•Brig. Gen. Benjamin Adekunle
Photo: Sun News Publishing

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Adekunle had led his Division to clobber the then secessionist forces, but when the war was almost over, the command changed hands. The then Col. Olusegun Obasanjo was named commander, and he was the one, who fortuitously received the instrument of surrender from the Biafran forces. Adekunle and Obasanjo had been course mates, but since then, and up till now, there is no love lost between the duo.

Adekunle, popularly called Black Scorpion, says of the heroic feat usually ascribed to Obasanjo in respect of the civil war:

“After capturing them (the secessionist Igbos) Obasanjo came round to say he did it. I had a good laugh and I’m still laughing…”

Adekunle, before the third term gambit was thrown out by the National Assembly, granted this interview to a television station, details of which are reproduced below:

How did it all begin?

If you remember Kaduna at one time, it was almost the headquarters of the Nigerian Army. Kaduna was the headquarters of some of the biggest units. My father was working in the Government House. My uncle was in the Army, Uncle Alabi. I usually go to him, to go and see what they are doing. So, I took interest in the Army. My father was working as a civilian with the governor, who gave independence to the North. So, I had another opening.

From there, I joined the army. But joining the army at that time was hell because you had to do series of trainings. The first training is to see if you have the qualities of being a soldier. I have already got one. That is my family. My father, my uncle, all of them were in the army. So that gave me a leeway.

We were 25 that wanted to join the Army but 15 were selected and the 15 had to go for further training.

At that time, the Armed forces of the British West Africa were united in training, in thoughts, words and deeds. So we had to go to Teshi in Ghana for some training. It was the only school in the whole of West Africa for English speaking people. It was for three months. But the three months was hell. It was real hell. Then you had to face another board, the board that will select, according to merit, according to age, and educational background, among other considerations.

Luckily, I was selected. My contemporaries then were Chukwuka, Amadi, and Ifeajuna of the 1966 coup fame, Adegoke who was killed in Kaduna, Obasanjo and others who were told that they would go for some other courses.

From the Officer Cadet School in Ghana, you have to go to the UK for another course, like the Ghana course. If you’re able to pass or considered fit to be an officer, then you’re selected. But the irony of the whole thing is that everybody wanted to go to the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst.

Why the preference for Sandhurst?

Sandhurst was a regular officer course. If you’re able to pass, then you can do 22 years service in the Army. So, everyone was struggling to get down to Sandhurst. It’s at Sandhurst that your fate is decided.

Let’s talk about your exploits in the Army, your exalted role during the war

You see, my mother was from the North, from Adamawa State, while my father was from Ogbomoso. During the course of the training, I was told to drop the name Adekunle and use my mother’s maiden name, Hamda. I refused to.

I maintained the Adekunle and that was it. So, we stayed in Ghana. The selection was done. And we were divided into two. Those who were selected to do the Regular Officers Course will have to spend 22 years in service before they’re allowed to go. During the Regular Officers course, you have to get down to Sandhurst, and you also have to do a month as formative period.

Going to Sandhurst, you must have some qualities.

You have to get the psyche to become an officer, and the power to command, to pass instruction, to lead. You must have the power to control people. It wasn’t simple then, because you might find that the next person to you is far older and you the young boy are coming to command somebody older than yourself. Oh, oh, there will be another problem. But the irony of the whole thing is that once you’re put in a grade higher than the rest, that is it. They have to respect you.

We were only five selected from Nigeria for the Sandhurst course to do two years, Udeaja, Chukwuka, Amadi and others. You start the course as a junior, then intermediate junior, after passing all the examinations, practical and written, then you are considered an officer. The irony of my own course was that the year I was confirmed as an officer, the year I passed out was the year Nigeria got her independence.

Can you tell us what led to Nigeria’s political problems?

If you go into Nigeria’s political history, the British had very soft spot for the North. In the Army, Air Force, Navy, Police, even in the Prisons Service, the British gave the Northerners more leeway than the Southerners. The idea being that if the North had complete control of the Armed Forces, they’ll control Nigeria. Then, they will have authority to do whatever they wanted. The relationship between the British and the Emirs will still be a live. And that was what they used.

They packed every military institution to the North. Those that were brought to the south were not important. And that was where I used my mother’s side. I’m not a Yoruba man. I’m not a Hausa man. I’m a Nigerian. It was important for one to know how to speak a foreign language other than your mother’s tongue, and be able to write it. I used the advantage of my parents to get into the Army and to Sandhurst. So you do your terms, each term two years. From there, you go and do your own specialist course as either, artillery officer, infantry officer or intelligence officer. I chose to be an infantry officer.

