Seyi Tubillion: Story of Abuja Entertainment big boy turned Photographer | Says “Tope Brown & Audu Mekori are my role models”

Oluwaseyie Tubillion
On a first encounter with him, you
think about him in so many ways, he is either an entertainment consultant or a
showbiz promoter or basically a friend of the big entertainment stars in
Nigeria.

This Ilaje-Ese Odo LGA, Ondo state, South Western Nigeria born alumnus
of Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger state is a very interesting
guy to be with. I was with him in Abuja couple of yesterday and our encounter
actually started inside my friend Tope
Brown’s
Meidera Estate, Maitama office. Tope Brown is the MD/CEO of TBS
Records
an Abuja based artiste ’management firm. We later had an outing
that spanned over four hours and in the course of encounter I discovered my new
friend has actually done a lot with  big
names in the Nigerian entertainment circle right from Abuja where he plays big in
the local entertainment sector. By the time we finished and we exchanged cards
I got double curious with the name on his complimentary card “SEYI TUBILLION”;
so who the hell is he? What does he stand for? What are his ideas like and why
the name SEYI TUBILLION.  He is also the
CEO of epro studios, an elite
photography company in Abuja. This was the reason for a late evening encounter
somewhere in Maitama area of Abuja where we dissected the person and
personality of this young and ambitious Nigerian, Seyi Ola Daniels aka SEYI TUBILLION. Welcome to the world of a
peculiar entertainment consultant turned photographer on your Africa’s number 1
Celebrity encounter blog Asabeafrika.
Enjoy the excerpts….
Oluwaseyie Tubillion

Men! I am SEYI TUBILLION

Getting
to know the epro studio boss is quite interesting. Hear him “Oluwa Seyi Two Billion is a young man
from Ondo state, Nigeria, Ilaje Ese Odo
to be precise. I am an Ilaje boy. I
will proudly say I am one of the few Yoruba people that are South-South by
geography. Some people say I don’t look like a Yoruba but I am; I am from Ondo
state and the only son of Engineer Ola
Daniels
and Princess Florence
Adeyinka Ola Daniels
. My mum is from Ikare
Akoko;
she is a princess and daughter of Oba Momoh Ajaguna a late Olukare
of Ikare land.
The present Oba is her uncle. I am an engineer; I studied
civil engineering from Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger state. I
major in Highway Options which deals with wood maintenance, construction of
bridges, drainages and stuff like that but I am really passionate about show
business and I have been doing showbiz officially since 2008, I can say
officially from my show that I organized in 2008, working with celebrities and
models on the MTN N400 recharge cards to Terry-G
to AY.COM, to Ice-Prince to Jesse Jags
to Magnitto to illbliss to Dagrin of
blessed memory and to Da Suspect and
many others. I have also done music before. I will only tell you that I am a
social entrepreneur consultant, an optimist, an extrovert. But I don’t know if
I am controversial but some people say I am controversial because I do my
things my own way. I am like the Holy Spirit in show business; when somebody
does what you don’t think he can do or what you don’t expect him to do, I mean,
not everybody loves Jesus Christ.
That is just me and I don’t know how to change me”
Seyie Tubillion

Life as an only son

Telling
Asabeafrika about his root, Seyi who
has been a resident of Abuja since 2007 said “I have two younger sisters but
that didn’t permit either Dad or mum to pamper me. I recall when I was doing my
10th year birthday, after we have finished sharing the whole food in
the house, I was about to eat my meal but my mum collected it and gave it to
someone else. She said ‘Seyi, your guest have not eaten, so why are you eating?’
that is the kind of training I was given. My mum was a banker with the defunct Allied Bank and in those days when she
goes to work at Broad Street, Lagos,
she returns late in the night and we could only see a full of her during the
weekend. My mum was not totally strict but she was quite principled and gave us
a sense of belonging. Till today I still call my mum to say ‘how far?’ She was
not strict but she will either talk you into sense or talk sense into you. I
think she gave us the proper training everyone will love to give a child”

“I will only tell you that I am a
social entrepreneur consultant, an optimist, an extrovert. But I don’t know if
I am controversial but some people say I am controversial because I do my
things my own way. I am like the Holy Spirit in show business”

Seyi Tubillion for 9ja proect

My Dad the cool guy….

