Adegoke Adelabu… political petrel, originator of ‘Penkelemesi’

It was clear right from the beginning that he would be a leader of note. He was spotted early enough, thanks to his endearing academic traits. Gbadamoshi Adegoke Adelabu (September 3, 1915-March 5, 1958) attended Government College, Ibadan where he completed his secondary education as the head boy of the school. In 1936, he passed the entrance examination into Yaba Higher College and he won a scholarship from UAC to study commerce at the college. After six months, he left the college with his scholarship unused.

He was offered employment by UAC as an assistant to the Ibadan district manager, an expatriate Adelabu had met a year earlier. He toured the cocoa producing areas of Ibadan Province. At the end of the tour, he presented a proposal about the reorganization of the Cocoa distribution and trade structure. The report earned him a promotion as an Assistant Produce Manager with UAC.

Adelabu and politics

Adelabu was a man on the move. He was in and out of UAC, was in the textile business and at a point, he became interested in acting as an Administrative Secretary for the native council where most of the players were illiterate chiefs. According to historic records, this son of Sanusi Ashinyanbi and Awujola Adelabu career in politics can be traced to his support of the agitation led by junior chiefs and ‘mogajis’ against Salami Agbaje. Adelabu, a smart individual with literate qualities, was needed by the chiefs in their opposition to Agbaje. The agitators needed someone to help with writing petitions and commentaries to advance their viewpoint and sought out Adelabu for support. Adelabu obliged hoping to earn the job of Administrative Secretary. After all, this would be a good starting political point for Adelabu who later reigned as a political rascal.

The target of the chiefs was Salami Agbaje, a businessman who held the traditional title of Otun Balogun of Ibadan. He was third in line to the throne, literate, rich and independent-minded but was found to be detestable by some of the chiefs in Ibadan many of whom were indebted to him. The junior chiefs and heads of lineages (mogaji) began a campaign for his deposition to prevent him from becoming Olubadan. When the case reached the colonial authorities, though Agbaje was admonished and told to suspend his involvement in the native council, the authorities used the opportunity to make sweeping reforms including removing Oshun division from Ibadan Province. The outcome was not favourable to many Ibadan groups and a few groups came together to unite politically to protect the interest of Ibadan.

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During the local elections in 1951, Adelabu’s Egbe Omo Ibile, Augustus Akinloye, and a youth group from Ibadan Progressive Union formed the Ibadan People’s Party as a challenge to the old guards of the Ibadan Progressive Union. Adelabu capitalised on some anti-Ijebu sentiments among native Ibadan residents especially after the loss of Oshun division which was supported by Action Group leaders such as Chief Obafemi Awolowo, an Ijebu-man and Ladoke Akintola. The new party won all six seats to the Western Regional Assembly. However, an informal alliance proposed by Adelabu to support NCNC fell apart and four of the elected members joined AG.

Adelabu then became more active in the organization of NCNC in Ibadan and became the secretary of the party’s Western Province Working Committee while earning recognition within the party as the only IPP legislator who stayed with NCNC. Soon his profile began to rise nationally that in 1952, he published a book, ‘’Africa in Ebullition’ about his political thoughts. To provide a formidable organization to challenge AG in the 1954 elections, Adelabu formed a new organization, the Ibadan Taxpayers Association which was an attempt to attract mass following based on tax reform. The group then allied with a farmers group called Maiyegun to become Mabolaje Grand Alliance.

Opposition platform (1954-1958)

Adelabu and his group provided an opposition platform to the IPU and AG dominated district council. He opposed the district council terms of tax reform and the role of heads of lineages (mogajis) in governance positioning himself as a supporter of traditional authority and values. During the local elections in 1954, the alliance won majority seats into the Ibadan District Council, paving the way for Adelabu to become district chairman. He became chairman of the Finance Committee and any other standing committee of the council. In the federal elections in 1954, Adelabu also won a seat to the House of Representatives and his party won majority seats to the House of Representatives. He later became the First National Vice President of NCNC and appointed Minister of Social Services, a post he held concurrently with his position as chairman of the Ibadan District Council from January 1955 till January 1956.

In 1955, Adelabu’s administration was a subject of an inquiry into allegations of corruption in the district council. The inquiry was set-up by the Western Regional government dominated by AG. He resigned both positions after the report of the inquiry into the affairs of the district council. He was replaced by J.M. Johnson as Minister of Social Services. In 1956, Adelabu again ran for a seat in the regional assembly but this time as leader of NCNC in the Western region. Hoping to lead the party to victory, he had ordered clothes with the inscription Adelabu, Premier of the Western Region.

However, the party lost majority seats to Action Group. Adelabu then became the leader of opposition in the Western House of Assembly. After the loss, Adelabu sought to carve out a Yoruba Central State from the Western Region. The new state was to be composed of NCNC strongholds of Oyo, Ibadan and Ondo provinces. However, the proposal was rejected in 1958 based on the proposed division largely on party lines. In 1958, Adelabu opposed the leadership of Azikiwe because it supported a tripartite national government consisting of AG, NCNC and NPC. Adelabu did not like the inclusion of AG describing it has an unholy alliance.

Peculiar mess

Adegoke Adelabu is often mentioned in Yorùbá and Nigerian history as the author of that expression: “penkelemesi”, a Yorubanisation of the phrase, “peculiar mess” which Adelabu, known for his deep knowledge of English, had used on an occasion to describe the opposition in the Western Region House of Assembly. Not understanding what he meant, the non-literate section of his audience translated the phrase into vernacular as “penkelemesi”. This is similar to the popular expression among grassroots Igbos that reads: ‘Zik know book pass bookshop’

Endorsement

Historical records have it that Mr D.T Akinbiyi, later Oba D.T. Akinbiyi (Olubadan), in an article in the Nigerian Tribune, of December 22 1951, whilst tolerating Adelabu’s “garrulity and insolence”, admonished that an “old Horse knows more than a young Cot”, which, however, according to him, did not diminish the fact, that Adegoke was “highly intelligent and dynamic”.

At his demise in 1958, though then an opposition leader, in the Western Region Parliament, Chief Obafemi Awolowo as Premier of Western Region, described him as “a fearless, forthright, indomitable and extremely resourceful leader”.

And only recently in 2015, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria stated when the children of the late Adedibu, former Minister of Natural Resources and Social Services paid him a visit at his home in Abeokuta (the visit was in preparation for the 100 years posthumous birthday celebration for Mr Adelabu as well as the establishment of a foundation in his honour): “I share Adelabu’s philosophy of a united Nigeria, I share Adelabu’s view of politics beyond ethnicity, beyond tribe, beyond the region and I believe that in our national life, we should extol the virtues like the one we saw in Adelabu, a man of the people, down to earth, absolutely down to earth; and yet, a man who believed that his politics must be above ethnicity, must be above tribe, must be to unite the country while, of course, uplifting his own people.

“Today, we are still struggling to reach the pinnacle or the pedestal Adelabu reached in politics; of not being swayed by linguistic, ethnic, tribal, regional, sectional consideration but by what is best for Nigeria. He was years ahead of his contemporary politicians. In his lifetime, he was talking of the United States of West Africa; ECOWAS came up years after his demise. In his life, he belonged to a political party that has its base outside the western region where he came from, he was not a tribal baron, he was a national politician.”

Adegoke Adelabu was reported to have left no money in his bank account.

 

SIAKA MOMOH