but succeeded in his Cubana business. He wrote as follows via his official Instagram account: “My junior seminary days (C.C.E). Small thing I for be catholic priest, a priest like Melchizedek of old. Well!! Many are called but few are chosen. I no sure to say any of us here made it to the priesthood. Then I was too holy and prayerful. If to say I made it to the priesthood I for don turn water into wine, dey heal the sick, raise the dead, I go dey cure poverty sef join.”

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Paschal Chibuike Okechuckwu (Cubana Chief Priest) as a Catholic minor seminarian, with his school mates and a priest

He continued: “My Mother Wanted Me To Become A Catholic Priest. So Bad I Failed Her In The Seminary But I Passed In Cubana. Today Am A ChiefPriest. But Death Never Allowed My MaMa Witness A Better PriestHood That Made Me A Star.” “RIP Mom, I Still Did Your Wish. This Is My Last Post As An Instagram Thousandnia, M IG Millionaire In A Few I Dedicate It To My MaMa, On My 1st IG Millionaire Post...”

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In the picture on the right Paschal posed with his mother after an Ash Wednesday liturgy.

Cubana Chief Priest is married to ... who celebrated her birthday recently on ... January, 2022, with her husband’s friend, Davido, in spectacular attendance.

Cubana Chief Priest’s wife, Angel Gold Okechukwu

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Cubana Chief Priest with wife

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Davido performing at 2022 Cubana Chief Priest’s wife’s birthday party

Obviously, Cubana Chief Priest has a practical love and an observable flare for music. In October 2021 he featured in Flavour’s 2021 song, “Levels”, which also featured prominent Nollywood stars and businessmen, including Kanayo O. Kanayo, Yul Edochie, Zubby Mike, E-money, Larry Gaga, and others.

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Cubana Chief Priest with Flavour

Cubana Chief Priest with Yul Edochie

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Cubana Chief Priest, Flavour and Zubby Michael

Cubana Chief Priest, wife and E-Money

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“Levels” crew

Cubana Chief Priest is the owner of Club Xhrine in Owerri. The Club Xhrine was launched in December 2020. Cubana Chief Priest was recently appointed Special Adviser on Social Media and Social Events Management to Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma. Part of his mandate is to influence young people from Imo state to be empowered through social media (Blueprint Newspaper).

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References

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0r_BXmq1RY BBC Pidgin, 21st July, 2021. Interview with Obi Cubana. Retrieved 31st January, 2022

The Nation, July 19, 2021. "15 things you should know about Obi Cubana". The Nation. Retrieved 31st January, 2022

Oyediji, Tayo (2019-05-30). "How OBI CUBANA Rocks LAGOS & ABUJA". City People Magazine. Retrieved 31st January, 2022 Blueprint Newspaper, Retrieved 19th February, 2022

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2 CUBANAISM, AFRICAPITALISM AND IGBO BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY

Ephraim-Stephen Essien

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Introduction

CUBANAISM is defined in this book as an economic philosophy of business associateship, human capital development, business philanthropy and mass start-up funding toward mass wealth creation, associated with Obinna Iyiegbu, aka Obi Cubana, the Chairman of Cubana Group. Cubanaism, therefore, is both a variant of philanthropreneurship and Africapitalism. It is a special type of Igbo business philosophy. Cubanaism is the business philosophy of Obi Cubana. This chapter asserts that Obi Cubana practices business with philanthropy as his special type of Igbo business philosophy which I call cubanaism. This practice is called philanthropreneurship, which is related with Africapitalism. This chapter will also answer the following questions: What is Africapitalism? What is Igbo business philosophy? How is Igbo business philosophy connected to Africapitalism? And what is Obi Cubana’s concern with philanthropreneurship, Africapitalism and Igbo business philosophy? In this study we see Igbo business apprenticeship system and start-up funding as the Igbo Business Philosophy, which is a middle ground between business and philanthropy. So, we conclude that the practice of Igbo business apprenticeship system is an application of Africapitalism as an African business philosophy. We also see Obi Cubana as a combination of business, philanthropy and human capital development.

Igbo Business Philosophy

Among the Igbo people of Southeastern Nigeria, apprentices get

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settled or established by their masters or mistresses after some years of training and service. The master or mistress, often referred to as “Oga” or “Boss”, ensures that the mentee gets his or her own business firm after a prescribed period of business training. Igbo business philosophy is the Igbo apprenticeship system, which involves business tutelage, service, training, and “settlement.” Typically, the Igbo business philosophy, that is, the apprenticeship and start-up funding system, involves a specified period of training, learning, teaching and mentorship of a youth under the tutelage of a master or mistress, requiring diligence, loyalty, prudence and honesty from the apprentice, wherein the mentor sets up a new enterprise for the apprentice with start-up funding upon successful completion of the training. In the end, human capacity development is involved for job and wealth creation. In the end there is economic growth and social development in the community.

