Remembering Benjamin Adekunle, The ‘Black Scorpion’

THE late Brigadier-General Adekunle, alias “Black Scorpion” was my hero, as he was to millions of Nigerians and foreigners alike, and besides was, with due respect, my older friend and guide. I admired and still admire the professional soldier, sometimes brash when conditions demanded, though.

When the late hero died on September 13, last year, aged 77, following was the tribute, published in some national newspapers, written by me in honour and remembrance of the great soldier: “Nigeria’s civil war hero, Brigadier Benjamin Maja Adekunle, alias “Black Scorpion” died in Lagos, on Saturday 13, September, this year aged, 77 years. May his gallant soul rest in peace. Amen.

“Typical of Nigeria’s opportunistic class, crocodile tears and absurd tributes will, and indeed have started pouring in torrents to the departed professional soldier and gentleman officer, nationalist and self-effacing hero. Genuine heartfelt condolences will be few and far between for the late retired Brigadier -General Adekunle.

“For a deserving citizen who had contributed so much to keep Nigeria a united country, clear the Lagos port during the self-inflicted, through government’s planlessness, congestion of the early 1970s among other patriotic deeds, who was shamefully ignored, out of envy, pettiness and fickleness by successive governments, it is too late to now shed crocodile tears / pour hackneyed tributes to the “Black Scorpion”.

“In choosing a title for this tribute, I struggled with the above, ‘Don’t Cry for Him Nigeria’ and ‘Don’t Cry for Me, Nigeria’, a variant of the 1970s chart buster, Don’t Cry For Me Argentina, dedicated to Isabella, the late wife of the also late Argentinean dictator, General Peron. Why did I drop the Peron variant? One, Adekunle never begged Nigeria to honour or mourn him and unlike the Perons, Adekunle was a patriot and complete Nigerian, if one considers the fact that his father, Thomas Adekunle, was Yoruba, mother, Amina Theodora, a Bachama from Adamawa and first wife, Comfort Akie Wilcox, from Bonny.

“The Nigeria/Biafra civil war (1967 to Jan. 1970) threw up Brigadier Adekunle as a professional soldier, strategist and myth. I soaked up his warfare fame and made known to him, though letters, as I did to Professor ’Wole Soyinka, while an untried political prisoner at the Kaduna Prison in 1967, courtesy of the retired General Yakubu Gowon-led Federal Military Government, my admiration of his (Adekunle’s) war exploits.

“In 1983, when I became a Press Secretary to the then governor of old Oyo State (present Oyo and Osun States) the late Chief ’Bola Ige and also to three military successors of Ige (retired Major-General Oladayo Popoola, retired Brigadier-General Adetunji Olurin and retired Brigadier- General Sasaniea Oresanya), the paths of the late Brigadier Adekunle and my humble self crossed.

“Of our encounters, I recall here his courtesy visit to me in July 1999, sequel to my appointment as the Managing Director of Sketch Press Limited, Ibadan (although designated as coordinator) by the then newly- sworn in Alliance for Democracy (AD) governors of Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti States. Before their election as governors though, Odu’a Investment Company Limited, owned by the five states named above, had been saddled by the five former military administrators of the states to oversee the affairs of Sketch. I was seconded from Odu’a in 1998 where I was the substantive Senior Manager, Corporate Affairs, to run the affairs of Sketch, pro bono, as Coordinator. Later, Odu’a conducted interviews for a new management for Sketch and I handed over to the new Managing Director, Mr. Biodun Oduwole.

“But, with the advent of civilian governments in Nigeria in May 1999, Odu’a states inclusive, the five governors of Odu’a states, as explained earlier, sacked the Sketch Board and Management, and asked me to take over the newspaper company’s affairs again, also pro bono. It was during my second coming, as it were, in the capacity as acting Managing Director of Sketch that the late Brigadier Adekunle sent his Personal Assistant to me to deliver his congratulatory message and book an appointment for a courtesy visit. On the chosen day of the visit, my guest in keeping with military tradition, arrived the now defunct Sketch Press Limited office on Oba Adebimpe Road, Dugbe, Ibadan, some minutes earlier than the appointed time. The Sketch has since been demolished to give way to a shopping mall.

“I, with my management team, received him at the gate and led him to the MD’s office on the last floor of the three-storey building. Protocol over, he asked me to tell him the circumstances that led to my appointment as the Coordinator of the Sketch Press Limited.

“I narrated the story to him and as I was about rounding off, he asked: “Mr Coordinator, do you have a letter of appointment as the acting Managing Director of the Sketch from the governors?”

“I replied in the negative, as I was verbally appointed by the governors without even any mention of an allowance to me! Brigadier-General Adekunle shook his head and bellowed that I should head the following day of his visit, to the late Governor Lam Adesina of Oyo State (the ‘overseer’ of the Sketch Press Limited, to obtain a “formal letter of authority (appointment)”

“He told me that his advice was based on his “bitter experience” as the emergency manager (actually Military Commandant) of the Lagos Port, Apapa, from where he was unceremoniously eased out, after cleaning the port (cement armada) congestion in the 1970s, after he had been recalled from the war front. Thank God, I heeded his advice to demand and obtain a formal letter of appointment, among other words of wisdom (advice, if your prefer) that he gave freely to me”