Seyi
gave a description of his father’s personality “My dad is a conservative dad
because I can’t remember him ever scolding me and this does not have to do with
me being the only boy because he never scolds my younger sisters as well
because he will call us like adults and tell us his entire plans. We had a
fantastic relationship because my mum was half the time busy as a banker while
dad as a contractor was half the time at home. He has the unique chemistry of connecting;
he understands and he doesn’t have to talk much before we grasp his intention
but later on we got to understand that mum was always the one that struggles
and get things done for us. My parent are just the best set of people around
me; I talk to my dad confidently, we communicate and sort things out the way we
ought to and that has equally reflected in the way I do things with people and
at times they will say ‘oh, I don’t like the way you talk’ but that is me
anyway. I will say ‘even my dad doesn’t complain’. My dad started speaking our
Yoruba dialect to us some couple of years back, maybe five years ago. So, you
can imagine a family where you just speak English as the lingua franca. So, you
will definitely understand what I mean by being confident. So, I am strictly
nuclear. My dad is cool and my mum is cool. They are not too strict but they have
their own way of raising their children”

“I graduated with my real certificate
in 2010 because I choose to stay long on campus, I was a showbiz person and
that affected me in some other ways but thank God they didn’t expel me, I
didn’t cheat; I was just doing my carry-over at the same time and when I was
ready to graduate I did my project and moved on”

The Entertainment Big Boy as an advocate of social justice

Why I am close to big music stars…

On
why Seyi Tubillion is close to entertainment stars, he traced the reason to
right chemistry “Like I said earlier, I am a social entrepreneur consultant and
event strategist. I am into A and R, I write music, I manage artistes. I keep
telling people that everybody have their own thing. There are footballers,
there are pastors and there are celebrities but for me it is good to be unique
for what you do. I have done everything, I have done music, I have promote
songs and organized shows and paid artistes so in the long run, our friendship
is not just determined by closeness but we are colleagues. If we don’t roll,
how do we move on? For instance the first time I met Tuface I didn’t really say ‘hello’ to him but there was a way he
came up and told me ‘what’s up?’ because there was a connection and even the
first day I saw Vector, there was a nod. You know there is a nod, when you see
somebody and nod your head. There was just an under-reconnect and the next
thing was for him to tell me that yes, he likes my wrist watch and I
immediately removed my wrist watch and gave it to him because I love them, I
love what they do and it is my thing. For D-Banj,
the first time I encountered him was during AY Show here in Abuja and we had D-Banj, Don Jazzy and
all of them. I was really happy when I saw D-BANJ
and we hugged and he was like ‘long time’and he didn’t even know me from
Adam. He said, ‘oh, you have changed’ and we spoke for like twenty minutes.
That was a cool chemistry. For Inyanya,
he was about to drop his song and he had already told me everything about the
song. We were talking and one of his bouncers wanted to interrupt and he said
‘no, no, we are cool’. So, it is just the chemistry basically if I don’t roll
with them who will I roll with them?”Tubillion
asked rhetorically.
Tubillion and hip-hop act vector

Why I dumped Engineering for
Entertainment

On
why Seyi never practiced Engineering which his parent paid a university to
teach him, he explained the reasons to Asabeafrika
“I discovered the passion right from time, while I was in school I might be in
Lagos and there will be a text and I will have to rush to the airport to board
a flight to Minna. Many times I have
missed texts because of show business and I had horrible grades after I did a
major show. I have always been a show man right from school. When I was in
secondary school I was miming and I didn’t even graduate from the university
the same year my colleagues were graduating and I never regretted it because I
have been living my life that way”

“Because I am a considerate person
and I have a principle that when you tell a woman you love her, it is not just
by mouthing it, you have to offer emotions; you have to show emotional intelligence.
So, that is my brand of person”

Tubillion

My only regret

However,
the ebony colour dude had a regret which he shared with Asabeafrika “I didn’t really regret studying engineering but I
wished I didn’t waste my time in school because for now I don’t have an
immediate plan to practice engineering; of course I will practise engineering
later but I am really passionate about show business and I have gone through
most of the schools in showbiz. I have done enough and suffered enough for
entertainment. I can remember a lady, Dosu
working with Chocolate City telling
me ‘oh, you are so emotional about this thing’. Then I was trying to do a show,
I booked for the Choc boys and the
management were trying to play pranks on me and as they were increasing the
prices I was paying off. If they increase from one figure, I will say ‘don’t
worry I will pay just because I want the show to happen and when I do my shows
there is always a trademark offshoot. If you watch Omo Akin’s video, Ibadie
lulululululu;
the shirt Ice Prince and
Jesse wore in that video were the
shirts I made for them from my show. It was my promo shirts they were putting
on in the video; that is for you to know the level of stuffs I put together and
that is as far back as 2011. Imagine someone wearing your promo shirt for a
musical video then you will know that the show must have been properly
organized and dope’
Tubillion with D-banji aka Eja Nla

Why I graduated late

On
what music cost him at school, Seyi
briefed this blog “I graduated with my real certificate in 2010 because I
choose to stay long on campus, I was a showbiz person and that affected me in
some other ways but thank God they didn’t expel me, I didn’t cheat; I was just
doing my carry-over at the same time and when I was ready to graduate I did my
project and moved on. After I have succeeded well with my photography interest
I will go into civil engineering. I will like to go to Germany and Lebanon to
garner some technological advancement and in no distant time I want to play big
in road maintenance and compete with organizations like RCC and Ferma. The dream
to practice engineering is still there amidst other big bold and daring ideas”
Seyi Tubillion’s unique business card

