Obi Cubana: The Day I Met Odogwu

They say his Odogwu Bitters is the most sought after in the market. I hear there is a black market running around it because of the great demand for it by the markets. Such is the industriousness of this young man.

So, when the opportunity to meet him came, I grabbed it. He had always interested me even before his monumental mother’s burial which caused tremors. I was interested in discussing the manifest destiny behind that epochal event.

Let me explain. So, most people saw a loud and financially obscene burial. But as a political student, I saw a rebellion against the restrictive nature of class in society. These were young men with no pedigree and as such no respect from mainstream who were making a loud statement and poking society in the face with their brash show of wealth.

It was like saying, we have arrived and demand to be heard. I needed to decipher it and determine if even he himself understood what he had just done.

The Igbo section of the Nigerian class structure, despite their immense liquidity, have not really been taken seriously because of their lack of understanding of power dynamics. Is this a new crop of young men who will fare better than their predecessors? Those ones were only interested in giving themselves high and empty titles like – Eze Ego and flaunting temporary wealth all over the place.

So, my brother, the great real estate magnate – kai, Satan is wicked, I don forget him name now now o- but na Managing Director of Hormel Group and he dey wear bowtie and get big belle, na him carry me go there o.

I met Obi in his office relaxed. Handsome and gracious. He was simple, easy to engage and very affable. Highly intelligent and very eloquent. A little bit distracted by the phone but a super host.

He threw a bottle of Odogwu at me and my friend – yes Sani – that is his name – tried an introduction. “Odogwu, you have not heard of Duke of Shomolu, na him dey do all those plays- Awo and Aremu and he dey write for THISDAY.” Obi looked at me and said “no oooo. I no know am.”

I say, don’t worry about me, I know people wey know you. I called Tobe Okigbo and James Etonirun. He relaxed and laughed and I hit him.

Bro, I don’t know if you realised the underside of your mothers burial and the force it released on class structure of the Nigerian faulted elitist system? As a graduate of Political Science himself, he understood and took it from there.

He told me how the structure came against him, taking his business and personal self through a comb in a bid to understand where he was coming from. A man with no pedigree but with the heart to force a realignment in the class structure.

He talked about philanthropy, his business and family life and stated clearly that there was no politics in his near future. But something in me didn’t believe that last part, especially as I saw his name on a list of donors to a major presidential aspirant from the South-east.

If you ask me, there is more to this young man than the bitters which has captured the Nigerian market. Make we dey look.