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Abstract
The ‘Cement Armada’ was a major Nigerian government scandal which culminated in hundreds of cement-laden ships arriving en masse at Lagos, creating severe multi-year-long port congestion during the height of the 1970s oil boom. In spite of the scale of the scandal, its causes and consequences have received little attention from scholars. This article presents new research which suggests the Armada was one of several contributing factors to the extraordinary inflation in the price of construction during period. It places the scandal in the context of debates about corruption, organisational failure and a ‘resource curse’ in Nigeria.
Notes
1. Shneerson, ‘Investment in Port Systems,’ 202.
2. Conway, Maritime Fraud, 37.
3. Panter-Brick, ed., Soldiers and Oil.
4. Osoba, ‘Corruption in Nigeria,’ 378–379.
5. Collier, The Plundered Planet, 141.
6. Corden, ‘Booming Sector,’ 362–363; Ezeala-Harrison, ‘Structural Re-Adjustment,’ 197–199.
7. Marwah, ‘What explains slow sub-Saharan African Growth’.
8. Bevan, Collier and Gunning, Nigeria: Policy Responses.
9. Bennett and Kirk-Greene, ‘Back to the Barracks,’ 19–22; Cappa and D’Alberto, 50th Anniversary in Nigeria 1932–1982, 56; Osoba, ‘Corruption in Nigeria,’ 379. Also see press reports at the time, ‘Cement Mountain Inquiry Ordered’ (The Sunday Telegraph, London, 19/10/75).
10. Campbell, ‘Army Reorganization,’ 75.
11. Marwah, ‘Investing in ghosts,’ 102 (Table 6, Chapter 3).
12. Federal Ministry of Information, Belgore Report, 12. The report gives cement weights in both tons and metric tonnes, and specifies that it refers to metric tons in its cement contract appendix, though the distinction is not always clear in the body of the report. There is a less than 2% difference between the two measures, and so any inconsistency makes little difference to the overall narrative.
13. Ibid., 9.
14. Ibid., 10.
15. Ibid., 41.
16. Ibid., 17–18.
17. Ibid., 17, 19.
18. Ayida, Reflections on Nigerian Development, 260.
19. Federal Ministry of Information, Belgore Report, 42.
20. Letter from P.A. Barrett, The Metal Box – Toyo Glass Company of Nigeria Ltd to G. Cappa, 31/10/74, Godwin and Hopwood Archive, Lagos, Nigeria, Job 473, Boxes 199–203.
21. Federal Ministry of Information, Belgore Report, 18.
22. Ibid., 12.
23. Ibid., 11–12.
24. Ayida, Reflections on Nigerian Development, 260.
25. Federal Ministry of Information, Belgore Report, 18.
26. Ibid., 20.
27. Ibid., 27–28.
28. Ibid., 81.
29. Ibid., 40.
30. Ibid., 54.
31. Ibid., 42.
32. Ibid., 23.
33. Ibid., 38–39.
34. Ibid., 59.
35. Ibid., 34.
36. Ibid., 16–17.
37. Ibid., 31–32, 65.
38. Ibid., 65.
39. Ibid., 66.
40. Ibid., 120–122.
41. Ibid., 76.
42. Ibid., 22.
43. Ibid., 35.
44. Ibid., 65.
45. (Sunday Chronicle, 20/3/77).
46. Ibid., 77.
47. Etablissement Esefka International Anstalt v Central Bank of Nigeria, 445 at 447.
48. (The Daily Telegraph, London, 10/11/75).
49. (The Nigerian Observer, 5/11/75).
50. (The Daily Telegraph, London, 10/11/75).
51. (The Nigerian Observer, 5/11/75).
52. (Daily Mail, 17/10/75).
53. (Financial Times, London, 19/11/75).
54. (The Nigerian Observer, 5/11/75).
55. (Sunday Chronicle, 20/3/77).
56. (Nigerian Tribune, 22/11/75).
57. (The Nigerian Observer, 5/11/75).
58. Campbell, ‘Army Reorganization,’ 75.
59. (The Sunday Times, London, 12/10/75).
60. (New Nigerian, 23/10/78).
61. Federal Ministry of Information, Importation of Cement, 8–17.
62. (New Nigerian, 25/5/76).
63. (The Economist, London, 21/10/78).
64. Trendtex Trading Corporation Ltd v Central Bank of Nigeria [1977], 529.
65. Blum, Construction in Nigeria, 130.
66. Ibid., 52, 54.
67. (The Daily Telegraph, London, 16/10/75).
68. Central Bank of Nigeria Annual Report and Statement of Accounts 1974, 13.
69. Moser, ‘The Main Determinants of Inflation,’ 270.
70. Onoh, The Nigerian Oil Economy, 74.
71. Bevan, Collier and Gunning, Nigeria: Policy Responses to Shocks, 14.
72. Central Bank of Nigeria Annual Report and Statement of Accounts 1975, 19.
73. Adekanmbi, ‘In the Beginning,’ 8–9.
74. Federal Republic of Nigeria, Excessively High Cost of Government Contracts, 25.
75. Central Bank of Nigeria Annual Report and Statement of Accounts 1975, 19.
76. Central Bank of Nigeria Annual Report and Statement of Accounts 1975, 19.
77. Central Bank of Nigeria Annual Report and Statement of Accounts 1978, 4.
78. Hopwood, ‘Building Costs in Nigeria,’ 10.
79. Federal Republic of Nigeria, Excessively High Cost of Government Contracts, 37.
80. Watts, ‘Introduction,’ 17.
81. Federal Republic of Nigeria, Excessively High Cost of Government Contracts, 11.
82. Ezeala-Harrison, ‘Structural Re-Adjustment in Nigeria,’ 199–200.
83. Marwah, ‘Investing in ghosts,’ 284–285 (Figures 47–49, Chapter 7).
84. See Marwah, ‘Oil as sweet as honey,’ 100 for a literature review; Collier, Soludo and Patillo, eds., Economic Policy Options.
85. Austin and Uche, ‘Collusion and competition,’ 23. Amankwah-Amoah and Debrah, ‘Air Afrique,’ 520.
86. Andrews, Boyne and Enticott, ‘Performance failure in the public sector,’ 273–296; Boyne, ‘Local Government,’ 17–24; Hertog, ‘Petromin,’ 645–667.
87. Amankwah-Amoah and Debrah, ‘Air Afrique,’ 531–532.
88. Van den Bersselaar and Decker, ‘No Longer at Ease,’ 741–752. Tignor, ‘Political corruption in Nigeria before independence,’ 175–202.
89. Joseph, Democracy and Prebendal Politics.
90. Lewis, ‘From Prebendalism to Predation, 80.
91. Marwah, ‘Investing in ghosts,’ 174–213.