Thursday, 2 October 2014

YoruByte: A Black Scorpion and the Bonding of a colony




Yoru-Byte: Ogbomosho is a town in oyo state in the southwest of Nigeria. The town has produced some of the greatest warriors in Yoruba land. In fact, the largest contingent of the holders of the coveted, yet dreaded “Aare Ona kakanfo” title, hail from Ogbomosho. Some of them include Toyeje, Ojo Abunimaku, Ladoke Akintola, Ajala Agbe, omo jalodo. For those who do not know, the Aare Ona Kakanfo title is the highest warrior title in Yoruba land, the war generalissimo. It is a title that is similar to the Samurai title of Japan as it is on record that all holders of the title die fighting. Even the last multi-millionaire Aare Ona Kakanfo, MKO Abiola died fighting.

For those who know the bachama tribe in Adamawa, North eastern Nigeria, they would attest that the bachamas are one of the fiercest battle warriors in the north. So fierce in war that the fulanis had to leave them be during the conquest of the north.
It is therefore no surprise that it is from such warrior backgrounds that the best soldier ever produced in Nigeria comes from.

The man, Benjamin Adesanya Maja Adekunle, BAM, popularly called the black scorpion can be said to be the complete Nigerian. Born of a an Ogbomosho father, a Bachama mother and married to a Rivers wife, Benjamin Adekunle was one of the few detribalized Nigerians without any religious bigotry. A fine soldier to the core. Ironically, his middle name Maja was the antonym of his personality as Maja means DO NOT FIGHT. But he had to fight a great fight. The Nigeria-Biafra civil war.

BAM was born on the 26th of June 1936, the fifth in a line of six children born by Amina Theodora to a polygamous husband, Thomas Adekunle.
Sometimes around 1970, after the end of the civil war, one journalist described Brig-Gen. Adekunle thus:
“Standing only 5ft 7in tall, weighing under 10 stone, he is a ruthless professional soldier, faultlessly dressed whether in uniform or in civvies. He eats little, is a chain-smoker, who drinks little and can get by with four hours' sleep a night. Explosive and impulsive, with a mercurial temperament, during the war he was nicknamed "the Black Scorpion”. The wartime stories told about him are legion. Behind the showy extrovert lies a quick, agile mind of a man of action who can grasp essential problems and make immediate decisions”.

When the then president Gowon said “To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done”, the task would have failed if not for Benjamin Adekunle. Murtala Muhammed lost over 1,000 soldiers to the resilient Biafran army and the Biafrans made their way all the way to ore in ondo state before Benjamin Adekunle stepped in and completely reversed the trend. Benjamin Adekunle it was, who kept Nigeria one as demanded by his commander-in-chief, Gowon.

In the words of the forthright Man of God, Arch Bishop Okogie (first president of Christian Association of Nigeria) – “I served under Benjamin Adekunle in the Army, He was a very good man with a kind heart, even at war”.

Benjy retired after the war as a Brigadier General having spent 16 years in the Nigerian Army, and as usual with Nigeria for those who serve without stealing, Adekunle who fought for Nigeria with his life was abandoned by the nation to die suffering and in a bitter state on 13th September 2014.

No matter what anyone says about Benjy, he was indeed an African hero. He was the one that ensured that Nigeria remained as one to celebrate our 54th Independence.

RIP Benjamin Adesanya Maja Adekunle aka Black Scorpion.
-          Till Next week Thursday

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