We’re still talking about the issues that led to the Nigerian Civil War

Ha! The first thing was that the British were trying to hand over. Somebody must control the government, somebody must control the armed forces, somebody must control the money, foreign policies, and other developmental infrastructure. The British had a soft spot for the Northerners. All the organizations necessary for the officer cadet, for the officers, for the formations were all situated in the North. It’s only very little formations that were put in the South.

At the time of independence, the highest number of formations including the brigade, the battalions, the artillery, the supply and transport, the intelligence were all based in the North. Anything you find in the south was just a make belief. And that gave the North the opportunity to sit on the throne of Nigeria, and see it as their birthright. The British not only dominated the Armed Forces, they allowed the location of the formations to be mainly in the North. The repercussion would come up later. The North could do anything. They could say anything in the name of Nigeria, if they do any nonsense, they will get away with it.

The police was the same. The police was more in number and they were spread all over the country than the army. And when the Air Force came, they were mainly located in the North. When the Navy was formed, it was located in the south, but then the Navy wasn’t developed as the Army was developed. They didn’t give them adequate equipment.

Even, if you look at it now, look at Jos for example. There are some military establishments there that shouldn’t have been. Look at Kaduna again, the School of Artillery in the North, the Joint Service Staff College is in the North. The factory for the manufacture of the ammunition is in Kaduna.

The British were bringing the knowledge they acquired from Sudan into Nigeria.

You’ll find that Sudan is in trouble now, because the North was made to dominate the South and the south refused. That’s the same thing that happened in this country where the south through Ojukwu was saying the North hasn’t got the brain, they had only got the men, that the North cannot rule Nigeria. But the British had already given the whole of the country to the Northerners, to dominate forces, they only gave them the Army, they gave them also the gumption to say that their population was more, that they were the richest and so they dominate the whole of the country.

Can you recall some of your much-touted exploits during the war? Up till now, people talk of you with great regard and you are held in a kind of awe on account of some of your exploits. Some legend has it that you are able to disappear and reappear.

Hmm! That is a mystery. How can I disappear? Please do not believe all that you hear. I only used my brain and I used the gumption inside it. With all the guns blazing away, I mean if the firing of guns is pointed at a particular place, they’ll get me, but they didn’t. The only place that they nearly got me was when I became a major.

We’ll come back to that, but let’s talk about Nigeria. The arrest of Akintola triggered off a lot of problem. If he had not been arrested, the problem in the Western region would not have been that way. The disagreement between himself and Awolowo would have been settled. If he had not been arrested, the drive in the southern soldiers to say the Northerners were out to dominate would not be there. So the outlook and the behaviour, within the Army and outside the Army changed. People started looking inwards because the North was only out to dominate.

And that was why the northerners had to look for a way of getting a southerner with national standing. And who did they get? After they had put Awolowo in treasonable felony, they got Akintola. They used him to make the South to tie up with the North. So, when the soldiers came, Chief Awolowo had already been arrested. The soldiers took it to be, well, these are politicians fighting themselves, we have to solve the problem and solve it quickly. Awolowo has been arrested now, let’s go and pick Akintola, and that was how it started.

The original plan was to arrest Akintola, not to kill him, but he resisted and that was how he got wasted. The killing was a mistake. He wouldn’t have been killed. Life was very precious then. And for a premier to be killed was a taboo. And the differences between Awolowo and Akintola weren’t something that could not be settled. But it was to the advantage of the North because the North had Akintola on their side, fully on their side. Awolowo wasn’t. Awolowo was for complete region, period. Independent region was what he wanted. But Akintola refused. He went with the North at the expense of foregoing our own independence. Awolowo was fighting against the concentration of power in the North. He wanted power to be spread all over.

What do you mean when you said they almost got you?

When the coup started, the Ironsi coup. I was in Enugu. I was Company Commander.

Company Commander?

Yes, in the Army, you have sections; you have platoon, the companies, the brigades, then the corps. The platoon is the lowest, with about eight to 10 people. It is easier to command.

The company is an amalgamation of a lot of sections. We had a section dealing with food, a section for medicine, sections for pay, training, arms, and what have you. You amalgamate these sections. A battalion comes on a much larger scale. Nothing less than four companies form a battalion.

You said they almost got you?

Yes, they almost did during the coup, the first coup. My course mates, Ifeajuna, Amadi, Chikwuka, Adegoke …we were all course mates. So the coup happened. Then Ironsi came round to say he was going to change the future of Nigeria. My contemporaries were the leaders of the coup. Contemporaries that I attended Staff College with, officers that I did exams with, so I was being accused of being a stooge, that’s why I didn’t come out openly to say I was doing a coup with them. I told Ironsi, remember, we don’t agree. And if I’m taking part in the coup, I don’t think you’ll be alive. There and then, I was transferred to Enugu.

