Taiwo Akinkunmi, the man who designed the Nigerian flag, has passed away, according to a Facebook announcement by his son, Akinkunmi Samuel Akinwunmi, on Wednesday.

Before his death, Akinkunmi worked as a Nigerian civil servant from 1955 till his retirement in 1993.

In deference to his contributions, Muhammadu Buhari, the former Nigerian president, once described him as “an honourary life presidential adviser, who upholds the values that every citizen should emulate for nation building”.

FIJ takes a dive beyond the accolades into the life and memory of Taiwo Akinkunmi as person and a patriot.

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BIRTH, EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

Taiwo Akinkunmi was born in 1936 in Ibadan, the capital city of Oyo State. His first experience of early education was however in northern Nigeria. Akinkunmi had moved to the northern region when he was eight years old.

A few years later, after his father retired, he moved back to Ibadan to continue his education. In 1949, he completed his first school education from Baptist Day School Idi-kan, Ibadan, where he lived with his father.

One year after his basic education, he proceeded to study at Ibadan Grammar School until 1955. After working in the civil service for a short while, he proceeded to Norwood Technical College (now Lambeth College) in the capital city of the United Kingdom, to study electrical engineering.

Akinkunmi had contributed to the agricultural sector of the Nigerian civil service. Before he left for London, he first worked as an agriculturist at the secretariat of the Adelabu-led Western Region in 1955. He would later return to the agricultural department of the secretariat to continue his service to the country.

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DESIGNING NIGERIA’S FLAG

At the climax of its struggle for independence in 1958, Nigeria put out a call for a national flag. Akinkunmi, who was in London at the time, submitted a green and white flag with a red sun in the middle. Akinkunmi had seen the newspaper advert for the national flag competition in a library in London.

In October 1959, he was invited by the London office of the Commissioner for Nigeria in the United Kingdom to confirm his win. Akinkunmi was awarded a sum of 100 pounds, which was about $281 at the time, for winning the competition.

He was 23 years old when he designed the Nigerian national flag.

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AKINKUNMI BACK IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Not much was seen or heard of Akinkunmi after he retired from public service in 1993. He would later attract the attention of Nigerians in 2008 through a special edition of the popular show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. His journey to the limelight had, however, begun a little earlier in 2006 when Olawale Sunday Olaniran, a researcher, wanted to document Nigerian history.

Olaniran had been searching for Akinkunmi. He found him in his residence at a remote location in Ibadan, Oyo State. Prior to Olaniran’s research, Akinkunmi had been presumed dead.

“People said he was dead, that I should forget about looking for him and just write about the flag,” Olaniran told Al Jazeera in an interview in 2015.

At that time, Akinkunmi was not living in the best of conditions, according to Olaniran. His pensions did not come in regularly and he had to live off some donations for a period. His story attracted media attention and it was published on the 2006 independence day celebration by the Sun Newspaper.

In 2008, Akinkunmi was invited to a special edition of the popular TV show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, where he was given a 2-million-naira cheque. The money, according to his son, was used to complete his house, which he resided in until his demise. This house was painted in the colour of the Nigerian flag.

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PRESIDENTIAL RECOGNITION

Following his appearance on national television in 2008, Akinkunmi was recognised by Goodluck Ebele Jonathan — who was Nigeria’s president at the time — during the country’s golden jubilee celebration.

It was the first national award he got since he designed the flag. He was also appointed as a lifetime adviser of the Nigerian president with a compensation of about $4,000 (approximately N800,000 at the time).

He made his most recent public appearance in June 2021 when the world’s largest flag was unveiled in Ibadan.