By Akin Owolabi When I, even I, look at the Nigerian socio-political scape that has bred scores of super-billionaires of civilian-military hues, my heart cannot but bleed profusely for retired Brigadier Benjamin Adesanya Maja Adekunle, Nigeria’s most unsung civil war hero. This epic man maintained an extremely low profile since he was shoved aside from his primary job on 20 August, 1974 in largely unsubstantiated circumstances. Whao! Adekunle, on Saturday, 13 September, 2014 permanently closed his eyes, succumbing to death - mankind’s most trenchant enemy. He, being a man of valour, died nobly, without having to cry out at the tail end of his life over his weak finances and failing health; never asking to be flown abroad at government expense. He stoically refused to blow off the roof but casually remarked 40 years ago when he was compulsorily retired: “If this is what Nigeria will pay me after I have done a job for this country, that’s alright.” Adekunle maintained a dignified silence ever since and vehemently refused to be dragged into the murky waters of Nigeria’s high-wire politics and economic rat race. Only a man of monumental dignity would suffer in golden silence the way Adekunle did, more so that the united Nigeria he so much believed in and strenuously fought for prospered greatly thereafter, thus enabling upcoming generations of the military brass and their civilian lackey to develop pot bellies through mindboggling treasury looting. Who was Adekunle and how did he come into prominence? Adekunle, nicknamed The Black Scorpion, was the pioneer General Officer Commanding (GOC), 3 Marine Commando (3MCDO) of the Nigerian Army, who won over 60 per cent of the Nigerian Civil War battles but became too war weary at the point of taking the winning crown of the war. He was the lion on the Nigerian side, literally tearing down the Biafran buffalo only to prevaricate, nay, abdicate, thus enabling less fancied jackals to feast on the succulent flesh of the huge herbivore. 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-eastern flanks of Nigeria, the Nigerian Civil War would have dragged for several more years. It is on record that Owerri was assigned to the Second Infantry Division of the Nigerian Army while Aba and Umuahia belonged to Muhammadu Shuwa’s First Division but Adekunle, under operational code OAU, liberated those core Igbo cities shortly after capturing vast geographic areas now stradling Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Cross River states and significant parts of Delta State in spite of the largely marine terrain of operation. In fact, there would have been no war to win if Adekunle’s team had not exceeded its briefs and resoundingly won the major battles. Sadly, though, this diminutive man of valour was denied all the appurtenances that should go with national heroes of his epic proportion. The civil war hero was viciously torn away from his first love – the military – an action that precipitated his descent into financial paucity in retirement. We are not let into the pittance Adekunle was being paid as pension but we can safely guess that it was truly ludicrous, laughable for a man who never held political office, however lacklustre. I caught a cursory but distant glimpse (first and last) of the then dreaded Colonel at the Opobo Jetty shortly before the campaign for the liberation of Port Harcourt sometime in May 1968. The red-necked (rank insignia) army brass was chatting animatedly with one of his field commanders as 14 Brigade troops filed into speedboats that would take them seven miles upstream to a fishing post near Bane in Ogoniland. Morbid fear ran through our spines. One soldier, clutching a small bag containing garri, hurriedly dropped the excess luggage for fear of being picked for improper dressing. In fact, the fear of Adekunle was at the root of resounding 3MCDO’s successes during the civil war. And when 14 Brigade of three battalions was worsted in the fierce Bane battles and repelled to the starting fishing post on the third day of assault, Adekunle told a visibly shaken Lt-Col. Pius Eromobor (brigade commander) that he would prefer he and his troops perished than retreat to Opobo. Eromobor remobilised and begun a winning streak that soon saw the troops joining others in Port Harcourt few weeks after. 3MCDO soldiers in the battlefield preferred to die on active service than come face-to-face with their GOC. While the enemy bullet could miss its target, Adekunle’s would be point-blank and lethal. Such was the myth and reality surrounding Adekunle – boisterous – but of whom Alabi-Isama said: ‘his bark was worse than his bite.’ General Olusegun Obasanjo remains the primary beneficiary of Adekunle’s battle-winning streak. Obasanjo stayed behind and had ample opportunity to play safe in stupendous high treason manoeuvres that ousted General Yakubu Gowon (a sin Adekunle never dreamt of but was rumoured to be committing) and even the democratically elected administration of Alhaji Shehu Aliyu Shagari. He served in Gowon’s administration and formed two federal cabinets, thus reaping bountiful financial rewards that have ranked him among the richest leaders in the world. Other military brass, who stayed long in the corridors of power, became stupendously rich too. They are currently straddling the politico-economic landscape in scores. These are found in oil business in the Niger Delta and sit pretty well on the boards of blue-chip companies after cornering juicy shares or employed civilian fronts in many other areas. That was not the case with Adekunle, whose record of integrity as top Army commander was impeccable, a man whom the corrupting elements would think twice, and deeply too, before approaching for underhand dealings. He was a man who would not beg or cringe for political or economic favour, who did not sacrifice expediency for a mess of pottage. Adekunle was a man of action who did not mind whose ox was gored when it came to national assignments. Gowon assigned him to clear the mess called seaport congestion, where inefficiency was supreme and official lethargy an art, an assignment that could have earned others millions in an era when thousands could sway a refracted horse, even move mountains. Adekunle did the job with the precision of a sleepwalker. There was no allegation of favouritism or bribery. Only Adekunle could have accomplished such Herculean task in those hazy days. He was on the port job when he was booted out of the Army. Why? Adekunle was not unaware of the root cause of his exit from the Army. “He attributed his problems during and after the war to his rivals in the army. In various interviews, he said there was always a rumour of coup linked to him until the army authority felt the concern to do something about it,” said a reliable source. The last we heard about the condition of Adekunle was through Alabi-Isama, a loyal associate, who said his former boss was truly low in finances, apart from his failing health. The man was born in 1936 in Kaduna to an Ogbomoso – now in Oyo State – father by a Buchama lady. He enlisted into the Army in 1958 and was compulsorily retired in 1974. Whatever tears being shed today for Benjamin Adekunle, apart from those of his immediate family and truly loyal associates, are insincere and at best crocodile’s.