Then Ubochi whips out the now famous and often taken out of context chants which our South-eastern brothers so readily love to sing whenever the subject of the Black Scorpion crops up. "I want to see no Red Cross…" and the rest of that jazz. In a court of law, a defense attorney will easily tear apart any case based on he said she said, but good luck telling that to Temple Chima Ubochi. One must learn to separate the facts from fiction when it comes to talking about Benjamin Adekunle, a fact that the legend himself was all too well aware of. In his book, Sunset In Biafra, the writer Elechi Amadi recalls his encounter with Adekunle: "You have heard all the tales the rebels have put out about me. Some say I was drowned in Bonny; others that I was killed in Calabar,' He paused and laughed again. Adekunle is the proverbial cockroach who will never find justice before a jury of chickens. It is rather unfortunate that after 44 years, ndigbo is yet to forgive General Adekunle for putting her army to flight and bring to its knees the war machine that was erroneously described as unbeatable in all of Africa.

As one reads further into the essay, one can only advise that Mr. Chima restricts his writings to the poor state of Aba roads or continue to quote abundantly from his book of irrelevant quotations, and leave serious conversations of national significance to the experts. One cannot help but chuckle at his feeble and unconvincing attempts to tie the Black Scorpion to the problems of today's Nigeria. According to Ubochi: "we read that the Black Scorpion was easily the most controversial, celebrated, and mythologized figure in the war of attrition that laid the foundations for Nigeria's contemporary crisis; and threw a wedge into the national fabric." Was Benjamin Adekunle controversial? Yes indeed, not exactly a crime. Was he celebrated? Yes indeed, an icon of the war. Was he a legend? Again the affirmative, and for good reason. Adekunle had the toughest job of taking the fight to the enemy in very difficult terrain, leading soldiers from a variety of backgrounds who, he must train to fight as a disciplined fighting force. With minimal support from Army headquarters, the man must blend a mix of pluck, luck and lunacy in order to obtain what he needed for his men to carry out the mission. A professional soldier to the end, he had no role in any of Ubochi's contemporary crisis, whatever it is. It may interest Temple Ubochi to note that in every war of significance all through history, every successful general incurs the envy of other generals and politicians. Proof? Ask Hannibal of Carthage, Chaka the Zulu, Mzilikazi of Matabeleland, Napoleon, King David, General George Patton, General Douglas MacArthur, General Ulysses Grant and General David Petraeus, just to mention a few. These distractions however, does not prevent a good military chief from overcoming all odds and achieving the victory.

At some point in the story, Ubochi puts on his false prophet toga and takes to prophesy on what he believes must be happening to Benjamin Adekunle in the great beyond. Temple wrote: "To appreciate the vanity of life and the inevitability of death, everyone should look at the life of General Benjamin Adekunle, who died last weekend. Today, the dread General is where he will have no gun or power to shot at moving and unmoving things again. He must be facing some of his victims by now." Chei! Chei! Chei! Can the same be said of Ojukwu, Banjo, Ifeajuna, Effiong and many other Biafran warlords with blood on their hands? It is a double-edged sword, Chima. Besides, who has ever returned from the great beyond to bring us tales of judgment and tales of repercussions? A very colorful imagination indeed. Who can judge the Black Scorpion? Ojukwu? Banjo? Effiong? Or any of the war commanders whom he has bested on the field of battle? Let them step forward with their charges.

Figure 2. Colonel Adekunle and his officers

As properly documented in his bestselling book, The Tragedy of Victory, General Godwin Alabi-Isama, one of Adekunle's war commanders, records that the areas under the control of 3MCDO were often the first to be stabilized with markets, schools, hospitals and churches reopened and law and order restored. He further documented that former enemy soldiers were rehabilitated and recruited to fight on the Federal side. Furthermore, Alabi-Isama placed Adekunle at the head of such initiatives to bring normalcy into the lives of war-torn communities. How then, can the same person be accused of civil war atrocities which no one can come forwards to corroborate? If an independent military observer was employed today to investigate the war conducts of the Black Scorpion and that of the men under his command, all they will be guilty of, will be for doing a damn fine job.

Mr. Ubochi then proceeds to interpret what he termed a string of misfortunes that befell Adekunle as indicative of the repercussions of the evils he had done during the war. Everything from being relieved of command to his retirement, down to his ailing days were all seen as God's punishment for Adekunle's wickedness upon the Igbo people. He expands his message of woe to include the country at large, interpolating that the present problems in the country, including the current Boko Haram attacks, were due to atrocities visited upon the Igbo during the war. This writer finds it laughable that every negative occurrence that befalls Nigeria is interpreted as payback for a war that was fought decades ago and for which, the nation though gallant in victory, was magnanimous enough to forgive the prosecutors of that war and reabsorb them back into the society. As for Adekunle, what exactly defines success or failure? Benjamin Adekunle raised a family, had a home, was respected in his community (Ebenezer Obey had a song in his name) and lived to be 78 years old (same age as the late Colonel Ojukwu). What more can the man ask for? Or do we hold him up to our twisted and corrupted standard of looting the public treasury, getting conferred with a thousand meaningless titles; being given political positions with which to enrich ourselves? How trivial and nonsensical our expectations truly are. Turning that argument on its head, Nigerians will recall that in his final days, the late Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu suffered a stroke, lost use of his motor skills and had to be supported like a babe before his demise. Are we then to interpret this sad turn of events and signs of recompense for evil done by the Biafran leader during his young days? No one knows tomorrow, Temple. Let's be mindful of the ideas we espouse.

