The family of the man who designed Nigeria’s national flag have told the BBC they have given up waiting for a promised state funeral, a year after he died.
Instead Taiwo Michael Akinkunmi, who died a year ago aged 87, is going to be buried this weekin Oyo state, where he lived.
Akinkunmi, known by many as “Mr Flag Man” and whose house was painted in the distinctive green and white colours of the national flag, was a humble man.
But his son hopes that during his send-off, which Oyo state has agreed to fund, he will be remembered for the design that became a symbol of a united Nigeria.
“We have to give him the befitting burial he deserves,” his son Akinwumi Akinkunmi told the BBC Focus on Africa podcast.
Taiwo Akinkunmi 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.
