Taiwo Akinkunmi, designer of the Nigerian flag, is dead

Taiwo Akinkunmi, the designer of the Nigerian flag, is dead. He was aged 87. 

Akinkunmi Akinwumi, one of his children, announced the death in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

“Life is indeed transient; I can say boldly that you lived 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 Wednesday after a brief illness.

On his 85th birthday in 2021, former President Muhammadu Buhari celebrated Akinkunmi for upholding “the values that every citizen should emulate for nation building, which include humility, selflessness, integrity and a keen interest in seeking greater good for country and humanity”.

The former president beseeched God to grant the octogenarian and retired civil servant longer life, good health and strength to keep serving the nation he loves so much.

THE GREEN AND WHITE DESIGN THAT WON

While studying abroad in 1959, Akinkunmi stumbled on a newspaper advertisement calling for submission of designs for the Nigerian national flag, as the African nation prepared to gain independence from the British colonial masters.

Akinkunmi, then a 23-year-old engineering student at Norwood Technical College in London, joined the competition.

In 1960, Akinkunmi’s design was deemed the best from a pool of 2000 entries. He was told that his green and white design had won.

At the time, he received a reward of £100 for the feat.

The flag designer was born on May 10, 1936 and hailed from Owu in Abeokuta, Ogun state.

He attended Baptist Day Secondary School, Ibadan for his primary education, Ibadan Grammar School for his secondary education and then took up an appointment as a civil servant at the state secretariat Ibadan.

After working for a number of years, he travelled abroad to study agricultural engineering at Norwood Technical College.

Upon graduation, he returned to Nigeria and served in the ministry of agriculture.

In 2014, former President Goodluck Jonathan conferred him with the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR).

Jonathan also directed his chief of staff to place him “forever” on a salary equivalent to that of a special assistant to the president.