After Nyra, Ubi Franklin knows ‘it’s no good’ dating a colleague

In an exclusive chat with TheCable, Ubi Franklin, president of Made Men Music Group, finally opened up on his rumoured relationship with one of his artistes, Emma Nyra.

Working in the music industry

I am really not good at handling emotions. I am usually a very quiet person but in this industry people can provoke and make you feel shitty about some kinds of things and my anger grew up to the point where I had to go to God and pray about it. The anger has made me destroy some things that cost me. I have done some things that I’ve regretted. At one point I told someone to f*** off and then it turned out that I went into an office and that was the person that could have helped me. It was hard for me to even deal with that person at that point.

Strongest business advice to peers

My biggest advice would be: ‘Don’t ever have any intimate relationship with a girl you are working with.’ I was dating Emma Nyra and the relationship didn’t go as I thought it should have gone. When you’re dating somebody and you are the boss, there are things you can’t tell your wife or your girlfriend. But if you say it to an employee you are dating, they tend to misbehave. Like, if you tell the others to do something, they will obey without thinking about it. It’s not only me but it has happened to a lot of people, but that is the business lesson I’ve learnt in my life.

I will tell every guy and girl out there, don’t do anything that personal where you are working. Except one of you resigns. It always comes to no good. That relationship made me cut off a lot of people and it also made me feel like everybody wanted the same ‘cake’ I was having. I spent a lot of time trying to beef people when I am not supposed to. It really dealt me a big blow.

I decided in the end that it doesn’t make any sense and we both understood that and moved on.

Current relationship with Nyra
Well, we’ve been trying to move on and everything has to heal with time and I am just praying to God that everything goes well because I have really tried. I don’t think that I have spent as much money on Iyanya as I’ve spent on Emma Nyra.

Emma has like nine videos at about N3.5m. She has a lot of materials out there. For Emma, I just believe that when God says it’s her time, it’s her time. I’ve tried to fix the whole American thing for a while but I still pray God gives her the hit I think she deserves because I’ve spent a lot of money on her.

Relationship with Emma and meeting fiancée
I met Lilian, my fiancee, at a friend’s party a few months ago, towards the end of last year. I’d been seeing her around before then but I’m a one-woman-one-man kind of guy. I don’t know how some people feel about that. If I am dating one person, I am all about that person.

I’ve seen her a couple of times at events because I know she used to work for AY. I used to wonder who she was but I just passed by. But God just finally said we should get talking. The first day I met her, I told her I was going to marry her because her environment was so good for me.

I’ve dated different girls in my lifetime but I believe when you meet a woman that you are going to marry you would know. You might date someone for 10 years and still not get married but the day you meet the person that you are going to marry, you will know.

I met her after I had broken up with Emma, about four months after. Immediately I saw her, I said ‘You are my wife’. She took it like ‘I don’t know what this guy is saying’. She’s everything I can ever ask God for. She’s very brilliant, she can cook. She’s usually quiet and more reserved. She’s not one of those actresses who are just out there and all over the place. She’s very subtle with everything she does. Even to post pictures on Instagram. The reason many people never knew we were dating is that she didn’t want us to post any pictures on Instagram. I wanted to put up pictures but she told me that if we made it a social media relationship, then it wouldn’t last.