Celebrity nightlife promoter and businessman, Pascal Okechukwu, popularly known as Cubana Chief Priest, has responded to billionaire industrialist and Chairman of Coscharis Group, Cosmas Maduka, over his recent criticism of the viral phrase “Money Na Water.”
Maduka had earlier faulted Chief Priest’s popular slogan, describing it as a reflection of a wasteful and misguided attitude toward wealth.
Responding on Wednesday via his Instagram stories, Chief Priest defended his statement, saying the phrase represents a modern-day philosophy of abundance, liquidity, and flow, not reckless spending.
He wrote,
“With all due respect to the motivational-speaking older generation who built wealth quietly, the world you thrived in is not the one we live in today. In your time, capital was factories, fleets, and real estate. In our time, attention is the main capital.”
Chief Priest argued that visibility and influence now drive wealth creation, insisting that in today’s digital economy, “obscurity is bankruptcy.”
“What you don’t show doesn’t sell. What you don’t amplify dissolves into silence. Visibility has become the new currency. We are the noise, and that’s why you know us,” he said.
He further explained that his catchphrase “Money Na Water” should be understood as a “revelation of excess liquidity and abundance,” emphasizing that attention and influence are the “new oil fields” of the modern era.
“Content is not noise. Content is digital equity. The same way factories produced wealth in the 80s, attention produces wealth today. We’ve moved from industrial capitalism to attention capitalism,” he added.
In a more personal jab, Chief Priest accused Maduka of being out of touch with the evolving dynamics of wealth and public engagement, urging him to “remove his name” from billionaire entrepreneurs like Tony Elumelu and Femi Otedola, whom he praised for using their platforms to give Africa global visibility.
“While your generation built fences to protect their wealth, our generation builds platforms to project it,” he said. “You mentioned Elumelu — that’s my mentor. He and Otedola live the ‘Money Na Water’ lifestyle — they spend and invest in ways that give Africa proper visibility.”
Concluding his lengthy post, Chief Priest reaffirmed his slogan as a personal creed rather than a controversial mantra.
“Like I said on Channels TV, ‘Money Na Water’ is a prophecy that connotes wealth overload. This is my story. Some may choose to go with ‘Lack Na Water,’ but over here — Money Na Water! It’s my business and my lamba. Nobody should spoil it.”
