Adegoke Adelabu

Adegoke Adelabu
Opposition Leader Western House of Assembly
In office 1956–1958
Chairman of Ibadan District Council
In office 1954–1956
Federal Minister of Natural Resources and Social Services
In office January 1955 - January 1956
Personal details
Born	c.1915 Ibadan
Died	March 25, 1958
Political party	NCNC
Religion	Muslim

Gbadamosi Adegoke Adelabu (3 September 1915 – 25 March 1958) was a prominent personality in the politics of Ibadan city and subsequently that of the Western Region of Nigeria right before the country's independence in 1960. He was Nigeria's Minister of Natural Resources and Social Services from January 1955 to January 1956 and was later the opposition leader in the Western Regional Assembly until his death in 1958. He was a self-made man born into a humble family but became an influential figure in Nigerian politics. He attended Government College, Ibadan and eventually became a business man. His successful political career was cut short when he was killed in a car crash, not long before Nigeria gained independence from Britain.

Adelabu was a self-described egotist who believed in the merits of radical nationalism, national unity and radical socialist ideology.

Adelabu, the son of Sanusi Ashinyanbi and Awujola Adelabu. was born in 1915. Adelabu's mother was the second wife of Sanusi but she died when Adelabu was quite young and the young Adelabu was then raised by a paternal aunt. From 1925 to 1929, he attended St David's C.M.S. School, Kudeti, Ibadan and finished Standard IV and V at C.M.S. Central school, Mapo. Though, a Muslim, Adelabu's aunt valued Western education which was dominated by the Christian missionaries in Ibadan, she obtained a baptismal certificate for Adelabu providing him the opportunity to attend the CMS schools. From 1931 to 1936, he 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. However, just after 6 months 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. His first assignment was a tour of 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 promotion as an Assistant Produce Manager with UAC. However, Adelabu left UAC in 1937 and joined the produce trade business. He was unsuccessful in the trade and was soon looking for a civil service job. In 1939, he became an agricultural inspector and later supervisor of cooperative society which had Akinpelu Obisesan as its president. He was with cooperative until 1945, when he went back to UAC. He was successful in his second start with the organization but after the resignation of his mentor, the Ibadan District Manager, Richardson Adelabu left the firm. He then ploughed income from UAC into a textile trading business with Levantine clients in Ibadan. Ibadan Native Authority system was dominated by junior chiefs, family heads )mogaji) and the Olubadan, majority of whom were not literate. Adelabu became interested in acting as an Administrative Secretary for the native council

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