I have, over the last three weeks, become a keen watcher of the current feud between Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah, chairman of Capital Oil and Gas Industries Limited and Dr. Cosmos Maduka, president of Coscharis Group, over a business deal that has not only turned sour, but has also become the subject of litigation in Nigerian and foreign courts. From the look of things, the war between the two kinsmen from the same community in the same state is not about to abate. Indeed, if Ubah takes his case to the National Assembly as he has threatened, then what we have witnessed so far may well be a dress rehearsal of a full-scale war whose end cannot be foreseen now. This is without prejudice to the fact that Access Bank and the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) have effectively taken over the assets of Capital Oil worldwide and those in Nigeria, courtesy, respectively, of United Kingdom and Nigerian courts. This, without doubt, signals the commencement of a long-drawn legal battle.
On the surface, nothing seems strange about a business transaction going awry and ending up in court. It is what makes the business world go round. Indeed, without occasional hiccups in form of contract breaches, disappointments, litigations, etc, I doubt if there would be successful businessmen and women in the world. So, the current fall-out of a business deal between two successful businessmen, though quite negative, is, in the real sense of the word, normal.
What I consider abnormal is the resort to the media for the settlement of a matter that is already in court for proper settlement. It is worse when propaganda comes into play, thereby leaving the same public whose sympathy the effort seeks to attract, totally confused.
Maduka and Ubah have come to the village square to seek support, even if a moral one, each alleging that he has been shortchanged by the other. The Coscharis boss says he guaranteed a loan with which Ubah imported fuel in a business that both were to benefit from. He alleges that failure by his partner to account for a whole shipload of fuel has now put him in a situation in which he has to cough out about 380 million naira every month as interest on a loan that now stands at about 21 billion naira.
Ubah, on his part, says proceeds from the sale of the shipment in contention are lying in a vault somewhere in one of the strong rooms of Access Bank, the lender. He alleges that the entire hullabaloo about the missing shipment is a grand conspiracy involving a long list of participants in a concerted effort to run him out of business. The objective is to hang the dog; as a prelude, a convenient and suitable name must first of all be given the dog.
The Capital Oil boss names the participants in this game of intrigues as Maduka, Aig-Imokhuede, managing director of Access Bank, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, finance minister and AMCON, as well as Nigerian and British courts. And because he is unsure of protection by the courts, (he was the first to obtain a court injunction to stop the first two on the list from tampering with any of his assets), he has served notice to appear on the floor of the National Assembly, where he believes the Nigerian public will be part of the jury. However, not being too sure that the Nigerian public can give him the protection he needs, he has sought extra protection from Mohammed Abubakar, the inspector-general of police, since his life may also be at stake.
At the same time that Ubah is crying foul over attempts to snuff life out of his business, he is running television commercials on the strategic importance of Capital Oil to the Nigerian economy, perhaps an attempt to alert Nigerians on the danger that looms for 1,000 employees, as well as the downstream sector of the oil industry, of which it controls 35 per cent.
Now, this is why I am worried that propaganda may snatch attention from the real issues that have come up for consideration. Ubah has tried to portray himself as the oppressed in the saga. He has tried, in vain, though, to cut the picture of a young man whose uncommon success is about to be terminated by forces that are too powerful for him to contain, for the simple reasons of age and place of origin, the latter being the consequence of a hostile environment in which he operates. We are to believe that Maduka, Okonjo-Iweala and Chike Obi, managing director of AMCON, would be so envious of their kid brother’s success (all four are from Anambra State) that they would team up with Aig-Imokhuede, a ‘foreigner’ from Edo State, to kill his business. Lest I forget, Ubah has also fingered his governor, Peter Obi, as being part of the conspiracy. Isn’t this funny?
Ubah is hurting himself in the manner he is going about prosecuting his war with Maduka. He is alienating himself from the same public which he seeks sympathy, with his recourse to the use of foul language against Maduka in a public medium like television. His utterances and idiosyncrasies suggest youthful exuberance. I am not a lawyer. But even from my layman’s perspective, I doubt if public opinion has any role to play in the way in which a matter before a court of competent jurisdiction is decided. If it did, Bode George, former chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority, would not have gone to jail. The judge would easily have been swayed by the theatricals of paid praise singers who stormed the Ikeja High Court each hearing day to ‘attest’ to the innocence of the former PDP strongman. Not even an unprecedented carnival that was staged to usher him out of prison, beamed live on television, has erased the fact that George is today an ex-convict.
The public will be more concerned about how the various court cases play out, especially now that Capital Oil’s assets worldwide have been frozen. If I were Ubah, I would channel my energy into getting the company off the hook, in the same courts that have put it in chains, rather than resort to the use of propaganda for the purpose of winning the war in the court of public opinion.
Let us even assume that propaganda works for him in the village square. Where would that lead him? How would it de-freeze his assets and get him back into business? I suggest he takes the job from his public relations men and hands it to his lawyers.

