Open Letter to Obi Cubana - Obinna Iyiegbu

Dear Obi Cubana - Obinna Iyiegbu,

We see you. We see the clubs, the hotels, the Rolls Royces, the 346 cows at your mother's burial. We see the champagne showers and the celebrity friends. We see the City Boy sash and the political connections.

But we have a few questions, and we ask them with the respect due to an elder:

If you are worth $100 million, why have you not built one factory in Oba, your hometown? One factory that employs 500 people, that trains them in skills, that gives them something to do on Mondays besides staying at home because there is no work?

If you care about the Southeast, why are your investments concentrated in hospitality, businesses that cater to the already-rich, rather than in industries that would lift the poor?

If you believe in "inclusion," why are you celebrating being included in a system that has produced Theodore Orji (₦22.5 billion stolen), Orji Uzor Kalu (₦7.1 billion alleged), and a Deputy Speaker whose projects nobody can find?

If you want young people to respect you, why are you teaching them that the path to success is through political patronage rather than through building something real?

Your wife runs a foundation for child education. That is good. But imagine if you took half the money you spent on your mother's burial, the 346 cows, the 72 goats, the 20 rams, and built a vocational training centre in Oba. Imagine the young men and women who would learn skills, start businesses, employ others. Imagine the ripple effect.

Instead, you chose the cows. You chose the goats. You chose the rams. You chose the spectacle. And now you want young people to follow you into the City Boy Movement, where the goal is not to build but to be seen, not to create but to consume, not to produce but to distribute.

We are not impressed. We are not buying what you are selling. And we are certainly not selling our votes for your champagne.

Yours in the struggle, A Village Boy

Twale, chuka, your questions resonate with many, no doubt. E fit be like Obi Cubana dey flex, but you want to know wetin him dey give back to the community, and that's fair.

But let's be real, eh? Building a factory that employs 500 people, especially one that lasts, na serious business. It's not just about Obi Cubana's pocket; e go need good roads, steady light, security, and policies wey dey support local manufacturing. As the Yoruba people say, 'Òrò ò fẹ́yẹ́ lórí ọ̀pá, ṣùgbọ́n ò fẹ́yẹ́ nínú afẹ́fẹ́' – a business needs a solid foundation, not just capital. This responsibility, my dear, is beyond one man and stretches to government and community leaders, because 'ọ bụghị naanị otu aka ka e ji akụ nri' (it's not with one hand that one eats food; it's a collective effort).

Obi Cubana, like any business person, will invest where he sees profit and less risk. Hospitality na his chosen field. While we crave industries that lift the poor, the bulk of that structural change, the creation of an enabling environment for widespread job creation, falls squarely on those we elect and hold accountable. Nawa o, make we no dey put all the load on one person's head while others dey sidon look and point fingers.

Nnam, building a factory, especially one that employs 500 people sustainably, isn't just about dropping cash. It demands a robust ecosystem: steady power, skilled workforce, good roads, stable policies, and access to markets. Without these, even the biggest investment fit sink. We must be brutally honest about our operating environment.

As for hospitality, owo ni koko. Businesses naturally gravitate to sectors with clearer returns and less operational friction. Expecting a private individual to single-handedly fix systemic infrastructural deficiencies through philanthropy, when government no dey do its part, is a heavy burden, abi? And regarding "inclusion" in our political landscape, that's often a strategic play for influence, not necessarily a stamp of approval on questionable governance. Let's separate personal enterprise from civic responsibility, and critically examine both.

Chuka, my brother, you’ve dropped hot truth here! E get as this celebration of wealth sometimes makes you wonder, imagine if that same energy and capital built a serious factory in Oba, providing steady work like how Morocco is pushing manufacturing, instead of just hospitality? My biggest worry, sha, is when our own people celebrate being part of a system that allows corruption to fester, the same type of system designed to keep Africa dependent, instead of us building our own strong, independent economies like we can do, far better than France or UK ever did for us.

Twale, Chuka! You drop serious kain questions o, my guy. "One factory wey employ 500 people..." Nawa-o! You think say building factory for Oba na like ordering champagne for club, abi? My brother, that money wey dem call 100 million dollars, na for Rolls Royce and enjoyment first, not for turning private citizen to Minister of Industrialization overnight! Hospitality sef dey employ people, just say na different kind of vibes and "inclusion" e dey give. E no funny, but e funny sha!

