From millionaire to labourer: Ojude Oba style icon Farooq Oreagba opens up on financial crash that humbled him

• Farooq Oreagba said he was a dollar millionaire at 30 but was working as a labourer in England by 35.

• The Ojude Oba style icon said losing his banking job and trying to maintain his lifestyle left him struggling financially.

• Oreagba said the experience changed his view of money, health and the things people value in life.

Businessman and lifestyle figure Farooq Oreagba, popularly known as Mr Steeze, has revealed that he went from being a dollar millionaire at 30 to working as a labourer in England five years later, describing the experience as one that fundamentally reshaped his values and priorities.

Oreagba made the disclosure during an appearance on the MENtality show hosted by Ebuka Obi-Uchendu and co-hosted by singer Banky W, where the conversation centred on wealth, materialism and what people truly value in life.

The revelation came during an exchange in which Oreagba challenged Ebuka on how much value people place on money, using a hypothetical scenario about accepting $10 million in exchange for having only 24 hours left to live.

After Ebuka declined the hypothetical offer, Oreagba drew from his own experience to illustrate the point.

"Right. So then all of a sudden, living actually has a lot of value to it. I was a dollar millionaire at 30. At 35, I was working as a labourer," he said.

When asked where he worked as a labourer, he replied simply, "In England."

Oreagba explained that the collapse followed the loss of his banking job while he was pursuing another dream. Rather than scale back, he said he continued projecting wealth outwardly while quietly struggling to stay afloat.

"I had a dream, something I wanted to do, and I lost my job as a banker. And to maintain that lifestyle, I was hustling, doing all kinds of things, but nobody saw it. The Porsches were still outside. I had my priorities wrong," he said.

He said the experience forced him to confront how badly he had misplaced his values, and that it took hitting rock bottom to understand what actually mattered.

"We place value on the wrong things. You may have 99 problems, but the minute you have a health problem, you only have one problem," he said.

Oreagba said his lifestyle has remained largely unchanged over the years, and that public attention found him rather than the other way around.

"I'm going to be 60 next month, and my lifestyle has not changed. All that has happened is a viral photo brought me to everybody's attention," he said.

That viral photo was taken at the 2024 Ojude Oba Festival in Ijebu-Ode, where his elegant traditional attire and composed presence captured widespread attention online, earning him the nickname “Mr Steeze” and making him one of Nigeria's most talked-about lifestyle figures almost overnight.

Since then, Oreagba has become a recurring presence in conversations around wealth, style and substance, using his platform to challenge conventional attitudes toward money and success.

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