Adblada

Thursday 21 May 2015

GBADAMOSI ADEGOKE ADELABU (1915-1958): HE INTRODUCES NIGERIA'S GRAMMAR OF POLITICS "PENKELEMESI" PECULIAR MESS

Gbadamosi Adegoke Adelabu (September 3, 1915 – March 20, 1958) was a colourful, charismatic and grassroots politician, from Ibadan, south-west Nigeria.  The man who introduces into Nigeria's grammar of politics, the phrase: peculiar mess or penkelemesi, attended Government College, Ibadan.
 
He was a self made man born into a humble family, but became an influential figure in Nigerian politics. Chief Adegoke "Penkelemesi" Adelabu was a fiercely independent-minded man who refused to be swayed by  the politics of tribe and personality which governed dominated   Nigeria in the 1950s

Adelabu,was one of the founding fathers of independent Nigeria. He was a member of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe's NCNC. He was a gifted debater, a colourful orator and a diligent prosecutor of  causes in which he believed. So influential was he that the Action Group ruling government of Chief Obafemi Awolowo ,who was Premier of the Region  had to subject every proposal before bringing it forward to the Adelabu test:  what will Adelabu think?  What? will he say?

Adelabu was 43 when he died in a motor accident on Tuesday, March 25, 1958 along old Lagos-Ibadan road precisely at Ode Remo. He left behind 12 wives, and 15 children and a large community of
admirers.

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