Black Scorpion and the 1970 Apapa Port Congestion: Solving Maritime Gateway-Hinterland Delivery Problems in Nigeria

Chilaka, E ORCID: 0000-0002-8342-556X and Agugua, A (2024) Black Scorpion and the 1970 Apapa Port Congestion: Solving Maritime Gateway-Hinterland Delivery Problems in Nigeria. UNILAG Journal of Transport and Logistics, 1 (1). pp. 83-100. ISSN 2756-3952

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Abstract

The study examined the Apapa Port congestion of 1970 which became an albatross for the fledgling Gowon junta as Nigeria, heavily import-export dependent, grappled with immediate post-civil-war economic difficulties compounded by a clogged maritime gateway that threatened the peace dividend. The regime desperately turned to a noted disciplinarian, Colonel Benjamin Adekunle, aka Black Scorpion, the no-nonsense former head of the 3rd Marine Command which had routed Biafra’s secessionist forces at Port Harcourt to facilitate Nigeria’s victory, but who was untidily shunted aside in 1969, following the clandestine politics of the country and her vicious military sector. Although alienated, Adekunle became the military port commandant charged with clearing the gateway by all means. Using archival, primary, and secondary data sources, the paper examines Nigeria’s underlying sociopolitical fault lines using relevant theoretical frameworks and Adekunle’s rare oral interview to interrogate his persona, the controversies of the time, the achievements of the military port commandant-in-council, and how the hinterland delivery problems of the era were subjected to management by design strategies in future port and highway developments. The findings include unbalanced national utilization of port facilities in favour of the Lagos port system, with the conclusion that the skew was largely responsible for the frequent congestions whose resolution options must include harmonized nationwide redistribution of gateway functions in line with economic realities.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	44 Human Society; 35 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services; 3507 Strategy, Management and Organisational Behaviour; 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HE Transportation and Communications
Divisions:	Humanities and Social Science
Publisher:	University of Lagos
Date of first compliant Open Access:	18 December 2025
Date Deposited:	18 Dec 2025 12:37
Last Modified:	18 Dec 2025 12:37
DOI or ID number:	10.52968/27526184
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/27736

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