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“Everyone of our acts involve the meaning of the world and Man’s place in it” JP Satre.

Late Hon Adegoke Adelabu Penkelemesi was a nationalist philosopher whose birds view of the worlds picture affirmed his unquenchable thirst for the struggle of  emancipation. He was a revolutionary leader who  fought stenuously to liberate his people from blithe ignorance and the poverty of the mind. His liberation ideals were firmly anchored on the triad of the revolutionary slogan of “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity”.

He strongly held and lived by the belief that “freedom is the concious acceptance of necessity”. Dexterious in the use of language and well immersed in what  W. Dithey called “philisophic spirits”. No one captured his well lived life better than TOS Benson whose unquestioned terse but factual tribute on the great man went thus  “Adelabu was greater than any of his contemporaries”.
To me, he was a Nigerian version of the italian “capo de capi” – the boss of all boses.

It’s is therefore amazing that some people out of political incorrectness have become so obtuse to grasp the greatness in the man of ideas, who is a being of all time. The man with peculiar ability to unclog any peculiar mess.

Hatchback to history. Few years after his death, there was a story of a scholar in Ibadan referring to Adelabu as “a certain politician of late”. This description drew the ire of the people who rose to challenge the scholar and immediately corrected him that “Adelabu Penkelemesi is more than a “one certain politician”, he is a defacto political enfant terrible of his time”. Hence, the popular saying at the time “Ojo wo Ni Adelabu ku na, to di enikan bayi bayi” (How long was the death of Adelabu that he would be referred to as one man like this?). Tales like this that accentuates the heft of reverence Adelabu Penkelemesi was held abound. When people talked of him as a man “whose wealth is beyond the dream of avarice”, they meant not his tangible assets but his load of experience and uncommon reflective thinking.

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History, as they say, is cyclical. Thankfully we have another ” Penkele” resurrect in person of Abdulwaheed Adelabu Adebayo, the successful banker cum astute politician grandson of Hon Adegoke Adelabu, now vying for the seat of Oyo State Governor under the flagship of APC. The meat of this story is not only that Adebayo Adelabu emerged from Penkelemesi dynasty, he shares several distinct peculiarities with the late man of the people.

Noticeably, Adelabu Adebayo takes after his grandpa in mental capacity bouyed by what Penkelemesi himself referred to as “unparalleled record of intellectual achievement in the classroom”. If you are still in doubt of Adegoke Adelabu’s towering academic prowess, check out from the legendary book “Africa in Ebullition”.

That Adebayo Adekola also shares  native intelligence and love of the masses with his grandy is obvious for a new emphasis.  He is actually pressing beyond everything objective  to be an action taker who will impact positively on the society and move Oyo state people to the desired next developmental level. He is also an incurable optimist,  who holds that not only must people dream of a better life, they must attain it. “They can. They will. They must.”

Penkele, to fumigate  the putrid mind of those in a tearing rush to write history upside down, is not synonymous to “a dross”. I refer them to Morro and Russell’s identity of truth, may be that will judder their enfeebled mind to think straight and rise beyond such hokus pokus. They boorishly came up with the new slogan “the Gold” to draw an incongruous comparison with “Penkele” which in their own unbalanced thinking means “worthless”.

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A little conceputal elucidation may suffice here to clear the error of reasoning of those giving an old term, a new meaning. Penkele is a shortened  adulterated form of the English word “peculiar” which means something which is markedly different, unique, particular, distinct etc. The original term was deducted from “peculiar mess ” which the teeming uneducated followers of the late Adegoke Adelabu at that time conveniently changed to “Penkelemesi” to sooth their own ecstasy and later became the unofficial title of Adelabu.

Those who are now changing the word to mean “worthless” are only exhibiting their low reasoning faculty. If they ever ever conceive to  blacken the reputation of the Penkele dynasty that is fast becoming an household name in the length and width of Oyo state, they have shot above the bar.  Do we need a better proof that anybody bearing the name Adegoke loves to be addressed as “Penkele”. How about “Hellooo, hello , hello Penkele!

Funny though, if they now claim to be “Gold”, they need to be reminded that “Penkele” is a Platinum, rare and more densed than Gold. They are entitled to their fallacious  opinions of allocating more value to a thing that worth less above one that worth more. But the people of Oyo state know better.

Have they ever sat down and ruminated on why a man of great refinement, Hon Adegoke Adelabu Penkele who died on March 25,1958 still resonates in the minds of the people till date?  Who says there is nothing in a name.  Come March 9th 2019 , voters in their large number would file out to show their love for the new Penkele, the Platinum. Does anyone still wonder why the shout of “o penkele, o jere, is renting the air in Oyo political radar?   Penkelemesi is  “Ileri Oluwa ”  divine ordination.

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The vox populi, vox dei”.

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