After one-year wait, Akinkunmi, national flag designer buried in Ibadan

Over a year after his demise, designer of the national flag, Taiwo Akinkunmi was, on Friday, interred at his Ibadan residence.

The interment of Akinkunmi was preceded by a funeral service held at the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium, Liberty road, Ibadan, which had a scanty attendance, dominantly representatives of the Oyo State Government, students of Akinkunmi’s alma mater, family members, parishioners of Gospel Faith Mission International (GOFAMINT) and the national choir.

The burial on Friday put an end to the year-long wait by the family for the federal government to take up the responsibility of giving Akinkunmi, who died on August 29, 2023, a state burial.

Speaking on behalf of the family, Akinkunmi Akinwumi, son of the deceased, said the family had to go ahead with the burial after the federal government was not forthcoming on its promises to give the late Akinkunmi a befitting burial.

Weary of the unfulfilled promises, he said the family went ahead with the burial having got funding support from the Oyo State Government and well meaning individuals.

Akinwumi described the burial as his happiest moment as it brought to an end battles fought for his father to get a national burial.

He said the family became strengthened by the fact that their late father always cautioned his children against being angry at not getting the desired recognition from Nigeria but focus on what they can do to make the nation a better place.

Asked how best to immortalize the late Akinkunmi, he said the family was open to any manner deemed fit by the federal government.

Giving his remarks, the acting governor of Oyo State, Bayo Lawal said government across levels had a lot to do to immortalize and ensure sustenance of the legacies of Taiwo Akinkunmi.

Describing Akinkunmi as a national flag, Lawal argued that his burial should be a federal government affair rather than being left to the deceased family and the Oyo State Government.

Lawal noted that the legacies left behind by Akinkunmi, in designing the flag, included the fact that unity and peace is crucial to drive national development.

He added that the green in the national flag reminded the nation’s leaders of the imperative to maximize the nation’s potential in agriculture and solid minerals for its prosperity.

Chairman, Oyo State Advisory Council, Mr Bolaji Ayorinde, in his remarks at the event, said the national flag reminded Nigerians that the ideals of peace, unity and progress can be achieved if commonality, harmony is fostered among communities.

He added that Nigerians can also take a cue from Akinkunmi’s belief in education and knowledge, consideration of the greater good, embracing culture of creativity in nation building and strength in diversity.

Delivering a sermon at the funeral service, General Secretary, GOFAMINT, Pastor Femi Omowumi said Akinkunmi showed that one need not hold political office to contribute to the development of the nation.

Though he noted that leaders had a greater role, Omowumi said Nigerians must also acknowledge the need to also contribute their quota to the development of the country.

He enjoined both political office holders and Nigerians at large to desist from using their positions for selfish purposes but be guided by the fact that everyone would give account for their deeds whether when alive or dead.

Family members to include Mrs Remilekun Akinkunmi and Mr Oladapo Olabisi, in their tributes, said the late Akinkunmi taught them to be accommodating and loving.

The funeral service had in attendance, members of the Oyo State cabinet; members of the state advisory council; former Oyo Assembly lawmaker, Honourable Ibrahim Bolomope; GOFAMINT members; personnel of various security agencies among others.

 

The long wait

Taiwo Akinkunmi who died last year at 87, according to the BBC, always said he was an unlikely flag designer. He entered a competition for a new design ahead of Nigeria’s independence from the UK in October 1960.

At the time he was studying electrical engineering in London and had spotted a newspaper advert about the competition.

According to flag expert, Whitney Smith, 3,000 designs were submitted – “many of great complexity”.

But Akinkunmi’s was a simple affair, with equal green-white-green vertical stripes – and it replaced the colonial flag that had included the British union jack and a six-pointed green star under a red disk.

Akinkunmi’s original design included at its centre a red sun surrounded by rays. This was intended as “as a symbol of divine protection and guidance”, Mr Smith wrote in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

However the sun was omitted by the committee, which awarded the then 23-year-old £100 (then worth $280) for his winning design.

Akinkunmi always said his inspiration came from his childhood as he had travelled and lived in various parts of Nigeria.

Born in Ibadan in the south-west, now capital of Oyo state, he spent his early years in the north of the country because of his parents’ work. He grew up in what he said was a happy polygamous family and was one of his father’s 10 children.

He returned to Ibadan to finish his education. He once told ThisDay journalist Funke Olade that his secondary school was like a “mini-Nigeria” as it had students from all over the country.

Nigeria is home to more than 300 ethnic groups and while Africa’s most populous country has no official religion, the nation is roughly divided between the mainly Muslim north and the largely Christian south, though many communities are mixed.

For Akinkunmi the green in his flag symbolised the nation’s rich agricultural heritage, while the white represented peace and unity.

“It is typical that Nigeria, like many other culturally diverse countries, chose a simple flag design. A more complex design might have explicitly honoured some ethnic and religious groups while excluding others,” Mr Smith wrote.

Agriculture was always close to Akinkunmi’s heart and he was excited to return to Nigeria after independence to take up at a job with the Ministry of Agriculture, where he worked as a civil servant until he retired in 1994.

But for much of his life very few people knew about his contribution to the country, though wherever he lived he reportedly used to paint the outside of his house green and white.

It was not until Nigeria celebrated its 50th year of independence that he was recognised as one of 50 distinguished Nigerians.

His son said an Oyo state politician later lobbied for him to be given a national honour and pension – and in 2014 he was made an Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR), one of Nigeria’s highest awards.

After Akinkunmi’s death last year, a senator sponsored a successful motion that he be given a state burial.

However, no plans were made and as they waited, Akinkunmi’s family had been paying N2,000 naira ($1.30; £1.00) a day to keep the body at a morgue.

The flag designer’s son said that in June they found out that the arts ministry’s National Institute for Cultural Orientation (Nico) had been directed to sort out the state funeral.

But apart from one phone call, he said the institution had failed to communicate any further.

He felt waiting any longer would just sully his father’s name.

This was when the Oyo state government decided to step in to fund the burial rites for the flag designer.

“My late father was an easy-going person who didn’t want anything to tarnish his image,” his son told the BBC.

“He was well brought up, he was a very intelligent man and a good person that everyone wanted to associate with,” he added.

 

BBC News

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