‘Ori e gigun bi posi Adelabu’
This vituperative saying is applied to people with long head; they are said to have a similar facet to Adelabu.
I could remember when i was growing up in my Lafayette, when this particular saying was used as a caricature and cognomen to people with long head. Why are some people fond of this ridiculous saying? And how did this saying metamorphose? In 1958, Sir Adegoke Gbadamosi Adelabu, penkelemesi (a moniker derived from the corruption of his favourite words “peculiar mess”), who was referred to as Lion of the West, gave up the ghost in an accident after he encounters some political upheavals in the Western Region of Nigeria (Ibadan precisely). During his burial, Sir Mbadiwe of the NCNC presented the family of Sir Adelabu a uniquely long and expensive coffin.
This coffin was long to the extent that the people present were surprised and began to spread the news after they left the burial. Thus, giving birth to the description of long head as posi Adelabu. He was also known for other thing like the penkelemesi textile introduced by his Yunnan friend that later became the cynosure of all eyes in all the Western Region of Nigeria. Pluribus Unum, this belongs to the axiomatic saying that people think it is rootless.
‘Gudu gudu meje Yaya mefa’
A group of Yoruba chiefs went en masse from Ibadan to give an account of their governance to a British district commissioner. In the course of giving the account to the white man, he was impressed and he showed this by nodding and said “good” seven times and “yeah” six times simultaneously. When those emissaries got home, they told their people that “oyibo se ‘gudu gudu’ meje ‘yaya’ mefa”, i.e, “the whiteman did seven ‘good’ and six ‘yeah’ “.
‘Alajo Somolu’
Singers, comedians, among others, always make use of this name anytime they perform. “Alajo Somolu” means “Somolu thrift collector”. Before the advent of fintechs and banks, people entrusted their savings with thrift collectors.
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