Adegoke Adelabu [Penkelemesi]: 60 Years Ago Today!

Today marks the 60^th anniversary of the death of the legendary Penkelemesi, Gbadamosi Oduola Akande Adegoke ADELABU, the Lion of the West. Onigegewura has written two critically acclaimed historical pieces on this illustrious statesman.

On reading the piece titled: You Know Penkelemesi! But do you know EBULLITION? many readers told Onigegewura that they didn’t know that Penkelemesi was that cerebral. The general assumption was that Adelabu was just another run-of-the-mill politician.

That’s the essence of Onigegewura: to keep our history alive for generations yet unborn.

The second piece, Eclipse of  a Star: How Adegoke Adelabu Died, is one of the most read and most shared of my historical tales. Even plagiarists and lazy bloggers had a field day sharing the story of the tragic end of the mercurial politician.

Adelabu, Festus Okotie-Eboh, Kola Balogun and their spouses

As events marking the 60^th Anniversary of his demise begin this week, I commend to fellow compatriots the following immortal words of Adelabu, who was Nigeria’s first Federal Minister of Social Services and Natural Resources:

“I will live, work, strive, think, write, fight and die for Nigeria, the whole of Nigeria and not any confounded portion of it. If genuine Nationalists of other tribes and regions will adopt my philosophy of self-sacrifice, our difficulties will melt into thin air.

Nigeria is too small for my vision. My ideal is a West African States Union, stretching from the banks of the Gambia to the shores of Congo in panoramic beauty and unparalleled grandeur.”

The Legend penned those prophetic words in 1952. On May 25, 1975, his vision for a pan-West African union crystallised with the establishment of the Economic Community of West African States!

See the power of a visionary!

What is your own vision? What is your own passion? What are you going to be remembered for?  

Gbadamosi Adegoke Adelabu! Eniyan ko sunwon laye, ojo ti a ba ku la n d'ere. What a Man! What a Legend!

May his ideals continue to flourish and blossom.

-Onigegewura
History Does Not Forget!