Tanko Yakasai’s A Rare Nigerian, Says Adebayo

Former presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo, has described elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, as a rare Nigerian.

In a congratulatory message on Yakasai’s 100th birthday, Adebayo said the life of the elder statesman had become intertwined with Nigeria’s political journey, adding that celebrating him is a celebration of Nigeria.

“Your 100 years summon not just admiration but reverence, for your presence in our national life reminds us of the long road we have travelled, the storms we have weathered, and the promises we must still labour to fulfil.

“Today is not merely a birthday; it is a national moment of reflection. It is the commemoration of a lifetime that spans a century of our collective hopes, struggles, triumphs, disappointments, and renewed aspirations. It is the celebration of a man whose personal story is etched so deeply into the conscience of Nigeria that to speak of you is, in many ways, to talk of Nigeria’s own soul.

“Whenever I reflect on your life, I am struck by the truth that Nigeria has produced many public figures, but very few have endured with the consistency, clarity, courage and moral steadiness that define your towering legacy.”

He eulogised Alhaji Yakasai, noting that, even though he was born in 1925, colonial rule held sway. The idea of an independent Nigeria was a distant horizon; Yakasai still emerged early as someone with a restless and determined spirit. ‘You were a young man who believed that freedom, justice and dignity must become the inheritance of all Nigerians, not privileges for the few. From your early activism in Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) under the luminous guidance of Mallam Aminu Kano to your pivotal roles in shaping the First and Second Republics, the conviction that Nigeria must work for all her people has guided your entire life.

That conviction has remained unsullied, unbent and unbroken.

“Whenever I listen to you or read your reflections on governance and nationhood, I am reminded of the rare blessing Allah has bestowed upon you: the blessing of a mind that refuses to age. At 100, your intellect retains the sharpness of a scholar, the discipline of a statesman and the moral clarity of a patriot who has never, for one day, retired from the obligation of thinking about Nigeria’s progress,” Adebayo stated.

He said every nation needs its moral anchors, noting that Yakasai represents one for Nigeria. He described the elder statesman as a living archive, a grand repository of wisdom shaped not by speculation but by lived experience, frontline service, courage in the face of repression and sacrifices made for the greater good. “You speak of colonialism, independence, coups, transitions, reconciliation and democratic rebirth not as someone who observed history from the gallery but as one who stood in the arena, feeling its dust and its fire.

“You have seen Nigeria in her brightest dawns and in her darkest nights. You have watched leaders rise with promise and fall through hubris; you have watched institutions flourish with hope and decay under neglect; you have seen policies lift citizens into dignity and others plunge them into despair.

“You have advised presidents, mentored young politicians, challenged those whose paths strayed from justice and comforted those whom the system forgot. Through all these shifting seasons, you have remained firm in principle, fearless in speech and unbending in patriotic devotion. “Whenever I consider my interactions with you, I am reminded that leadership is not a performance staged for applause but a sacred responsibility, that patriotism is not a slogan repeated for convenience but a lifelong covenant and that nation-building is not an event but a relay, and you have carried your baton with honour for 100 years,” he said.

He described him as a man whose courage deserves its own chapter in Nigeria’s book of heroes.