The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Scorpion

  • Scorpion eyes N1m cash prize

    Ridwan “Scorpion” Oyekola, the winner of the best boxer award at GOtv Boxing Night 15, has expressed the desire to reclaim the award at GOtv Boxing Night 18. The award carries a cash prize of N1million.

    In a telephone chat, Oyekola, who won N1 million when he emerged the best boxer at GOtv Boxing Night 15, said he will be at his best when he takes on Taofeek ‘Taozon’ Bisuga in the national super featherweight title bout scheduled for the event,  which holds at the Indoor Sports Hall of Obafemi Awolowo Stadium, Ibadan, on Sunday.

    “I have won it before and I want to win it again and I will win again. I thank the sponsors for what they are doing, as they have changed the lives of Nigerian boxers for the better. Taozon will fall. I will sting him till he falls,” he said.

    GOtv Boxing Night 18 will feature eight bouts, with headline encounter being the African Boxing Union

    (ABU) lightweight title clash between reigning champion, Oto “Joe Boy” Joseph of Nigeria and Success “Brave Warrior” Tetteh of Ghana. Another fight with an international flavour will see Nigeria’s Akeem “Dodo” Sadiku fight the Republic of Benin’s Ekpresso Djamihou in a light middleweight challenge contest.

    Others scheduled to feature include Tawio “Esepo” Agbaje, best boxer at GOtv Boxing Night 16; Adeyemi “Sense” Opeyemi, best boxer at GOtv Boxing NextGen Search 4. The event will be beamed live on SuperSport in 47 African countries.

  • Scorpion vows to retire Nurudeen

    Ridwan “Scorpion” Oyekola, best boxer at GOtv Boxing Night 15, has declared that he will send Nurudeen “Prince” Fatai, former national lightweight champion, into retirement. The two boxers are billed to clash in a national lightweight challenge bout at GOtv Boxing Night 17 holding on 28 December at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos.

    The eight-fight show, tagged “Boxing Jams Music, will feature live music performances by Burna Boy, Wande Coal, Teni Da Entertainer and Daddy Showkey.

    In an interview yesterday, Scorpion, a product of GOtv Boxing NextGen Search, said his opponent is past his prime and is due for retirement, a duty he has imposed on himself to carry out.

    “He is a former national champion. His time is gone, but he does not want to admit it. I have taken it upon myself to send him into a fitting retirement by defeating. He will lose interest in boxing by the time I finish with him. He will see hell,” he said.

    GOtv Boxing Night 17, the biggest ever edition of the show, will stage the World Boxing Federation Intercontinental super featherweight title fight between Nigeria’s Seun “The Machine” Wahab and Tanzania’s Issa “Peche Boy” Nampepeche. The show will also see US-based Nigerian, Oluwafemi “The Eagle” Oyeleye take on Meshack “Smart Boy” Mwankemwa of Tanzania in an international light middleweight challenge clash.

    Similarly scheduled for action is a cluster of big names on the domestic scene, led by Olaide “Fijaborn” Fijabi, who will take on Yusuf Mufutau in a national light welterweight challenge. In the same category is reigning African Boxing Union (ABU) lightweight champion, Oto “Joe Boy” Joseph, who fights Hammed “Ese” Hammed Ganiyu; national lightweight champion, Rilwan “Real One” Oladosu who takes on Mubarak Hamzat.

    The show will equally see some of the brightest young talents take to the ring. Ebubechukwu “Coded Man” Eze, a graduate of GOtv Boxing NextGen Search 1, will take on Femi “Small Tyson” Akintayo in a middleweight clash, while the bantamweight division will see Opeyemi “Sense” Adeyemi, best boxer at GOtv Boxing Night 4, up against Jamiu Dada.

  • ‘I don’t know where Adekunle got the nickname Black Scorpion’

    ‘I don’t know where Adekunle got the nickname Black Scorpion’

    He was his guardian as well as mentor, yet Chief Alabi Adeyemi John, 94, a World War II veteran whose sojourn in the colonial Nigeria army inspired the late Brigadier Benjamin Adekunle to take up a career in the army, said he doesn’t know where the late civil war hero got his ‘Black Scorpion’ nickname from. He spoke with BISI OLADELE

    What is your relationship with the late Gen Benjamin Adekunle?

    He was my younger brother; we hailed from the same compound. His father was one of my brothers in the extended family.

    What can you say about his early days?

    I don’t really know, but he started staying with me in 1942 in Kaduna, when I was in the Nigeria Army.

    How old was he then?

    He was around 16 years old

    What was he doing for you then?

    He was taking care of me. After his school hours, he would come to the barracks to take care of my uniforms and bootý. He ironed my clothes and uniforms too. He was with me till 1943 before I went for the Second World War in Burma, India. We parted ways since then and by the time I was fully back in the country, he had joined the Nigerian Army and fought in the Nigerian civil war

    What kind of boy was he when he was living with you?

    He was an active, tough, brilliant young boy. He was strong and agile.

    What were the unique attributes of late Gen Benjamin then?

    I think he developed interest in the military through the activities he witnessed while living with me in the barracks then. He got the inspiration to join the military from me.

    Apart from helping you in house chores, what other things can you say about him?

    He was just active, trustworthy and reliable.  He was a good helper at all times.