I was in Enugu when the counter-coup started. I stopped the counter-coup in Enugu.

How?

Ogunnigwe was the boss. I had to take over the command of the unit, physically taking it over, putting men, arms and ammunition on the field, saying if you want to fight, let’s fight each other. And they were made to stay on the field there for three days. If you want to eat, the food will be brought there. If you want to urinate, you urinate on the side. If you want to pooh pooh, they’ll take you to go and pooh pooh, then, you’ll come out and be searched. It wasn’t easy. After that, Ironsi transferred me to Lagos.

It was in the process of coming to Lagos that the political dialogue we were having on behalf of Nigeria in Ghana divided the whole of the Nigerian Army, to the effect that the Northerners should go to the North, Easterners to the East and Westerners must go to the West. But when it came to that of the West, they were not allowed to go to the West fully. A portion came to Ibadan, another to Lagos. It was in the process of bringing these soldiers from Enugu to Lagos that the northerners attacked me.

And the man who was the commanding officer in Lagos, I went to him, said, Sir, Ogunigwe, you’re the CO, but you can’t command because you’re Igbo, will you move back a bit and hand over the command and operation of the first battalion to me. He agreed. It wasn’t very simple. The Northerners had already positioned their officers. The most notorious among them, Shehu Yar-Adua. He was my adjutant and yet he was undermining me, giving contrary instructions to the soldiers.

What do you mean by adjutant?

That’s a military lingo for administrative officer. He was in charge of administration, discipline and everything. Everything happening in the unit must go to him before the commanding officer. He used the position to bring the Hausa soldiers together against the East, against non-Hausas. I punished him. You will be on the parade ground; you’ll be eating there. You want to urinate, another soldier must follow you. You want to see your wife; she will come to the parade ground with somebody else that understands your language. So, you don’t go along and tell anybody things.

Yar’Adua was a good, slippery, very untrustworthy officer. I had known he was bringing the Northern officers together, plotting how to massacre the non-Hausas. That was the time the Northerners had to go to the North, the easterners to the East and the westerners to the West. But the Yorubas had no soldiers, no fighting troops, all they had were clerks, nurses, intelligence officers. So we had to leave Enugu.

On getting to Kaduna, Hassan Usman Katsina came round and congratulated everybody and myself, saying that I’ve done very well that there had been no killing. Unknown to me, he had already given instructions to the Hausas that I should be killed. Because they said that I did not allow the North to capture the East. Because all the non-easterners were sent to the East, those from the Midwest were sent to the Midwest; those from the North were sent to the North. Some of them refused to go to the North and followed m e to Lagos, although we stopped for some few days in Ibadan.

Before we got to Minna, there was a bit of fracas, the soldiers had been indoctrinated to say that I did not allow the Hausas to kill the Easterners; which was true. When we got to Ibadan, I thought we were going to stop there, but the Yoruba officers agitated that we will not stop in Ibadan that we’d better get down to Lagos. But before coming to Lagos, that was the time they gave me all these wounds on my body in Minna.

We got round to Lagos here and we went round to Ikeja and put the troops together. There was too much trouble in Lagos, so they mixed up the whole of Lagos and said that is your command. I started commanding. From then onward, no Hausa soldier was to move about alone, no arms was to be given to any Hausa soldier, any Hausa soldier moving about must have somebody with him, who is not from his own tribe, so we had a bit of peace.

From there, we were at Aburi. Aburi was just mediating in the fracas in Nigeria, to bring peace, by Ghana. It was the Ghanaian Head of state who brokered the peace. Then Gowon was brought in as Head of state, we accepted. And that was how the Easterners in the west, in Lagos and all over Nigeria packed their things and went back home. Then Ojukwu declared: “No peace, except the regions were given autonomy.” He directed that his people should not take any instructions from the centre. The East were depending more on the oil. The West had no oil. The North had no oil. The North didn’t like that and they took it upon themselves that there must be a war to fight and get money, money to run the government.

And that was how the whole thing went. Up till today, the armed forces is not the same because the truth is no more there; the comradeship is no more there, the love of the armed forces and not speaking your own language is no more there. Parochialism has taken over. The Northerners had used the fracas to increase the number of soldiers they had, to locate the ammunition depot, artillery depot, and armoured depot all in the North.

All the military institutions that mattered very much, go to Jos, Bauchi, Kaduna, Kano, you’ll see them. It’s a sort of domination of the country. Up till today, that domination is still there.

