Coscharis chairman’s weighty allegation

FOUNDER and Chairman of Coscharis Group, Dr. Cosmas Maduka, recently trended on social media following a weighty allegation attributed to him sometime ago. In an interview on the Selah Meditate podcast, Maduka claimed that an unnamed former Plateau State governor once demanded that his company double the invoiced price of proposed vehicle purchases as a condition for a supply deal. According to him, this was made a prerequisite for the purchase of the vehicles. “They wanted us to supply vehicles and we delivered vehicles, but they wanted me to inflate invoices of vehicles of ₦40 million to ₦80 million,” he said. The Coscharis boss said that his company flatly refused the deal, prompting the former governor to approach another buyer who approached the company, purchased the cars from Coscharis at the company’s stated price, but eventually did the governor’s bidding by inflating the cost of the purchase.

Maduka alleged that it had become a practice for some public officials to approach car companies using intermediaries for vehicle purchases with the aim of inflating the costs. Though his allegations did not establish the identity of the public official involved, they sparked public outrage. For instance, the allegation did not provide the identity of the former governor but described the person as a predecessor of Governor Caleb Mutfwang. We expected all the former governors of Plateau State to have been riled enough by this allegation to publicly disclaim it. The innuendo in this allegation is too vivid and direct to invite any obfuscation. However, whether or not the referenced ex-Plateau governor is named, the fact that a state chief executive would conceive of such a monumental heist is distressing. It is troubling. Without equivocation, such an unnamed person is simply a thief who hibernated in a Government House, and deserves to be fished out. If the facts are well interrogated, the character must have been a depraved individual who probably bought his way into office.

The allegation cannot be treated with kid gloves. For one thing, Dr. Maduka should not have restricted the matter to a mere interview session. The alleged culprit should have had his day with crime investigators. This could only have happened if the matter was reported to the police or any of the anti-graft agencies, with valuable pieces of intelligence provided. The fact that the vehicles were eventually purchased at the normal price after obtaining invoices elsewhere at an inflated sum, using proxies, qualifies the allegation as serial corruption involving the said governor and the proxy who bought the cars from Coscharis. Corruption in Nigeria has become so hydra-headed only because Nigerians treat it as mere ringworm whereas it is leprosy. Both the alleged corrupt person and society are guilty: the former for their acts and the latter for their silence. Both have taken the country rapidly downhill. Ultimately, the onus is on the people to keep scrutinising those who approach them for votes, so that they don’t elect certified armed robbers, as in the scenario painted by the Coscharis boss. Since crime has an elastic limit of action, we still encourage Dr. Maduka to turn over the evidence at his disposal to the anti-graft agencies. That would prove that the allegation wasn’t about sensationalism. Fortunately, Dr. Maduka has no history of flippant speaking.

Corruption will not just disappear from the Nigerian space: there must be a concerted effort to thwart it. In this regard, citizens have a lot to do. Though all too often there is collusion at the top to keep those corruption cases off the dais, Nigerians must keep speaking up. Corruption fights back, stinging those who dare to speak up as retribution for their action, but the country would be eternally damned if the citizenry became too weary to complain. Yes, there are severe consequences for honest people in Nigeria, but hope is not totally lost, and that should inspire the public. The Nigerian society needs people who will stand up against the corrupt people who dominate the national space. Nigerians must also demand a change. In this regard, we commend Maduka for his forthrightness and even the boldness to make this public. There are a thousand and one of such cases that happen daily in the country but which are enveloped in darkness. What this revelation shows is that as hopeless as the situation looks, there are still good people in Nigeria. We urge them to keep shining the light and keep speaking up.

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The 1966 mutineers who brought about the first coup in Nigeria situated their action around those they called “the 10 percenters” — those in government who awarded contracts after demanding 10 percent in bribes. Today, contracts are awarded and culprits swallow the whole contract money without executing any contract. It is that bad. Many of the corruption conversations around governments in Nigeria would make a sane person go mad. Some politicians said to be involved in corruption in high places are alleged to factor agents of the anti-graft agencies into their criminal operations, setting aside “settlement funds” during their stealing operations. Nigerian politics is so heavily monetised that you cannot but wonder how the politicians get the money they throw around while seeking public office. It shows glaringly that proceeds of filthy transactions, like this case which Dr. Maduka referenced, are a major source of funding. Politicians raised the bar in terms of election expenses because, like a cycle, they filch the nation’s wealth to induce voters.

There must be a strong tripartite base for fighting corruption in Nigeria: the public, the anti-corruption agencies, and the courts that eventually pronounce judgment. If this trio collaborated effectively, the likes of the ex-governor whom Dr. Maduka accused of attempting to corrupt his company would be in jail at the moment.