Figure 3. Adekunle always travelled with a retinue of journalists.

It has been said that one man's hero is another man's villain. This writer understands this fact all too well. There is nothing that can be said about the Black Scorpion that can surprise me anymore. Our failure to tell our story and let our children know how the civil war was fought and won has created a vacuum that is regularly filled by characters whose accounts, though dubious and incredible, are loud and drown out our silence. The propaganda machine that Biafra set in motion many years ago, is alive and well and has abandoned a lot of literature and material for the World Wide Web to pick up and transmit to the world at large. It is rather sad that Nigerians do not celebrate their heroes and rather, stand idly by for the enemy to castigate and sully their legacies. When a man uses his precious basket to scoop up rubbish, it is only a matter of time before the whole village line up at his doorstep to borrow that basket. As long as we ignore the labors of our heroes past, we open the door for the likes of Temple Ubochi to rubbish and spread falsehood about them.

Benjamin Adekunle was not an easy man to deal with. He was a strict disciplinarian who held those who worked under him to a high standard. He led from the front and was a firm and fair leader by all accounts. His was not an easy life and at some point, he developed battle fatigue which we now diagnose as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). He courted the press and effectively used them to strike fear in the hearts of the enemy. Sad to say that this romance with the media may well be his undoing during and after the war as we watched, in the words of Rudyard Kipling, 'the words he had spoken, being twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools.' This writer must point out that for a war commander who surrounded himself with local and foreign journalists, not a single reporter found any evidence of a single war crime committed by the then Colonel Benjamin Adekunle.

Figure 4. His bark is worse than his bite, one of his men recalled. Adekunle relaxing with his men.

In retrospect, one wonders why the late General make his famous " I want to see no Red Cross…" remark during the war years? To understand the situation that existed at the time, one must research into the state of humanitarian aid during the Civil War years. Although the Red Cross and Caritas, two renowned international relief agencies, had done their best to limit their roles in the war to providing humanitarian assistance and flying in food and medicine, there were a myriad other organizations and mercenaries whose motives were anything but innocent. These groups sneaked in arms, rockets, machineries parts and personnel to the Biafran troops, thus helping to keep the war going. It was virtually impossible to tell which supplies contained aid to the civilians or aid to the troops. As the great Ola Rotimi wrote: "All lizards lie on their stomachs, how do you tell which of them have stomach ache?" how was the Federal government to tell which shipment carried food, medicines or weapons? Anyone in Adekunle's shoes can understand his situation.

Figure 5. The tender side of The Black Scorpion in Port Harcourt.

One thing Temple Ubochi may never have realized is the fact that Benjamin Adekunle's war was never against the Igbo. As a professional soldier, it was his duty to defend his country against his nation's enemies. His attitude would not have been any different if Nigeria had gone to war against even his own kinsmen or any other tribe that threatened to secede from the country. He was an aide-de camp to the Late Sir Francis Akanu Ibiam, as well as a company commander at First Battalion in Enugu before the war and no one has any testimony of any grudge or hatred he harbored against the Igbo during this time. The Black Scorpion had no personal vendetta against the Igbo.

Chima made bold to comment that he understood "where the Igbo members of the House of Reps were coming from when they opposed any honor for the dead Black Scorpion…" well, Mr. Ubochi, I don't believe you do, but then two members out of a roomful of representatives hardly account for any noticeable protest those self-styled activists may want to wedge. In response to this disrespect of the dead, perhaps the best response was the one given by one Bello Iowa in an online forum: "what were the contributions of these two legislators to Biafra (sic) cause during the civil war? Or is Benjamin Adekunle the one that make (sic) Biafra to fail? There were more than 7 coups against Ojukwu the Biafra (sic) leader before the end of the war…" I say that if the Federal government of Nigeria saw fit to forgive Ojukwu and permit him to return from exile to the point of participating in politics and upon his death, receive a state funeral, certainly two rep members from two obscure constituencies in Abia State can show better respect for the dead instead of playing politics as usual.

Figure 6. Feeding centre at Aba.

In conclusion, this writer challenges all Nigerians to dig into their history. A knowledge of the facts will not only uncover the truth buried by years of deception and fictional fables but will help to bring healing to wounds that continues to be reopened each day by cheap propaganda such as those peddled by Temple Ubochi. It will also bring about respect for true heroes like Benjamin Maja Adekunle whose selfless service, devotion to duty and sacrifice, took us through a turbulent time and kept Nigeria one, warts and all.

REST IN PEACE BLACK SCORPION. TRUE DEFENDER OF OUR UNITY!

Figure 7. The Red Cross was present at the war front and offered many services for the sick and wounded.