BOOK TITLE: YUSUF OLANREWAJU SAGAYA: Recollection of My Story
AUTHOR: Yusuf Olanrewaju Sagaya
PUBLISHERS: Safari Books Limited.
PLACE OF PUBLICATION: Ibadan, Nigeria
YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 2026
REVIEWER: EmeritusProfessor Olu Obafemi, FINAL, NNOM, D.Litt (Hon)
If you were to encounter Yusuf Olanrewaju Sagaya for the first time, his diminutive physique, soft-spoken nature and uncommon capacity to accommodate what many others can’t, all will conspire to belie that he is the same ‘behemoth’ that God has given to Kwara, Nigeria and the world of professional engineering.
I am thus greatly honored to be accorded the privilege of doing this brief review of the autobiography of Engineer Yusuf Olanrewaju Sagaya who I have known, quite intimately, for over four decades.
Indeed, we had grown to become bossom friends even as our children grew up together here in Ilorin. My wife, Modupe and his first wife, Aderoju were intimate friends who, for many years used to have their early morning workouts together. I cannot fail to mention his present wife, Bambo who always makes us feel warmly welcome to their home.
I can also add, if I may, that while our newly minted Octogenarian was the landlord of the environment, for many years we both used to have our own minimal social evenings together, almost always at his creditable instance.
His genial, humorous and vivacious magnetism made it effortless for me to strike friendship with him in our GRA neighborhood. It has been a delightful privilege to be admitted into the infinite but qualitative circle of this great man’s friends.
Therefore, my task is made less difficult by the aforementioned extent of our relationship. I am highly delighted to be here today, not just as a Book Reviewer but as a friend and brother.
Gratefully, this autobiography positively espouses and exposes these and other attributes of Sagaya the gentle giant further to a much wider audience, which cuts across religion, ethnicity, profession and class.
As I have found in this book, Sagaya’s story telling propensity and capaciousness is sharp, clean, eloquent and unobtrusive, even understated. From start to finish, he tells his own full story without dipping into the common pitfall of immodest self-ululations that we find often widely paraded as autobiographies in recent memory. It is devoid of needless fictitiousness and self-celebration.
His masterly employment of prose styling tools to render his story as simply as possible leaves the discerning reader very highly positively surprised and impressed by this top-rated Engineer’s capacity for literary craftsmanship.
After laying a concise foundation for his engrossing life story in the opening chapter, Sagaya takes the readers by the hands and leads us through a labyrinth of travails and triumphs of his 80 successful years on the face of God’s earth.
For starters he tells the riveting story of the patriarch of the Sagaya lineage who apart from being the best in his undertakings, led a life dedicated to the Islamic faith, hard work, and philanthropy, before passing the baton of an enduring legacy to the author’s own father, Alhaji Busari Alabi, who was born in an environment where everyone was raised and nurtured through a rich mix of rigorous Islamic education and acumen for commerce.
He went on to become a highly successful trader who traversed the West African sub-region as an itinerant businessman in places like Benin Republic, Mali, Gambia, Ghana, and Cameroon.
Notwithstanding his successes in business, he never abandoned his calling as an Islamic scholar.
He was honest, humble and pious to the admiration of all with whom his path crossed, not just in his native Okeapomu area of Ilorin but everywhere he went.
And it was into this family that Lanre was born eighty years ago. The book tells us that apart from his sound background in Qur’anic Education, Lanre was among those privileged to have had western education at a time when such was widely regarded as a strange concept to be reserved for the infidels.
In this book readers will find in details how he surmounted these and other stumbling blocks to become the first son of the Sagaya lineage to graduate from a university.
It is equally important to stress here that this autobiography also encapsulates the wise saying that hard work does not kill. Yes, it may leave you breathless but that is part of the grueling process of making you a better human being.
Examples abound in the book which confirm that from his first job after university education to the continuing nurturing of his YOLAS engineering firm today, the key performance drivers for Sagaya have always included hard work, continuous self-development, good mentoring, stick-to-it attitude and faith in God. Alhaji Akanbi Oniyangi, Dr. Alex Ekwueme and Ambassador Gobir were among those who provided various forms of mentorship for Sagaya on his way up the ladder of success and he speaks glowingly of them in this book.
Sagaya says in the book: “By dint of hard work and the blessings of Almighty Allah, YOLAS Consultants Ltd has continued to grow with amazing rapidity to become one of the leading engineering firms in the whole of Nigeria and as will be seen later on these pages, it also boasts an enviable track record of successful design and execution to completion of several major projects across the country.”
Besides, YOLAS has been and remains a major training ground for budding professionals who are doing the nation proud in various engineering undertakings across the country today.
His ingenuity in the face of business adversary came to the fore through swift adaptability to industrial trade, steel industry and other options in an unfortunate clime where less gritty others had fallen into incurable misfortune.
The book chronicles the homefront and how much it has been a success factor in Sagaya’s life and businesses and how critical it can be to have a spouse who deeply understands and commits to one’s aspirations through thick and thin.
Sagaya’s passion for Golf is evident as readers will find in the book. Golf, he explains, is more than a game; the game he took to over thirty years ago is to him a way of life. His forages across famous golf courses within and outside Nigeria and his immense support for the game are explained in the book.
The section on testimonials aggregates into a consensus of frank verdicts by friends, family, associates and eminent professionals about the life, influences and impacts made by the philanthropic Sagaya and as a ‘primus inter pares’ among the nation’s foremost professional consultant engineers.
In conclusion, let me assure that beyond the aesthetic allure of the cover, inside this book that is appropriately spiced with expressive photographs, readers, particularly those younger than him, will find a true treasure trove and copious kitchen to feed their future plans and aspirations. For without any doubts, Sagaya has lived a life that he should rightfully be very proud of and from which aspiring and upcoming professionals should do well to learn and emulate.
Like the colossus that he already is, one can only wish and pray that he will have even more years to bestride the world with more of his infectious humanity and professional uprightness.
The Zannah of Ilorin, Fellow of many Professional Associations, national patriot, community leader and adored family patriarch, Engineer Lanre Sagaya has, to borrow an oft-quoted dictum from the Martinique revolutionary, Frantz Fanon, moved from a humble relative obscurity, to discover a mission of greatness and fulfilled himself. Anyone with an aspiration for greatness must buy, read and keep this exquisite Autobiography.
While recommending that everyone should buy and read this important book, let me conclude that if I had the opportunity today, I would have proposed a toast of 80 hearty cheers to Sagaya, for he is indeed a great gift to engineering and humanity.
Happy reading to everyone. And Happy Birthday, my brother and dear friend.
