Nigeria, the
country of my birth is a nation of many paradoxes. Some critics often tagged
Nigeria as a Failed State nation. Nigerian Government for many years may have
earned the title of a failed state for failing to provide adequate security for
her people among many other things, but this giant of Africa nation is by no
means a nation of failures. While the Nigerian Government may rightly be tagged
as a failure, her people certainly are not failures. Nigerians at home and in
the diaspora against all odds are achieving great success and excelling in all
their endeavours. Nigerians are trailblazers and breaking world records in many
areas of disciplines. This painting is to celebrate the achievement of one of
the Nigerians’ world record breakers who broke the Guinness world record for
playing the game of chess for 60 hours in April 2024 – Tunde Onakoya: The King
of Chess.
The 29-year-old Tunde Onakoya is a Bible-living Christian and a Missionary to
the poor children of Africa. His mission is to raise US$1 million for the
education of African children, particularly those without access to quality
education. It was his own poor background that motivated Tunde to care for the
education of poor African children. Being unable to pay for his secondary
school, his mother offered to work for a school as a cleaner in exchange for
his school fees.
This portrait
of Tunde was done in my iconic Roses and Thorns style, thorns are for his poor
background and rose is for his achievement of breaking the Guinness World
record in chess. I used the young man’s image as the chess king piece his body
in Agbada cloth in the shape of the Nigeria map with the colour of the Nigerian
flag and the embroidery on the cloth was done in the shape of an African map.
My fellow
Nigerians at home and abroad, let us keep on shining wherever God planted us
even though the corrupt people are casting a dark shadow on our good image. Let
your achievements and good endeavours break through the dark shadow of the bad
Nigerians and shine for the world beyond the corruption and poverty some people
like to associate us with.
