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

The burial of Taiwo Akinkunmi, the designer of the Nigerian national flag, is ongoing in Ibadan, Oyo State.

PREMIUM TIMES reported on 30 August 2023 that Mr Akinkunmi died at 87 after a brief illness.

BBC posted the video of the ongoing burial on its Facebook page on Friday afternoon.

His son, Akinwumi Akinkunmi, told the BBC Focus on Africa podcast that the family decided to bury his father after waiting a year for a promised state funeral from the federal government, which never materialised.

The son of the late Akinkunmi, known as “Mr Flag Man,” said that ever since the promise of a state funeral was made, no plans were finalised, and the family was left waiting.

He told the BBC the family had been paying N2,000 a day to keep the body at a morgue.

Furthermore, his son revealed that in June, the family discovered that the arts ministry’s National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) was directed to sort out the state funeral.

He noted that apart from one phone call, the institution failed to communicate further, noting that further waiting would sully his father’s name.

“We have to give him the befitting burial he deserves. My late father was easygoing and didn’t want anything to tarnish his image. He was well brought up; he was a brilliant man and a good person everyone wanted to associate with,” he told the BBC.

Mr Akinwumi stated that after the federal government failed to deliver on its promise, the Oyo State government stepped in to fund the flag designer’s burial rites.

The late Akinkunmi was born on 10 May 1936 in Ibadan, Oyo State. He was renowned for designing the Nigerian flag in 1958, for which he received a £100 award after his design was chosen.