Yakubu Gowon and the Cement Armada.

The ‘Cement Armada’ was a major Nigerian government scandal which culminated in hundreds of cement-laden ships arriving en masse at Lagos, creating almost a two-year port congestion during the height of the 1970s oil boom.

The cement scandal was a major reason for the coup that overthrew the regime of former Gen. Yakuba Gowon in July 1975. Under General Gowon, Government officials ordered 20 million tons of cement‐16 million tons by the Ministry of Defense alone—to be delivered within 12 months.

The reason given for such enormous quantity was that they needed to expand the Nigerian ports to accommodate more ships and that there were major roads that needed reconstruction.

Soon, over 400 hulks showed up on various Nigerian ports and this led to an unforeseen .

problem- Congestion. While on sea waiting to be offloaded, as much as half of the cement went bad. To make matters worse, spoiled and inferior-grade cement was concealed by mixing it with acceptable material for use in public building projects.

Due to the number of

cement that was brought into the country, the Armada became one of several contributing factors to the unusual inflation in the price of construction during Gowon’s rule.

After over 15 months of these ships laden with cement have paralyzed Nigeria's ports,

they were gradually being unloaded and sent on their way.

After Gowon’s overthrow, the new Government appointed a tribunal to investigate the scandal. But it made little progress trying to untangle a web of kickbacks and bribes involving Government officials, foreign shipowners,

corrupt purchasing agents, unscrupulous middlemen, phony corporations, dubious letters of credit and Swiss bank accounts.

There were accusations against nine public officials.
Among them was a secretary in the Defense Ministry, who said he was merely following orders from

General Gowon, a former deputy whom the tribunal suggested was out to sabotage the country, a former ambassador to the Netherlands and several officials from the Central Bank. They were dismissed and their assets being investigated.
The names of prominent Nigerian businesmen

rumored to have been involved in the cement affair did not figure in the tribunal's report. The question of exactly how so much cement was ordered did not seem to be answerable.

Rumor has it that the cost of chipping the cement out of the holds exceeded the cost of the ships.

So, the ships were intentionally sunk and remain on the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Nigeria

The “cement armada” episode came to epitomize the wasteful mismanagement of government resources that took place under Gowon's regime after the Biafran genocide

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