As the saying goes, nothing is good or bad but thinking makes it so. Maybe in the same vein, no one is rich or poor, but thinking makes it so.

The ways of the poor and the rich are equidistant – never met and probably never will meet. One, poor, can, at best, step out and join the path of the rich just as one, rich, can step out and join the path of the poor. No one path meanders and disappears into the other.

There’s also something called ebullience amongst people whether rich or poor. It propels people to do things in a manner that makes society feel disposed to complain.

There might actually be people involved in money rituals. As always, I believe that ritual money men rank low or lowest amongst money people. Spraying and throwing money around is not their exclusive preserve. Anybody with cash can choose to so do. It’s a choice thing.

Recently, a young man decided to bury his mother in a manner different from what is usual. What stone were to catapult in killing lower animals or attacking enemies in the days of yore was what bundles of money became to human hands in playfully attacking friends and fellow money men at the funeral. So we saw and read in the media.

One man (Reno Omokri), in alluding to the funeral allegedly warned about some white garment church in the 80s and their spiritual rite of spraying money on the poor as a sine qua non for financial inexhaustibility. He argued that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob never did like that as if everyone must do things Abraham’s way, or as if anything not done Abraham’s way was illegal or sinful.

Another man (Deji Adeyanju) was said to have warned that the youth must not be brainwashed, arguing that even the richest men in the world never threw money “up and down anyhow” as if every money man must follow the footsteps of Deji’s “richest men in the world”. His call or threat that the attention of the EFCC and FBI was being attracted is congruent and applicatory only to the guilty who James Hardley Chase said are afraid.

Dr. Reuben Abati was said to have complained so much about, the burial, Obi and his friends. Like Deji Adeyanju and this other guy that was smart enough to observe the potholes in Oba roads, Dr. Abati fumed:

“Would it not have been better if he built a hospital in his mother’s memory? Or a school? Or a church? And then, the people will remember her and not how her son and his friends put money to shame at her funeral. And who are these friends? The kind of names that have been mentioned sound unfamiliar to me: E-money, Internet money, Pablo Cubana, Escoba, Jowizaza, Cubana priest…who are they and why do they spend money like that? Not even Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, or Warren Buffet will throw money around like that.”

Then, Dr. Abati went ahead to confound me with a contradictory submission that Obi Cubana has every right to bury his mother the way he likes. And I add and spend any amount of money he likes. He also has a right to have friends and his friends have a right to answer names that are unfamiliar to Dr.Abati or any other person.

Prima facie, the arguments above and their likes flying around hold no water especially because a foremost Nigerian super cop, Abba Kyari, was said to have attended the burial and had this to say about the protagonist;

“Obinna Iyiegbu popularly known as Obi Cubana is one of the most hardworking entrepreneurs and humble personalities that I have known for many years. He is a brother and a good friend. For his good nature and good heart, today I had to squeeze out time from my busy schedule to honour him by attending the burial of his beloved mom in Oba town, Anambra State….”

That’s the super cop for you. He is known as a no-nonsense cop, faddish and crowd-pleasing for the outstanding role he plays in bursting crimes and criminal operations. For a man like that to paint such a beauteous and pulchritudinous picture of the chairman of the Cubana Group, it means he couldn’t have done so without being substantially abreast of his background and transactions. So, the theory of the FBI and EFCC including the white garment church of the 1980s as well as the way Elon Musk and company would not have thrown money around like that shouldn’t arise.

I repeat in stern and steel terms that money is very good, and when one has it, part of the fun is to do whatever one likes with it irrespective of what the poor people specializing in advising the rich on how not to spend money will say.Who says there’s no positive side to what happened in Oba? It certainly can constitute a big source of inspiration to many. The poor can now regenerate, fix up and breathe new life into their warped, bastardized, and debauched minds and aspire to get rich. Also, those who thought they “have arrived”, considering themselves the big dogs in the money industry should better think again and work harder, craving more money. And then, Musk, Buffet, Gates, etc can actually learn something new about money. This is because whether anyone likes it or not, money is good. Very good.

Hear an American actor, writer, comedian, and musician;

“I love money. I love everything about it. I bought some pretty good stuff. Got me a $300 pair of socks. Got a fur sink. An electric dog polisher. A gasoline-powered turtleneck sweater. And of course, I bought some dumb stuff too.”

You see! There are times you spend your money on “some dumb stuff too.”

Let us appreciate the fact that people make money for different reasons. People go to school for different reasons. Some people study Medicine, Law, Theatre Arts, etc for different reasons. Particularly, some just want to prove to you that they can do it. Nothing dey law. Nothing dey medicine. That’s the point they want to prove and they have proved it. So, one can actually make money with a purpose to immoderately and inordinately ante up and dissipate it. Whose business is it?

If Elon Musk, Gates, Buffet, etc are the richest in the world, they aren’t the prototypical personages of how money should be spent. They made money for themselves. They never made for Obi Cubana and his friends. Fixing the potholes in Oba is not his legal obligation. Building schools or churches can at best be prerogatives. And of course, who says they may not eventually build schools or churches and even fix the bad roads.

We must learn to stay away from advising men with money unless called upon to so do.

In conclusion, if Obi is a thief, let him be arrested. If he is a fraudster or ritual money man or is involved in anything shady for money purposes, let him be arrested. If he has committed any crime while burying his mother, let him be prosecuted. But if he made his money cleanly and genuinely, he is at liberty to spend or waste or throw it up and down till it finishes.

The worst anyone can do is to make his own money and spend it the opposite way.

Okey Nwafor, Esq, Nigerian Lawyer writes from Abuja, Nigeria. He can be reached by email:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Okey Nwafor, Esq., Nigerian lawyer examined critical comments on the lavish display of money wealth at a Nigerian burial ceremony.