₦airaland Forum

At the beginning of the video I heard

" if na ibo e go carry the money"

Seun I wonder why this is not in fp

There is an uncomfortable question that deserves to be asked about Cosmas Maduka: why does the language of principle become so flexible when the person on the other side of the table is Stella Oduah his tribe person?

In the 2013 armoured-BMW controversy, Maduka, chairman of Coscharis Motors, appeared before the National Assembly and offered a defence of the transaction. According to reporting on the hearing, he maintained that due process had been followed and, crucially, said that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority had told Coscharis that its initial price was not acceptable and demanded that the price be increased. He also explained that the BMWs had originally been purchased in connection with the Lagos 2012 National Sports Festival before subsequently being sold to the NCAA.

That testimony is important because it places a significant part of the responsibility for the controversial pricing with the NCAA rather than Coscharis. But it also raises an obvious question: if a government agency asks a private company to increase the price of an expensive vehicle, what exactly was Coscharis' responsibility as the supplier?

The controversy was not merely about whether an armoured BMW could legitimately cost a large amount of money. Reporting at the time raised questions about the vehicles' actual value, procurement process, financing and delivery. One report said the two vehicles were acquired for approximately ₦255 million, while experts cited by the report questioned whether their combined cost should have been anywhere near that figure.

Then came the issue of the customs waiver.

The House hearing heard evidence that a duty waiver originally granted to the Lagos State Government for vehicles connected with the 2012 National Sports Festival had been used in relation to the armoured BMWs. Customs officials told the committee that the waiver could have generated more than ₦10 million in revenue had it not been applied.

But Lagos State subsequently disputed the suggestion that it had requested armoured BMWs for the festival. The state's position, as reported at the time, was that it had requested a general waiver for vehicles for the festival and had not requested bulletproof BMWs.

So the public was left with a chain of questions: Who originally ordered the vehicles? Who requested the price increase? Why were vehicles associated with the Lagos sports festival subsequently transferred to the NCAA? Who authorised the transaction? Who benefited from the waiver? And, most importantly, who knew what, and when?

SaharaReporters went further, reporting claims from NCAA sources that officials who signed documents acknowledging delivery allegedly had not physically seen the cars. Those claims were disputed and should be treated as allegations rather than established facts, but they demonstrate the seriousness of the questions surrounding the transaction.

This is where the question of Maduka's relationship to the controversy becomes particularly interesting.

Maduka was not a government minister. He was the businessman supplying the vehicles. His company's involvement therefore placed him in a position where he could potentially clarify the commercial side of the transaction. Instead, his testimony, as reported, placed considerable emphasis on the instructions and demands coming from the NCAA.

That may be a perfectly legitimate account of what happened.

But if Maduka's own testimony was that the NCAA requested the price increase, then one is entitled to ask why the transaction proceeded at all. Was Coscharis merely following instructions, or was it an active participant in a transaction whose structure should have triggered greater scrutiny?

And this brings us to the uncomfortable issue of ethnicity.

There were contemporaneous attempts by some commentators to frame the Oduah controversy through ethnicity. One Nairaland discussion, for example, explicitly listed Oduah, Maduka and several other officials by ethnic identity as part of an argument about the scandal. That material is useful as evidence of the ethnic framing surrounding the controversy, but it is a forum discussion, not proof that the people involved acted because of ethnicity.

That distinction matters.

There is a difference between asking whether ethnic solidarity influenced public reactions and accusing an individual of tribalism. The latter requires evidence of conduct, not merely shared ethnicity.

And this is precisely why Maduka's later comments about a former Plateau governor are worth examining alongside the Oduah episode.

A 2026 report says Maduka alleged that a former Plateau governor asked Coscharis to double vehicle invoices, allegedly from ₦40 million to ₦80 million. According to the report, Maduka said he rejected the request and withdrew from the transaction. The former governor was not named by Maduka in the reported remarks, and the allegation has not been independently verified.

If Maduka's account is accurate, that is a very different posture from the one presented in the Oduah affair.

In the Plateau account, Maduka portrays himself as the businessman who refused an inflated government transaction.