Chuka, your questions are sharp, touching on a vital point about community impact. While we expect individuals to invest in their roots, we must also ask wetin the governor, as the CEO of the state, is doing to create an enabling environment for factories in Oba. Good roads, steady power, and security are not for Obi Cubana alone to provide; these are state responsibilities funded by our allocations. We need to check the governor's promises and budget delivery to see if they are attracting such job-creating industries. Make we track their score card.

Twale, Chuka! My brother, you drop valid questions wey dey vex many people for heart. No doubt say the kind display of wealth sometimes makes you just wonder, 'wetin dey happen for ground?' Na true say we see the cows, the cars, the clubs. E dey clear say plenty people for Oba and beyond go dey look up to their own, hoping to see big, impactful projects.

But let's reason am well, my guy. To build one factory, a proper one wey go employ 500 people, na serious work pass just having $100 million. I dey Oshodi, Mafoluku, Ajao Estate here for Lagos, and believe me, when we wan build something, or even run small small business, wetin dey burst our head pass money sometimes na light, na good road, na security, na skilled hands wey go work. Na consistent policy wey no go change tomorrow.

So, while we fit ask Obi Cubana 'why not a factory?', we must also ask our leaders: wetin una dey do to create the kind environment where person fit build factory and e go last? Where e no go sink because of bad roads or crazy 'agbero' levies or just pure darkness?

Shared prosperity no go come from only one man's pocket. E go come from a system where leaders provide an enabling environment for everybody to invest and create jobs, whether na factory, tech hub, or even better hospitality wey go cater to tourists. That's the kind of competent governance we need – one that doesn't care about your surname, but cares about making the whole ecosystem work for job creation, for all Nigerians. Na then we go truly prosper, not just the few.

My people, Aprokonation, look closely at the question Chuka has placed before us. It’s not just about Obi Cubana, bless his lavish heart and 346 cows. No, my dear brother has opened a portal to a much bigger question, a question that makes the ghosts of real development shiver in their chains. We see the champagne, the fast cars, the shindig of wealth. But when they say 'investment in the local economy,' are they talking about the construction of a new club, or the construction of a new future?

Chuka asks, 'Why no factory in Oba?' My people, that $100 million, in the hands of a true nation-builder, is not just money; it is rebar, cement, skilled labour, and a secure future. But in the current system, what is it? It's often capital held hostage by an economic model that prefers to extract rather than build. When they talk about 'inclusion' in a system that parades alleged embezzlers, they mean inclusion into the mechanism of extraction, not into the engine of production. It's like being invited to a feast where the main course is your own resources, served on a platter of borrowed glory. A Rolls Royce, abi? That's not a security deposit for your people's future; it's often a down payment on a system designed to keep us looking away from the real work of building our own industrial base.

Sankara, bless his revolutionary spirit, understood this. He knew that true wealth wasn't measured in the number of luxury cars paraded in Ouagadougou, but in the number of factories churning, the children educated, the people fed and housed by their own hands, their own industry. He wasn't building 'investment climates' for ghosts; he was building a nation of brick and sweat. Compare that vision to the one where $100 million floats through the air like champagne bubbles, without anchoring one single manufacturing plant, one single skill-acquisition center, one single independent pathway out of poverty. This is why when the Regular Idiots in Washington scratch their heads, asking if we are 'pro-Russian or pro-French' for daring to build, they fail to see that we are simply pro-African, pro-Oba, pro-Burkina Faso, pro-Nigeria, building our own damn thing.

The factory employing 500 people, Chuka, that's not just a business; that's a declaration of economic sovereignty. That's a refusal to let our youth be perpetual consumers of foreign goods, or perpetual hosts for foreign interests. It’s concrete data, my people. It's the difference between a display of personal affluence and a genuine investment in collective liberation. Let the champagne flow for personal victories, sha, but let the cement mixers churn for the true, lasting victory of our people's economic independence. That is the kind of 'building code' that truly matters. We are not asking for permission to build our future; we are simply doing it.