The family of the late Brig-Gen Benjamin Adekunle, popularly known as the Black Scorpion during the Nigeria Civil War, recently marked the 10th anniversary of his demise in his hometown Ogbomoso, Oyo State.

In this interview, Mrs. Busola Olagunju, daughter of the war hero, a Nuffield Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, United Kingdom, and a legal practitioner who engaged in commercial and human rights legal practice in Kaduna, Lagos and Port Harcourt, talks about her father and other issues.

Mrs Olagunju is the women and labour rights activist who got a Federal Court judgement against the Nigeria Immigration Service declaring the requirement of Nigerian women to obtain spousal consent in the application for a passport, contrary to the constitution.

Your father was a like a folk hero during the Nigeria Civil War (1967-70). Beyond his public portrayal what sort of a man was he at home? As a father, was he strict, brash or soft?

Our father?s public persona was a tough and rough soldier but this was not the whole story. With his military background, of course he was a father who believed in the effectiveness of physical discipline. If you consciously broke rules and were caught, you were in for a flogging or session of ?picking pin?. And that was that. But he always disciplined in love, rarely in anger.

There were other sides to him known only to people close to him: his love of literature. He was very widely read and actually had a huge collection of classic English literature, military biographies and African plays in his private library. He was also very domesticated and loved infants. Lastly our late father had a great sense of humour ? in the right mood, he was very, very funny.

As a father, he was as complex a father as he was a public figure ? strict in some respects and indulgent in others.

But there were three issues he was uncompromising about. The first was about educational performance: he went to a lot of trouble to ensure his children received quality education and expected us to put in our best at school. Secondly, he couldn?t abide laziness in his children. As an active man, his children were all expected to be capable, useful and smart. Thirdly, he expected his children to identify with their country and place a high value on the interest of Nigeria.

He could be a hard task master, for example ordering us as teenagers to carry 50 bags of cement into the store within an hour. But at the same time, he frequently went out of his way to make us happy. Looking back now, I would say the main thing about him was drama. There was never a dull moment around him.

The family recently marked the tenth anniversary of his death. How has life been without him?

Like other fathers, he impacted different family members in different ways, but I think I speak for every single member of his family when I say that life has been, to different degrees, duller since his death. My late father added colour to all our lives without exceptions. For his daughters specifically, we have missed the sense of absolute security that our late father?s presence gave us.

Gen Godwin Alabi-Isama, who was his chief of staff, is unhappy that a war hero of his status, who was also a chieftaincy title holder as Asipa of Ogbomoso was buried outside his ancestral home. Why was that? And are there any plans to rebury him at home at the Heroes? Arcade as suggested?

Yes, the General had made his feelings known to us long before he raised the issue at the maiden Benjamin Adekunle Memorial Leadership lecture held in Ogbomoso some weeks ago. Some family members agree with him, while others feel that whatever the case, the overriding consideration should be to let him rest in peace in his current location. The matter is still under family discussion though.

His record and reputation during the war is legendary. Do you have an idea why he didn?t write his memoir despite his reputed brilliance and knowledge of the inner workings of the war?

I am aware that my late father at one time intended to document his own perspective of the war time events. My impression from the notes I read is that his ?memoir? was to have been radically different in focus from the vast majority that have emerged. I think his intention was to produce a book focused on military tactics and strategy, drawing on the manner each side of troops had prosecuted the war. This is still apparent from certain chapters of ?A Soldier?s Story? a compendium of his papers, by my late brother, Abiodun Adekunle. I cannot say why he never completed the project. Perhaps he thought a purely military perspective of the way the conflict had been prosecuted would not interest a military force that had become more and more heavily politicized. Who knows? However, I am glad that my late brother Biodun took up the challenge of preserving some of his thoughts on the subject for posterity.

Among his contemporaries who commanded major sectors during the war, many have had roads and monuments named after them. The gallant efforts of the Third Marine Commando in securing all the country?s oil wells at the time seem to have been forgotten. Is the family happy with this or do you hope to seek redress on this?

