The designer of the Nigerian flag, Taiwo Akinkunmi, is dead.
One of his children, Akinkunmi Akinwumi, made the announcement in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
“Life is indeed transient; I can say boldly that you live a life with a landmark. Continue to rest, my father! Pa Michael Taiwo Akinkunmi (O.F.R.): Great Man has gone,” he wrote.
Akinkunmi is reported to have died in the early hours of Tuesday after a brief illness.
The late Akinkunmi, a native of Abeokuta, Ogun State, was born on May 10, 1936. in Ibadan where he lived nearly all his life.
He had his secondary education at the Ibadan Grammar School and got his school leaving certificate there in 1950.
While he was an undergraduate at Norwood Technical College in London he heard of the call to design the national flag and submitted his design. In 1958, his design was chosen as Nigeria’s National flag.
He was awarded a cash prize of 100 pounds for winning the contest.
In 2010, he was given a presidential award by the federal government and was honoured with Officer of the Order of Federal Republic (OFR) and honorary Life presidential adviser on 29 September, 2014, at an event held at the International Conference Centre Abuja.#
In 2021, Akinkunmi unveiled the world’s largest national flag in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.