Challenges in entertainment industry

Tubillion shared with Asabeafrika some of the challenges of the Nigerian entertainment
industry “Basically the first challenge is about the network ambience. You know
showbiz is all about networking; I know people say ‘hey, money, money, money’
but the bedrock is still network. If you have the money and you don’t have the
right network you are going nowhere. For Abuja, the challenge first of all is
the network. Secondly, it is about the orientation about using music as a means
to cool social tension. Lastly, it is about sponsorship. I have never done a
show here with the support of Cooperate sponsors and it is very rare for
promoters to get sponsors in Abuja. Lagos enjoys more of the attention from Cooperate
sponsors because the so called cooperate organizations don’t see northern
Nigeria as a place to promote their products because apparently, most of their
products are more celebrated in the west from Coke to the least of beverages. They really don’t see the influence
of the northern market”
Tubillion with Skales and Ketchup

So, why the name Two billion

When
we asked him this question, a wild smile played round his jaws before he
reacted “While growing up here in Abuja, doing music, I was always looking on
point. I always love to look good and all that. And when I go on stage to
perform I come down with money and I try to spray. Davido didn’t do anything at the moment because I am double sure I
was out before Davido, I am not
hitting him in anyway. I was also a rap artiste then, so I had a trademark
identity. I wear my bling and even wear ices on my teeth, the one that has wax
inside that you can fix into your teeth, ices with crystals. I bought it from a
friend that came back from the US at the time and they call me nick names like Tubaba, Tugbasky and all that. So, at
the end of the day when they did a proper analysis on me, two persons in one; I
am an engineer and I am into show biz. I am a civil engineer for crying out
loud and it is not beans to graduate from school. At the same time I was
engaging hard in entertainment, I was doing my school texts and equally
partying, I mean two person in one and they said ‘men, you are too much, what
else?’ and because I wanted to be unique, I wanted to have an identity of my
own, a brand of my own so I chose the name ‘Tubillion’.
When I told Rick Ross that I am Tubillion, he looked at me and you
could see surprises on his face. He was like Tubillion? And I could interpret what was going on in his mind but
I know he will never forget ever meeting a guy that is called Tubillion in Nigeria. Yeah, I won’t
really mind to make two billion pounds in a lifetime’
Tubillion & ladies…
Tubillion with hip-pop icon Tubaba

On
women, Tubillion shocked his
audience “I am quite surprised that a lot of people think I am a ladies man but
I am not. To be very sincere, I am a reserved person. Trust me; I don’t sleep
around even though I am there in the industry that suggests I do exactly that.
Even right now I don’t even have a relationship. Why? Because I am a
considerate person and I have a principle that when you tell a woman you love
her, it is not just by mouthing it, you have to offer emotions; you have to
show emotional intelligence. So, that is my brand of person”

The Social Enterpreneur, Seyi Tubillion

Role Model

Tubillion gave us a hint of men who inspires
him “Well, for entertainment my role mode is P-Diddy. Puff Daddy
because he is an entertainment entrepreneur who works very hard to achieve
success. Then I equally have Audu Mekori
of Chocolate City. Right now I am
going into photography big time, in terms of photography which is my new hobby
and a platform for me to stay relevance in the show business industry since I
have gone through most of the classes from artiste management to media
management to marketing and others, I just feel it is great to go into
photography and my role model right now is Tope
Brown
and I think I will be better than him very, very soon. I can tell you
he is my role model”
His magnificent complimentary card

Dream for Nigerian Entertainment
industry

“Basically
it is just to take photography to the next level and shoot in 3D technology
whereby you see the whole image and do the whole different kind of shoot, do
the structural and stock images. There are different types of photography.
There is architectural photography and I want to go into the proper photography
in line with cinematography and I will like to make it a very, very popular
skill. I want to make paper business very easy, when I say paper business I
mean printing and I want to take everything imaging to the next level and that
is what I am now doing under epro studio which is a new company
for elite photography. There is equally a plan to add more knowledge on elite
photography”
Tubillion with terry G

Words for up & Coming
entrepreneurs

Tubillion has his words for up and coming
entrepreneurs “Basically, it is just for them to follow their person and live
their dream. When I say passion, they must do what they really love to do not
what they like to do or what somebody want them to do. They should follow their
passion and also be ready to learn; they should learn and work, work and work.
They must learn and work. Success is actually built on three tripod, learning,
working and being prudent”
Tubillion with MTN Ambassador Saka

Words for fans of Seyi Tubillion

 Giving his fans a final word, Seyi Ola Daniels
aka SEYI TUBILLION said “For the people that like me, people that know me,
people that criticize me and people that actually know I exist and familiar
with the name SEYI TUBILLION, what I will just say is don’t lose hope on me
even the ones that hates me, don’t lose hope because I think I am that bridge
between ends meet on the street. What I mean is when I get to where I am going
to, you will be proud of me and I won’t disappoint you, I won’t disappoint
anybody because I have been on the street for a while.”
Tubillion with hip-pop act Iyanya during his album launch in Abuja