In the Oduah account, however, his company completed a transaction after, according to his testimony, the NCAA requested that the original price be increased.

That contrast deserves examination.

Why was one alleged request something Maduka says he rejected, while the other became a transaction that Coscharis completed?

That question does not prove tribalism. It does not prove that Maduka protected Oduah. And it does not prove that the Plateau allegation is true. But it is a legitimate question about consistency.

If Maduka's standard is that a government request to inflate a vehicle invoice should cause a businessman to walk away, then Nigerians are entitled to ask what standard was applied to the NCAA transaction.

And if the answer is that the two transactions were materially different, then Maduka should explain precisely what those differences were.

The public does not need ethnic speculation. It needs consistency.

If the Plateau allegation is false, Maduka can explain why. If the Oduah transaction was completely legitimate, he can explain why the pricing, procurement, waiver and delivery questions arose. And if the two situations were fundamentally different, he can explain the difference.

But Nigerians should not be asked to accept one standard for a Plateau politician and another standard for a powerful federal minister.

The real issue is not whether Maduka is Igbo, Oduah is Igbo, or the former Plateau governor is from another ethnic group. The real issue is whether the same ethical standard was applied to every government transaction.

That is the question Maduka's own accounts make difficult to avoid.

I am so disappointed in this man

You are right although there is no southern Nigeria. Islam existed in yorubasland before the northern nigeria.

No demand will be given and they will release the children walahi !

They will regret this one

Who is the sane leader ? Atiku or Obi ?

PlasmaTV:
Sane Nigerian, please vote for a sane leader next year.

We are tired of hearing news of kidnapping daily.

It's pathetic that these poor souls have been violated for 37+ days and the folks in power are chilling like nothing is wrong. An absolute disgrace to the GCFR and his cronies.

madridguy:
The FG are deliberately wasting our soldiers life.

These are people buhari integrated

Very very sad. I hope these fake drugs and drinks will not kill us all

franchasng:
Lagos is overburdened already, adding more seaport to Lagos is not helping the state but killing it. They should focus on building excellent cargo rail from existing Lagos seaports to states like:

Kano
Anambra (Onitsha)
Kogi
Adamawa


It will reduce the burden of loads on Lagos roads which causes traffic congestion and fast road wear. But with cargo railways from Lagos ports to other commercial states, movement of cargo containers will be swift and the loads on Lagos roads will be reduced, traffic will also drop.

Where is the deep sea in those states you mentioned

Mistake with ibos

Who the hell is Ndubisi Okwara

He will not win

AllBlack:
And he just wants to do only 4 years.

He thinks Nigeria is an app on his phone.

Nothing concerns me with Tinubu or Atiku but you see this guy... he's just another politician looking for the advantage of the presidential office.

This is the ultimate truth !!!!!

Very very provocative

Tinubu dey try. ....hhcjdtjkv

Igbo king stated this nonsense. Rip

This is why we need a separate passport for people that lack regards for other

Igbo king caused all these

Irony1:
So why the discriminatiom against GRV?

Because he does not think in yoruba

The oba don dey over reach !!!

I don't understand this bini children of ile ife

Treasure17:
So no qualify candidate from the south east? Something is wrong with this man honestly. He thinks he's smart with his appointments. At least balance the appointment.

No

Do your absolute worse

Apcshit:
It's always fulani or yoruba.Tribalistoc idiot

How many yoruba GEJ ebele put fir government.

Nnamdi Azikwe how many Fulani e put for government

The same people that benefited from this will be telling the younger generation that they are entitled and want government to do everything.

Meanwhile in the 60s 70s and 80s, their own father's and grandfather's gave them everything.

It was never only the government. Many Nigerians are worse but they simply don't have the opportunity

I don't think this is accurate.

Not all borehole get to the reservoirs. That is why we have muddy water in lekki and cost.

Also in the places like Lagos, it is a replishable resource

iwaeda:
Nlfpmod, on a serious not trucks are taken many lives.

What is funny ? Because those people are not related to you

ThiefnubuBandit:
You mean an extension of the Benin Kingdom?

Lmao

So much prosperity in Lagos YorubaLand