I must say that your post, Sir, leaves one glarring question in the mind of your reader: who are you and what's your stake in the conflict you have so painstakingly outlined? Furthermore, what are we to make of this post, what's your intent? You clearly give no background information as to the genesis of the conflict neither do you furnish us with any facts with which to draw our own conclusions. Rather, you would have us accept that your stance on the matter at hand is justified and right even when you provide no basis for your position.

Since you know so much about this issue, do you mind telling us why you hold the views you have expressed here and why you think that this conflict is relevant to the Nigerian public.

cdz: I must say that your post, Sir, leaves one glarring question in the mind of your reader: who are you and what's your stake in the conflict you have so painstakingly outlined? Furthermore, what are we to make of this post, what's your intent? You clearly give no background information as to the genesis of the conflict neither do you furnish us with any facts with which to draw our own conclusions. Rather, you would have us accept that your stance on the matter at hand is justified and right even when you provide no basis for your position.

Since you know so much about this issue, do you mind telling us why you hold the views you have expressed here and why you think that this conflict is relevant to the Nigerian public.

My brother, as for who i am> i am a business executive living and working in Lagos. Over the years we have seen unscrupulous businessmen run down our banking institutions with loans they never intend to pay back. The issues may be one between two business partners but the implications are wider.when a man takes a loan and fails to pay back, it in turn affects the bank's ability to grant credit to young businesses like the one i run. Ifeanyi Ubah's attempt to put ethnic sentiments to what is purely greed and mismanagement on his part is the genesis of the crisis.

I am aware that Ifeanyi Ubah is notorious for refusing to pay bank loans back in the time past.

Fidelity Bank had a terrible experience in their attempt to recover similar loans from him. The bank went as far as placing full page advert on the issue.

I doubt if they were successfully able to recover the loan from him.

Everyday is for the thief, one day is for the owner.

I think nigeria will do better without criminally minded businessmen.

If he is to be judged by his precedence, i am afraid he will stand no chance than to rot in hell.

Most senior executives in the banking industry can tell a thing or two about the man in question but i doubt if it could ever be positive.

We need genuine and honest business men and women, no more no less

From my point of view, this feud between Ubah and Maduaka is play of betrayal and Fraud. Cosmos Maduaka with his good reputation offered gratitude to help Ifreanyi Ubah whom he barely knows from a huge difficulty and then the latter comes up with flemsy excuses to reap the former all for selfish ambitions, this is betrayal of trust, not been able to reconcile the last consignement is an act of Fraud.

this is an offence against the state it is an international criminal offence.

How come i never heard of Cosmos Maduka until i saw the break fast show on AIT where Maduka downheartedly expressed himself. I beleive if you have an opportunity to see that video, you will realise that Ifeanyi Ubah planned this all out to have a total control of the business dealings by defrauding Cosmos Maduka. I was about to think Ifeanyi Maduka is someone to look up to in terms of number of jobs he had created or is still creating, not knowing there are some sort of short comings questioning his business ethics. This is a selfish act by Ifeanyi Ubah and he must be brought to justice.

ifeanyi ubah is just full of greed and deciet,he lures in cosmos maduka into he's trap."cosmos" a faithful, santimental and loving person,who choose to help him despite all he heard about him......

Ubah's statement has been so contradicting in all ramifications of the business trends.My question is?
Why is Ubah not ready to ameliorate the whole situation.Definitely he has a negative ambition not to pay back Mr Maduka's money
which is an international criminal offense.

Now you can see how another propaganda has taken over minds of innocent Nigerians,
the chairman of capital oil Ifeanyi Ubah used his media advert to get the necessary favor he craves from the public,The fear of Insufficent circulation of PMS for the masses has now yield positively to yet another stage two performance after the release of his seized assets from AMCON.My fellow Nigerians how long are we going to be played by the mediocrity of a man who had planned all his moves and take his con to the highest level,but still a cooperate fraudster is at large.

ifeanyi ubah has really acted so unreasonable, why would he denie recieving such a great asistant from maduka
when his still very much alive...ubah is just an ingrate and he knows how rare and risky it is for someone not in your field to sign such a deal or agreement...
maduka still have more edge in this matter cos it could tell on there interview....

peradventure ubah continue this case, I bet his going to regret doing business with maduka cos the level at which this issue is going, is quite beyond drama...