    What was his level of discipline?

    He was really disciplined. He never stole. He was obedient.

    Did he ever discuss his future ambition with you throughout the time you were together?

    No. But I noticed that he liked what I was doing then. It showed in the way he took care of my uniforms and other dress items.

    When you learnt that he had joined the army, how did you feel?

    I felt somehow happy that he followed his heart. But I didn’t like it because of the challenges we faced in the army then. Anyway, he loved it and we thank God that he went and returned with success and fame.

    What challenges were you facing then?

    We went for road march, patrols etc. there was no rest. They called for us for road march, parade, night drillings etc at any time of the day.

    On whose side did you fight as a soldier during the Second World War and where did you fight?

    I fought in Burma and India and we fought against the Japanese who were supporting the Germans.

    Which other nationals did you fight along with?

    We fought along with Camerounians, Sierra Leoneans, Egyptians and Indians, Gambians and many people from South Africa.

    So, what did that experience teach you?

    It taught me a sense of unity. It taught me that in unity, we can achieve a lot.

    Having fought in a world war, how did you feel seeing Adekunle going for civil war?

    I was proud of him and his activities from the reports I heard about him. I saw that he was actually pursuing a long-term dream.

    When he came back from the civil war with success and fame, how did you feel?

    I felt very happy.

    Every time you remembered that Benjamin Adekunle was your nephew, how did you feel?

    I always feel proud till today.

    What did Gen. Adekunle bring to the entire family?

    It is not only to the entire family but to the whole country and Ogbomoso in particular. He did what was expected of him during the war. He played his part well. It is just unfortunate that he was not well rewarded. Other people were given ranks. Adekunle should have been a full general, not a brigadier general. I don’t know why he was so looked down upon.

    Now that he is dead, what do you think the Federal Government should do?

    They should do what he deserves.

    Is any of Adekunle’s son or relations in the military?

    Yes. One of his nephews is in the American Army now. His name is David Adekunle.

    What regrets do you have as a family about Gen. Adekunle’s exploits and entire life?

    We regret that his hard work and sacrifice for Nigeria is not well recognized.

    Where did he get the nick name, Black Scorpion?

    I don’t know.

  • The ‘Black Scorpion’

    The ‘Black Scorpion’

    •Benjamin Adekunle (1936 to 2014) fought for his country but his country did not fight for him

    By some accounts, he was Nigeria’s best, or he represented the best from this part of the world in the world of soldiery. Yet when he died September 13, he was probably the most underappreciated soldier in Nigerian history. By implication, he was one of the least appreciated Nigerians ever.

    Benjamin Adekunle who left the army as a brigadier-general, gained fame as the commander of the third infantry division of the federal army during the Nigerian civil war that lasted 30 months and ended in January 1970. He renamed the division, The Third Marine Commando, and he grew in fame and legend as the “Black Scorpion.”

    Some untruths and unfairness surround his biography. One, he has been carved up as a cartoonish hater of the Igbos. This was not helped by his own wayward rhetoric.  For instance, in an August 1968 interview with Randolph Baumann of Stern magazine, he spoke irreverently about the Igbos. “I want to see no red cross, no caritas, no World Council of Churches, no Pope, no missionary, no United Nations delegation. I want to prevent even one Igbo from having even one piece to eat before their capitulation. We shot at everything that moved, and when our troops moved into the centre of Igbo territory, we shot at everything even those that did not move.”

    That was a language of butchery. But from the facts on ground, his division effectively moved into Igbo land when he had been removed.  His division actually was ruthless in battle like any powerful military force, but that same division was not recorded to have violated any Geneva Conventions in that it not only reabsorbed captured Biafrans, it also retrained those who did not choose to return to their divide of battle. His insensitive rhetoric was borne out of an incriminating vainglory for a man who spent a good time of war in Lagos seeking supplies of men and weaponry. His division was the most effective tactically and in discipline. But it suffered the most from the high command in Lagos from the viewpoint of supplies. The other divisions manned by Shuwa and Mohammed were the most stocked and were prone to the savagery of war with recorded tales of cold-blooded murders, pogrom and rapes.

    Adekunle was a tested man of valour and a great tactician as well as strategist. His troops fought in the most delicate and demanding theatres. They fought in the miry terrain of the Niger Delta and ran the stretch from Sapele all the way to Port Harcourt, and that was the height of the glory of his division before he was recalled from the battle. His division was taken over by Olusegun Obasanjo, but Obasanjo thrived on the discipline and strategy that Adekunle wrought. That division eventually secured the surrender of the Biafran forces.

    Yet the same man who died barely a week ago did not enjoy the high laurels of the land, not even of his colleagues. He had a fiery temper that tempted his colleagues in the north to fear him for his iconoclasm. His Yoruba generals allegedly envied him and the Igbo soldiers never forgave him. But as the encomiums from all have shown since his death, he made his mark fighting for the unity of Nigeria, in spite of his foibles.

    From all accounts, he died in pain and neglect, and he suffered this for quite some years. Neither the governments of the day nor the elite of the soldiers remembered him. Is it a telling irony that the man who fought for the unity of Nigeria died from neglect at a time the same unity is threatened by the same sort of forces that Adekunle fought for? It is, tragically.