A veteran journalist, Chief Lekan Alabi, on Monday in Ibadan advocated that the late Alhaji Adegoke Adelabu who died 67 years ago on Tuesday should be accorded more honours.
Alabi told our Correspondent that Adelabu deserved to be honoured in better ways, suggesting that state honour would not be too much.
“For a man who died at such a young age after so much accomplishments, having an ‘Adegoke Adelabu Month’ or an ‘Adegoke Adelabu Week’ or an ‘Adegoke Adelabu Day’ will not be too much.
“In societies where patriots and heroes/heroines are truly appreciated, one of those (month, week or day) would long ago have been registered by state legislation in honour of the memory of an outstanding leader in the stature of the late Hon. Adegoke Adelabu who lived from 1915 to 1958,” Alabi said.
The Public Relations consultant/author said this was why, on the 67th remembrance of the death of Adelabu on Tuesday, he would be organising an event to commemorate the event.
Freedomonline reports that Adelabu, alias “Penkelemesi”, died in a motor accident on the old Lagos-Ibadan Highway.
“Adelabu was the best student of his time in Nigeria and Africa.
“He later became the first African Manager of the United African Company (UAC) and Nigeria’s first Minister of Natural Resources and Social Welfare Development.
“This was just a few among other record-breaking positions he held.
“My paternal grandmother, the late Mama Asma’u Odunola Alabi of the Ekerin Ajengbe Chieftaincy Family in Ibadan, was the pioneer Woman Leader of the now-defunct NCNC in Ibadan in the 1950s under Adelabu.
“She did have a lot of good words to say about Penkelemesi.
“Incidentally, his death occurred during Ramadan of that year. May his valiant soul continue to rest in perfect peace,” Alabi, who is the Maye Olubadan of Ibadan land and the first Culture Ambassador of the National Museum and Monument, Ile-Ife, added.
He noted that he, through Tuesday’s event, intended to “jerk Nigeria and Nigerians awake” with the “FORGET NOT ADEGOKE ADELABU PENKELEMESI” media campaign which would commence same day.
Alabi disclosed that, apart from the campaign called NEFAAP (Never Forget Adegoke Adelabu Penkelemesi),
he and others were already working on the production of an epic film.
“It is an epic film depicting the life and times of the late brilliant and colourful politician, and those working on it included the Adegoke Adelabu Family, Oba(Sen.) Rashidi Ladoja, a former governor of Oyo State, and the Imodoye Media Group.
“This is a consortium of technocrats, historians and UK-based professional film-makers,” he said.
Alabi who is the founding Chairman of the Adegoke Adelabu Foundation, which he began in 1996, said the film was expected to hit cinemas all over the world by 2026.
“That will be the 68th anniversary of Adelabu’s death, but this media campaign is without any bias against the Adegoke Adelabu Film.
“It is just that we must do what is necessary, to honour a worthy Nigerian who should never be forgotten,” the Public Relations consultant, who served as Chief Press Secretary to four governors in the old Oyo State from 1983 to 1989, said.