Africapitalism as a new African social and economic philosophy Africapitalism is a new economic model within modern African SocioPolitical Philosophy which upholds the thesis that the African private sector has the power to transform the continent through long-term investments, creating both economic prosperity and social wealth. It involves the developmental impact of the entrepreneur on his immediate society. Africapitalism is the middle ground between business and philanthropy (Elumelu 2014). It is an economic philosophy that embodies the private sector’s commitment to the economic transformation of Africa through investments that generate both economic prosperity and social wealth (Amaeshi & Idemudia

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2015). The basic features of Africapitalism include:

● Transforming private investment into social wealth (Elumelu 2014). ● Promoting entrepreneurship. ● Elements of social enterprise. ● Local value creation. This involves an explicit effort on the part of businesses and African policymakers to facilitate more value addition within African economies to ensure more of the benefits of the continent’s natural resources remain in Africa.

Africapitalism and the History of African Socio-Political and Economic Philosophy

African Socio-Political Philosophy aims to develop socio-political leadership models suitable for and peculiar to governing black subSaharan African countries. As a relatively new academic discipline focused on thought informed by indigenous values among black peoples in the sub-Saharan region, African socio-political philosophy involves philosophizing normatively about government and leadership by traditional black African people with a view to advancing a better African society (Metz). African socio-political philosophy does not mean that the themes, views, concepts and approaches are exclusively African. It does not also mean that only thinkers in Africa could hold these concepts. It does not also mean that all African thinkers hold the same views. “African” is used in African socio-political philosophy geographically to demarcate certain perspectives that are unique and

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peculiar in sub-Saharan African thought and practice that tend not to be the case elsewhere. African socio-political philosophy addresses the origin and method of political power; the guarantee of human and civil liberties; and how economic goods are generated and distributed in African societies. How economic goods are generated or distributed is a concern of Africapitalism as an economic model.

Any documented version of African philosophy begins with sociopolitical philosophy. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Kwame Nkrumah, Leopold Senghor and Julius Nyerere had the luck of receiving Western training in Europe and America. There, they experienced first class racism and racialism just like what happened to George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25th, 2020. But they were more troubled by the need for African identity, which had been either lost or diminished through slavery, colonialism and racism. Having received training in Europe and America, and having been positively influenced by Pan-African movements by Marcus Garvey and W.E.B.Dubois, these African princes deployed their training to their indigenous cultural values to see how that might serve as the social foundation of their societies as different from Europe and America.

The first African philosophers were motivated by the strong sense of nationalism, a search for identity, a search for freedom, a search for emancipation from servitude, a search for cultural rebirth. These pioneer African philosophers were nationalists who fought for African freedom against colonialism, and some of them later became “philosopher-kings” in their countries. Azikiwe (1931, 1937, 1961,

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1978, 1980), Nkrumah (1945, 1954, 1962, 1965, 1970), Senghor (1964, 1967) and Nyerere (1964, 1967) wrought political independence for Africa through their socio-economic and political philosophies and political activism. All of these figures shared something in common: They modified socialism and planted it on African soil. Unfortunately, their African socialism failed economically. Politically, their regimes turned out to be repressive such that some of them had to be ousted out of power. This means that their theories failed politically and economically. Even so, they succeeded in establishing political theorizing on sub-Saharan Africa, and, by this fact, also succeeded in establishing our documented version of African philosophy on African traditional communitarian values.

The second generation of African socio-political philosophers were not politicians like the first generation African socio-political philosophers (Metz ). Rather, they were mostly university lecturers whose major works appeared mainly in the 1980s and 1990s. Ezekiel Ogundowole’s self-reliancism (1982), Claude Ake (1987, 1996) and Segun Gbadegesin (1991) from Nigeria; Kwasi Wiredu (1996) and Kwame Gyekye (1997) from Ghana; Ernest Wamba-dia-Wamba (1992) and Bénézet Bujo from the Congo (1997); Henry Odera Oruka from Kenya (1997); and Mogobe Ramose from South Africa (1999) all fall into this category. Political power, civil liberties and economic goods based on African communitarian ideals were the focus of majority of this batch of African socio-political philosophers. A contemporary generation of African socio-political philosophers is

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emerging in the academy and the industrial sector, setting a slight difference in novelty from the second batch of African socio-political philosophers who were mainly academics. Contemporary African socio-political philosophers and political economists have expanded the field of African socio-political philosophy, addressing a wide array of fresh issues, such as how to: conceive of the nature of freedom, distribute resources in light of familial or ethnic ties, ground nonWestern models of socioeconomic development, characterize the proper role of civil society, view the proper aim of public universities, think about compensatory and transitional justice, consider the nature and proper function of law (Metz), ground Western capitalism on African realities (Amaeshi, Elumelu, Agbakoba) or simply Africapitalism (Amaeshi, Elumelu), emphasize productive justice as a motivation towards economic development, a concept advocated in a philosophy of African development by Agbakoba. In all these, three issues stand out for determining an African socio-political philosophy, namely, political power, civil liberties and economic goods. Tony Elumelu’s Africapitalism focuses on economic goods. It is primarily an economic philosophy. It, nonetheless, requires some political push in the form of governmental policy or legislation to make it a state economy. Tony Elumelu, the originator of Africapitalism upholds that Africapitalism is the middle ground between business and philanthropy (Elumelu 2014).

