‎Brig Gen. Benjamin Maja Adekunle : A Gallant Ogbomoso Man, “The Black Scorpion of Africa”, The Man of War

 

‎Benjamin Adesanya Maja Adekunle was born in Kaduna. His father was a native of Ogbomoso while his mother was a member of the Bachama tribe. He underwent secondary education at the government college, Okene (in present day Kogi State).
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‎He enlisted in the Nigerian Army in 1958 shortly after completing his school certificate examinations. He passed the army selection examinations and thereafter was despatched to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the UK, the British Army’s initial officer entry academy. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on December 15, 1960.
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‎As a platoon commander, he served in Kasai Province of Congo with the 1st Battalion, Queen’s Own Nigeria Regiment during his first ONUC UN peace keeping tour of duty. In 1962, Lt. Adekunle became Aide-de-Camp to the governor of the eastern region, Sir Akanu Ibiam. The following year, as a Captain, he was posted back to the Congo as Staff Captain (A) to the Nigerian Brigade HQ at Luluabourg – under Brigadier B. Ogundipe.
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‎In 1964, Major Adekunle attended the Defence Services Staff College at Wellington, in India. When he returned he was briefly appointed Adjutant General at the Army Headquarters in May 1965 to replace Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon, who was proceeding on a course outside the country. However, he later handed over the position to Lt. Col. James Pam and was posted back to his old Battalion (1st Bn) in Enugu as a Company Commander.
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‎Nigerian Civil War
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‎He became the lion on the Nigerian side, actually tearing down the Biafran buffalo handiest to prevaricate, nay, abdicate, for that reason permitting less fancied jackals to feast on the succulent flesh of the large herbivore.
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‎Without Adekunle and the likes of Godwin Alabi-Isama, Alani Akinrinade, E. A. Etuk, Pius Eromobor, Ted Hamman and several others effectively combing the south-japanese flanks of Nigeria, the Nigerian Civil warfare would have dragged for numerous greater years. He became popularly defined by means of his colleague because the ‘Bloodhound of Nigeria’ via the authorities in Lagos, where the critical authorities changed into based totally then.
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‎Adekunle later assumed command of the Lagos Garrison as a substantive Lt. Col. When the Nigerian Civil War erupted in July 1967, Adekunle was tasked to lead elements which included two new battalions (7th and 8th) – to conduct the historic sea borne assault on Bonny in the Bight of Benin on 26 July 1968 (carried out by Major Isaac Adaka Boro’s unit). This happened after the federal government gained confidence of most south western ethnic groups as a direct result of Biafran push to mid-west state and probe into Western region. Adekunle was promoted to Colonel after the Bonny landing.
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‎The 6th (under Major Jalo) and 8th (under Major Ochefu) battalions of the Lagos Garrison subsequently took part in operations to liberate the Midwest following the Biafran invasion of August 1967. The 7th (under Major Abubakar) stayed behind to hold Bonny. Because Major Jalo’s outfit was seconded to Lt. Col. Murtala Mohammed’s 2nd Division, Adekunle was left with only the 8th Battalion at Escravos. He, therefore, protested to Army HQ and got the Lagos garrison upgraded to Brigade status through the creation of the 31 and 32 Battalions (under Majors Aliyu and Hamman, respectively). This formation, combined with elements of the Lagos garrison along the eastern seaboard, was officially designated the 3 Infantry Division.
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‎However, Colonel Adekunle did not think the name “3 Infantry Division” was sensational enough nor did it project the nature of the unique terrain in which his men had to fight. Therefore, without formal approval from Army HQ, he renamed it the ” 3 Marine Commando (3MCDO).” The “Black Scorpion” as he came to be known, was easily the most controversial, celebrated and mythologized figure in the war of attrition that laid the foundations for Nigeria’s contemporary crisis; and threw a wedge into the national fabric. Benjamin “Adekunle’s boys in the Midwest seized Escravos, Burutu, Urhonigbe, Owa and Aladima. They captured Bomadi and Patani, Youngtown, Koko, Sapele, Ajagbodudu, Warri, Ughelli, Orerokpe, Umutu and Itagba.
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‎For anyone who had the privileged of knowing him, Rtd Brigadier Benjamin Adekunle fondly called black scorpion did something rare. He lived his life to bring unity to Nigeria, he put everything to see that Nigeria remains one Nation.
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‎Black Scorpion enlisted in the Nigeria Army in 1958 shortly after completing his school certificate examination. He was dispatched to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the United Kingdom for further military training.
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‎Benjamin Adekunle was commissioned as 2nd lieutenant
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‎On December 15, 1960 and as a Platoon commander, proceeded to Kasai Province in Congo to serve with the 1st battalion in the United Nation peace keeping mission.
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‎Benjamin Adekunle also serve as the aide-de-camp to the then governor of the Eastern Region, Sir Akanu Ibiam, before he proceeded to Defence Staff College in Wellington India in 1954.
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‎Benjamin Adekunle played a very significant role during the Nigeria civil war when it erupted in July 1967, he was tasked to lead the 7th and 8th Battalion to Bonny in the Bight of Benin in 1968. Black Scorpion won the admiration of his men on and off the battlefield, many of whom are still alive today and will remember him for his active participation beyond the war planning room.
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‎After the civil war, Benjamin Adekunle was promoted to Brigadier in 1972 and was deployed to Lagos port, a position he held until his compulsory retirement came in August 1974. This post–war service was at a critical junction for the country because Nigeria economic activities were at a stand-still due to port congestion, he solved in short order what was feared to have been an insoluble problem.
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‎Black Scorpion was a dogged fighter and his achievement during the war singled him out as one of the most mythologized military figure in Nigeria history.
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‎Role after the civil war
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‎Benjamin Adekunle was promoted to Brigadier-General in 1972. After the war Adekunle was put in charge of decongesting the Lagos port that was having a chronic problem of clearing imported goods. He held this position until being put on compulsory retirement. On August 20, 1974, he was compulsorily retired from the Army.
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‎He attributed his problems during and after the war to his rivals in the army. In various interviews, he said there was always a rumor of coup linked to him until the army authority felt the concern to do something about it. He had large followings in both the army and public at large and was the most popular military commander during the war, apart from Obasanjo, who succeeded him and brought the war to an end with the same 3MC.
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‎Adekunle led the Third Marine Commando Division with such great panache and determination that the foreign media, in looking for a human angle on the Biafran war, found him a ready source of news.
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‎He maintained a dignified silence ever since and vehemently refused to be dragged into the murky water of Nigerian politics or economic rat race.
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‎Benjamin Adekunle, the Black Scorpion became ill in 2009 and eventually died on September 13, 2014 quietly in his bedroom.
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