48-year-old Beautiful Nubia is the lead singer/songwriter of the Roots Renaissance Band, a folk music group – one of the few popular contemporary folk music groups in Nigeria at the moment.
In a recent interview with city People’s Showbiz reporter, DANIJI EMMANUEL, he revealed how he quit vet medicine for music. He also revealed how much he is worth – millions of dollars.
Here is an excerpt…
Who is Beautiful Nubia?
I grew up in Ibadan and attended all my schools there. I read veterinary medicine at the University of Ibadan. I graduated in 1992 and worked as a vet for 10 years. Then I decided to go into music full time. I know I’d be a musician in life. Even though then I knew I’d learn a trade to fall back on. So, I went to learn music as a profession. But as a vet, I learnt how to manage funds, which is helping now to manage my own funds as a musician.
When I began to play music, I tried to find a name that’d suit my person. And so I settled for Beautiful Nubia. And so I added beautiful so that when people call me beautiful I’ll strive to be perfected. The Nubia thing has to do with African civilisation where the people of Nubia were champions. And I love Africa and I wanted to prove to the world that the people of Nubia gave the world civilisation.
This was how I got to be known as Beautiful Nubia. Many years ago, the Nubia people ruled the world, people with dark skin and so on. So, that’s the beauty there. But my real name is Olusegun Akinlolu.
How rich are you?
I think I am worth about two hundred and fifty million dollars ($250 million) and half of that I hold in cash. Further, I do not owe any bank anywhere in the world. I have said this because most Nigerian billionaires are Debtor Naira Billionaires. In fact, Forbes Magazine only publishes the share value and not the liabilities of Nigerian Dollar Billionaires. In Nigeria, a company should be worth only ten times the annual dividend payment and a property should be worth only ten times the annual rental value. As far as I am concerned, the only billionaires in Nigeria are: Aliko Dangote, Mike Adenuga, and Mrs. Folorunsho Alakija.