To make matters worse, the number of soldiers who were enlisted from the time of Gowon became more in the North, because they say they have highest population, the largest land area and the largest area must be defended and the population must reflect in the army.

Can we ever have accurate census figure?

Never. If you want to have an accurate census, then you must start from birth and death. Is it the North that has got land mass that is uncultivated, that it takes miles getting from one village to another. We have been manipulating the system and we’ll keep on manipulating it.

Census is a big joke. It’s like a ritual that must be conducted. If you want to go from one village to the other in the North, you can go miles without seeing anybody. If you want water, you will go miles before you get water. Agriculture doesn’t go with them, so how then did they get the population, the money that they say they are contributing more to the revenue of this country. It’s the same lie that has been told to the Rivers people, that we are going to save you from the headache, from the oppression of the East, come along.

Look, let’s take one factor. There are some states in the North, the amount of money they get from Federal allocation, and they shouldn’t. Yes, they have the land, but the land is not populated, it’s not cultivated. It’s not yielding anything. Then come to the south, especially, the riverine areas, they haven’t got extensive land, but they have got small land, which is productive.

The only way they could say their land was so useful to the country was to tell them, “We’ll free you from the Igbos. We’ll make your government independent; you will be administering yourself.” Administering yourself, but the resources from the land is being taken somewhere else. So what justice are you talking about? Which type of government is that?

Lagos alone is up to some of the provinces or states in the North. How do you co-ordinate that. If you had followed honesty, to say when you’ve got this product, we’ll mine it, you will have a higher percentage, but it’s not. You’ll have the least percentage as if the Federal Government is killing those in the south or poisoning them.

Even when we have our own man in government?

Oh, my God. Our own man in government can be a stooge. He is planted there. Let me give you one instance. When the war was coming to an end, we had OAU to do. Do you know OAU?

Organization of African Unity?

No! Owerri, Aba, Umuahia –OAU. It was a code of operation. After capturing the Southeast and the rest of them, all these villages in Igboland remained. So the only thing to do was OAU. If I tell you we are doing OAU, you will laugh. You will not understand the military implication. And you will not have the time to give it a thought. But to the military chap who was on the scene during the war, Owerri, Aba, Umuahia connotes back bone.

What were you trying to achieve?

Capture them! Get the Ibo land. That’s the root of the secession. Military? Well, I thank the Yorubas, because they fought in those areas. Owerri, Aba, Umuahia was the back bone and the war went on. We were capturing them, breaking the back bone of the Ibos. After capturing them, Obasanjo came round to say he did it. I had a good laugh and I’m still laughing. OAU was very bloody. It was very, very bloody. And that made the Igbos to give up quickly.

Obasanjo came round and Hassan Usman Katsina and all of them said if you allow Adekunle to finish the war, then he’ll become the Head of State. The best thing is, let’s find a way of undoing him. So they brought Obasanjo, my own course mate, a fellow Yoruba man, saying that he captured Owerri, Aba, and Umuahia. It has given him a lot of arrogance. It has made him to think otherwise, the way to administer this country. Something different. Something that will cause untold agony to the people.

A country producing crude oil is paying more for crude oil, for kerosene, for petrol, for engine oil than other countries that get their supplies from Nigeria. Those countries don’t pay one third of what we pay locally. Maybe it’s because he comes from a poor family and he wants people to suffer the way he has suffered.

Else, how can a man at the helms, who’s got a constitution in the country, yet he went ahead to set up another political forum to discuss and readjust the Constitution of the country. Where has that taken us now? Was the initial Constitutional Conference necessary? He just wanted to say I did this. Oh, I did that.

We are in trouble. To pay school fees now is very difficult. To have three square meal has become a very difficult thing indeed. To have a house, ah! You are thinking of going to the moon! You go to buy drugs; you’re given fake drugs. Now he has changed everything but people are suffering. Nigerians are saying they’ve had enough.

Why does he want to continue?

Your guess is as good as mine. People are hungry. Transportation is expensive. Kerosene is expensive. To get admitted into an hospital, some people will prefer to die so as to allow the money that would be used in curing them to go to their children to enable them have better education than going to their death in the hospital. They’ve increased the cost of everything, even the cost of death. A lot of people die because they don’t have the money to live. What is the value of the oil we have got? What’s the value to the population if the rudimentary essentials of life, shelter, food, mobility, and health are beyond the means of the people.

What do you have to say about corruption?

Corruption could be in thought, words and deeds. Whichever way, the government is fighting it now, let us see how far he would go and then we can assess his performance level vis-à-vis the relevance on the social psyche and the society.

Deep

Nigerian problem was caused by the british. The gave the south education and the north power. How would there be peace?

So sad

who else is tired of adekunle story as me?