Yes, the Third Marine Commando under my late father?s leadership secured all the territories which have financed both governance and capital projects in Nigeria since 1970. But I want to add here that my late father?s contribution to national development went beyond winning back territory for Nigeria. Lest we forget, in the early 1970s, Nigeria?s economy faced complete shutdown with the backlog of cement loaded ships choking the Lagos port to the point that importers would have to wait six months due to the ?cement armada? queue to clear their goods. We have to remember how chronically import dependent economy Nigeria?s economy was at that time. It was my late father who was appointed Port Commandant by his boss, Gen. Yakubu Gowon with other patriots like Bamanga Tukur, who worked tirelessly to decongest the ports and restore its functionality. I remember as a young child how my late father slept at the Apapa Port at this time and our mother taking us to the port to visit him.

Is his family happy about with the unequal treatment of my late father compared with his contemporaries? Of course, we are not happy ? though thankfully our late father himself did not give a monkey?s ear about honours or recognition from any quarter. According to him, he had done his sworn duty to his country at every point in time. Period! This is likely the reason he never felt the need to write anything lionizing himself.

However, it has become clear to his family that in the decades since the war ended, as eye witnesses have passed on and memories have faded, significant revisionism of the causes, conduct and events of the war has and is taking place, especially of my late father?s role, motives and character. Distortions which would never have stood for a minute 40 or 50 years ago when there were so many eyewitnesses to the truth, are today boldly asserted as facts by the ignorant or mischievous. For example, I could hardly believe my eyes when I read an article in the Wilberforce Journal by one Idris Rilwan Tosho of University of Ilorin, accusing my late father of personal responsibility for and participation in the ?Asaba Massacre? and citing this fictitious participation as evidence of my late father?s ?brutality? during the war.

Now 40 or 50 years ago, people were better informed about the war events. At that time, most people knew that the Third Marine Commando under my late father?s leadership liberated the riverine areas of the Midwest and Eastern regions and that it was 2nd Division under a different Commander that operated in Asaba. But today, with the ignorance of historical facts so pervasive and divisions among Nigerians so deep, it is possible for such an outrageous lie to find its way into an academic journal.

My point is that it is this kind of revisionism that has made it easy for the state authorities to name streets and military institutions after my father?s wartime subordinates while pretending to forget that the 90 per cent of Nigeria?s earnings for the past 50 years has come from territories that the Third Marine Commando liberated from the Biafra under his leadership. They have found it logical to name streets in Abuja after military officers who, contrary to their oaths, abandoned their posts in the face of credible threats to Nigeria?s interest, while leaving the officer who did his duty and retrieved that abandoned region for Nigeria unrecognised. They pretend not to appreciate that if my late father and the men who he had fought with had prioritized their own self-interest at that critical time and enabled Republic of Biafra to retain Ughelli, Sapele, Warri, Bonny, Eket, Port Harcourt, Calabar, what manner of Nigeria would we be contending with at this time?

Unfortunately, this failure to give credit where due is not peculiar to my late father alone. Many other Nigerians who have made significant contributions to the development of Nigeria have not been accorded adequate recognition to inspire succeeding generations to emulation.

For instance, as the head of NAFDAC, Dora Akinyuli was a byword for fearless enforcement of national interest in cleaning up the drug sector, yet there is no public monument attesting to her deeds. What about that heroic doctor in Lagos State who virtually sacrificed herself to ensure that the ebola virus was stopped in its tracks in our country? How many remember Dr. Stella Adadevoh?s name today? Her actions saved an untold number of lives and in my humble view, it is qualities and patriots like this who deserve public acknowledgement by the state. Yet?

At this point, it is only fair to acknowledge that this has not always been true of the Army as an institution. General Kenneth Minimah?s administration was kind enough to honour our late father with a military burial when he passed 10 years ago. Our family will remain ever grateful to the General for acknowledging the value of my late father?s services to his nation because unfortunately not every Nigerian leader is prepared to acknowledge the contributions of predecessors, even when it is staring at them in the face.

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