Not much interview was done on General-Benjamin-Adekunle, popularly known as Black Scorpion who died a couple of weeks ago, labelled and known as a legalised murderer. You want to know a bit about him? I believe excerpts of this interview done in August 1977, will better capture the essence of him. Enjoy!
The Black Scorpion doesn’t sting anymore. His venom was neutralised some three years ago when the Gowon regime retired him from the Army. ‘’My killing days are over”,Brigadier Adekunle affirmed last week at his Surulere residence. ‘’Hitherto I had been labelled as a legalised murderer by the society called Nigerians.
General-Benjamin Adekunle
Right now, I will do any job that will lead to the saving of souls of fellow Nigerians. Not that I regret my period as a soldier, or my killing days as some people would like to refer to it. But there are certain times when you need to do some reassessments. To be a soldier can be a curse in that you are branded. People look at you as if there is no good in you, as if you are just a blood-thirsty cannibal’’.
I took a closer look at him. A slim man, there is nothing particularly menacing about his small frame, except perhaps the slight lifting of the eye brow which gave him a menacing or ferocious look.
How did he acquire the acronym: ‘The Black Scorpion?’
He shrugged. ‘’I believe the Western press made a mistake to identify an Octopus as a scorpion and since then it has stuck. You see, the insignia of my battalion was and still is an octopus. I don’t mind. It doesn’t really mean anything to me. I have been branded’’. Another shrug.
Talk about branding, he is also seen as a very dangerous man....
‘’Assessments of a human being can be dangerous. If you say I am dangerous in the performance of my duty, as a father I don’t think I am dangerous. If you say I am a radical; yes. If you say I am a disciplinarian, I will believe you. But if you say I am dangerous, I’d like some proof. I was considered a radical in the Army because of my ideas.
‘’Just look outside and see if the people need radical changes or not. Find out if they understand their enemies and their friends. Radicalism is giving the people a new lease of life to the point where they have a sense of pride and belonging to the Nation.’’
Was it the absence of it that caused the collapse of the Gowon regime?
‘’Part of it’’. He answered. ‘’ Any government would fall that way. But there are other reasons like corruption in thoughts, words and deed.
Not forgetting of course that he had some good points and achieved some measure of success in certain areas. He was successful in the art of compromise in all his dealings.
But he also successfully raped the norms and traditions of the Army with which the Army had hitherto been able to maintain the standard of discipline over and above the common man on the street by prostituting promotion and interfering with discipline.’’
On the issues of the day, Brigadier Adekunle applauded the work of the Constitution Drafting Committee in trying to raise the consciousness of Nigeria to its human resources but disapproved ‘very much’ the proposed two tier legal system’’.
I am talking about the introduction of the Sharia court of justice. It just can’t work.’’ Another aspect is revenue allocation. The main revenue is from the oil producing areas.
Nobody has sat down to find out how these people can be compensated for the loss of their land and the conditions of the people in the oil rich areas. My conclusion is this; there are certain forces in this country that believe in maintaining certain principles—whether political or economic—when it suits them most.’’
He moved on to the new law on secret society and said, ‘’As far as I know, there is no law that can govern the conscience of an individual. Maybe Nigeria will be the first to be successful in her experiment.’’
On the army, he said ‘’
... the size of the Army is in line with the political position of Nigeria in Africa. And you can’t tell when there will be peace from when there will be war. America talks to the world the way she does because of its army and the bomb. We don’t have the bomb but we have the human resources.
What we should do now is to sharpen our teeth into dangerous fangs. However, no army worth its salt should feel superior to the people it is supposed to protect. The trouble with Nigerians is that they do not understand their rights. Nigerians are so timid that they think that at every corner, a soldier is going to shoot them. Who the hell is the army?’
What have you been doing since you left the army?
A shrug. ‘’trying to be a businessman. I have had to adjust as an individual. I wanted to do 22 years in the Army. I only did 14. But I want to make it clear that anybody worth his salt should not be one sided as far as aptitude and capabilities are concerned. Besides, there is some beauty in being a civilian and there are boundless opportunities’’.
Was he rich by the time he left the Army?
‘’It depends on what you mean by being rich. I was not rich and still not rich. I didn’t make money during the war’’.
On how he became a soldier, he said, ‘’its in the Family and I had a liking for it. I had always been surrounded by uncles and brothers marching all over the damn place’’.
Have you ever been close to death?
‘’Several times. When my boat capsized, when I was shot through the pants in an aircraft, when I crashed a plane etc’’
Are you afraid of death?
‘’Yes. I am afraid of a slow death’’.
Comments
Post a Comment