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Africapitalism, Obi Cubana’s Philanthropreneurship and Igbo Business Philosophy

Philanthropreneurship is the practice of philanthropy in business, a combination of philanthropy and entrepreneurship. It is the practice of charity in business, a practice which also underlies Tony Elumelu Africapitalism. On Sunday 18th July 2021 at the thanksgiving service for his late mother, Obi Cubana pledged to support 300 youths from 300 families in his Oba native community in Anambra state with the sum of N1m each to start their own businesses. He had earlier empowered over 500 youths in the last 15 years from various parts of the county. At least 50%, that is, 250 out of these 500 youths would have been millionaires by now, and, probably 5%, that is, 25 would have been billionaires, everything being equal. In the next 10 years, most of the 300 youths from the 300 families would have also become millionaires. Let us say that Obi Cubana has empowered about 800 youths with 800 million naira to invest in lucrative businesses. These beneficiaries would, in turn, empower others to grow financially and economically. Between 10 to 15 years after these start-up grants, both the beneficiaries’ families and their communities would necessarily become wealthy and economically vibrant. Obi Cubana had, in this same spirit of philanthropreneurship, made Paschal Okechukwu (Cubana Chief Priest), his business associate and manager of the Cubana Group. What Obi Cubana is doing can be called philanthropreneurship, which has elements of Afrcapitalism. This is a variant of the Igbo apprenticeship system. Typically, as earlier described above, the Igbo business philosophy,

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that is, the apprenticeship and start-up funding system, involves a specified period of training, learning, teaching and mentorship of a youth under the tutelage of a master or mistress, requiring diligence, loyalty, prudence and honesty from the apprentice, wherein the mentor sets up a new enterprise for the apprentice with start-up funding upon successful completion of the training. Cubana has brought in a new dimension, an alternative route to the Igbo business philosophy. In any route taken, human capacity development is involved for job and wealth creation. Commenting on Cubana’s N300m empowerment of 300 Oba youths, Chinedu Hycient (2021) observed: He is investing N300m in 300 Oba youths. A million each. In about 5years, at least one third of them will be harvested to be millionaires and probably in 10years 50 of 300 will be certified millionaires and possibly 10 of this 300 will be billionaires in 10years time. Similar rituals have produced Cubana Chief-Priest, Jodedera Cubana, Chy Cubana, cubana chief priest (celebrity bar man) etc. Cubana invites you all again for another occasion and these new fruits of his plus the old offsprings struggle to find space to sprinkle and spray their own fountain of Cash. Today is 2021… By 2031, his N300m is now Billions with heavy human capital development!... Ezigbo ritual. You that has been eating your own N300m alone will be having orgasm “upandan” calling him a ritualist. That's how Real Igbo rituals are performed and not by killing Mmadu ibe gi or shouting in one shrine, "iweta òbara enye gi ego". Where are the Obi Cubanas in Delta State? Enugu, Abia, Ebonyi and other states? (Facebook, 21 July, 2021). This observer is of the view that Obi Cubana grows through human capacity development and philanthropy, and not through any evil means, such as ritual killing.

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References

Afua Hirsch, west Africa correspondent. "'Africapitalism' promises new model of African self-empowerment | Afua Hirsch | Global development". The Guardian. Amaeshi, Kenneth (2 October 2013) "Africapitalism: Unleashing the power of emotions for Africa's development?", African Arguments

Amaeshi, Kenneth; Idemudia, Uwafiokun (2015). "Africapitalism: A Management Idea for Business in Africa?". Africa Journal of Management. 1 (2): 210–223. doi:10.1080/23322373.2015.1026229.

Anna Leach. "14 ways African governments can extract more from their natural riches | Global Development Professionals Network". The Guardian.

Court, Alex (5 December 2014) "Nigerian billionaire pledges $100 million to help grow 10,000 African startups", CNN

Doane, Deborah (25 February 2014) "Social enterprise: Can it succeed where traditional development has failed?", The Guardian

Edwards, Ruby (12 July 2013) Can Africapitalism save the continent?", The Guardian

Elumelu, Tony O. (20 November 2014). "The rise of Africapitalism". The Economist.

Elumelu, Tony (22 April 2013). "The 3 ingredients for sustaining

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