CITIZENS COMPASS – Former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, and the Ogun State government on Friday, mourned the leader of the Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Pa Ayo Adebanjo.
Recall that the elder statesman died in the morning.
In his tribute, the former president described Pa Adebanjo as a great man, a committed nationalist, an effective representative of his people and an unpretentious personality.
According to him: “It was with deep sense of personal loss that I received the sad news of the passing of my beloved friend and senior brother, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, away in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where I am currently attending the 38th Ordinary Session of the African Union Assembly.”
The former President in a tribute made available to newsmen by his Special Assistant on Media, Kehinde Akinyemi stated that the unfortunate news came to him as a shock, lamenting his passing was “no doubt, a huge loss not only to me and to Ogun State but also to the country as a whole.
“The unfortunate news came to me as a shock because when last I visited him on February 3, 2025 at his Lekki residence, though he was in such a fragile state, I had no inkling he would leave us so soon. His transition is, no doubt, a huge loss not only to me and to Ogun State but also to the country as a whole. He was a great man, a committed nationalist and an effective representative of his people.
“Looking back, Chief Adebanjo had a highly successful career with selfless service rendered to his community, State and, indeed, the entire nation. As a foundation member of the Action Group Party (A.G.), he will be remembered as a foremost nationalist and patriot who has given his best as an active community leader and an exemplary politician with integrity and one who has demonstrated that politics is an avenue not for mindless enrichment but for rendering faithful service to humanity.
Obasanjo noted that Adebanjo’s “commitment to enthroning democracy in our dear country, his tenacity in the face of daunting odds and mortal risk to his life is very common knowledge, and these mark him out as a courageous political leader and true patriot. Not surprisingly, he had come to be regarded as one of our most notable elder statesmen, who had an enviable track record of purposefulness, honesty and integrity to bear in promoting the cause of national unity.”
The former President recalled that: “As a democratically-elected President of Nigeria between 1999 and 2007, we both sometimes disagreed to agree to committedly regenerate and reposition our country to meet the hopes and aspirations of the Nigerian people and chart the course to our nation’s glorious future. He was such an unpretentious personality! His thoughts, utterances and deeds were completely devoid of political partisanship. He had friends from all over the country and he led a life filled with remarkable experiences.
“Until his death, he fought with courage and tenacity to see to the restructuring of the Nigerian nation through which good governance based on democratic principles and practice and leading to unity in diversity, justice and equity, political stability, nationalism, popular participation, peace and security and socio-economic progress with strong leadership would be enshrined.
“It is unfortunate that his dream to see this through couldn’t be actualised in his lifetime. Indeed, Chief Adebanjo’s contributions to the strengthening of our fledgling democracy will be missed by the entire nation.
“My family and I commiserate with his immediate and extended family members on this painful loss and pray that God will grant them and the rest of us, his friends and admirers, the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss. May the soul of our very dear Chief Adebanjo rest in perfect peace, Amen.
“I will undoubtedly miss my amazing and beloved Egbon Ayo, with the hope to continue to hold on to the good and remarkable memories we had together, till we meet to part no more,” Obasanjo stated.
Similarly I’m a statement, Said gun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun said the exit of the elder statesman marks the end of a glorious era.
In the statement issued in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Abiodun described Adebanjo as a man of principle and one of the most prominent and unwavering disciples of the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
Abiodun, who described Adebanjo’s death at the age of 96 at his residence in Lekki, Lagos State, on Friday as a profound loss to Nigeria, said the government and people of Ogun State could not have wished for a more glorious end for the unblemished apostle of federalism, good governance, and the defense of Yoruba interests, who stood head and shoulders above many of his contemporaries and set the pace in the critical appraisal of governments and governance as vehicles of social engineering.
He described the late legal and political icon as one of the few Nigerians whose life embodied the story of Nigeria, from the struggle for independence to the post-independence era, straddling military rule and the return to democratic rule, together with all the joys and pains of those epochal moments.
He added: “To all intents and purposes, Chief Ayo Adebanjo represented the finest of Ogun State and Nigeria as a whole, and his ideals will never be forgotten.”
“It does not matter where you stand in the political terrain: Adebanjo was a man whose integrity you could not question. He lived through the finest and ugliest moments of Nigerian history, was hounded by the Establishment for his beliefs, and was even exiled for resisting autocracy and the suppression of the masses, and never once hid his identity as a passionate defender of the Yoruba nation and its interests, regardless of whose horse was gored.
“From his activist beginnings in 1943 as a follower of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe to his activities as a member of the youth wing of the Action Group in 1951, right into the early ’60s, where the sage and his lieutenants stood trial for treason, and right into the heady days of the military and the return to civil rule when he actively engaged governments and participated in constitutional conferences to remake the structure, character, and temper of Nigerian federalism, Adebanjo never once refrained from being a voice of courage and a force for good. In particular, his strident advocacy for federalism was unmatched.
“We are still coming to terms with the reality of his passing, but let us just note that we are profoundly grateful to the Almighty God for giving us such a gem in Ogun State. He will be sorely missed.”
