Guardian Nigeria
In the world of international sports and competition, a few stories resonate as deeply as those of individuals rising from local playgrounds and small beginnings to the zenith of international recognition.
This is exactly the story of the young Nigerian global chess champion, Tunde Onakoya, whose journey to becoming a world-renowned chess champion, especially his recent feat of successfully attempting to smash and set a new Guinness World Records, has captured the attention and admiration of many around the world. It was not surprising that the Internet became awash with his photos.
The humble beginning of Tunde and the game of chess started at Yintab Private Academy (YPA), when he was admitted into JSS 2 on September 18, 2006. He subsequently joined the YPA Chess Club and was part of YPA’s chess programme throughout his time at YPA from 2006 to 2011 under the guidance of now late Mr. Clement Okoro, a dedicated chess teacher and coach, whose passion for chess inspired the rise of the likes of Tunde.
Though romantically more fanciful to claim self-learning from observing at a Barber’s shop, Okoro’s dedication to Tunde got his game to blossom over time. While Tunde may have seen a chess set at a Barber’s shop, more so in a low-income community where the common games are the Yoruba ayo and draughts which Americans call checkers, Yintab Private Academy and its owners provided Tunde the opportunity to compete with other children in other schools and gained confidence.
Growing up in the Isale-Odo community in Ikorodu, like many kids from humble backgrounds, Tunde started life with deprivations. But fortune and providence came while his mum secured the job of a support staff at YPA, adjacent to TOS Benson Estate, at Oja Bus Stop, Ikorodu. According to the school’s Executive Director, Mrs. Adejumoke Badejo, Tunde’s mother, Mrs. Taiwo Onakoya, as a support staff in the school, took advantage of half tuition fees for staff children to send Tunde through secondary school. The school was very lenient and supported Tunde’s progress without being fussy over fees. Tunde, being a very diligent and promising student, was appointed Head Prefect (Head Boy) in his final year at the Yintab Private Academy.
The game of chess is one that the management of Yintab Private Academy had planned as an important strategic aid for critical thinking for students. The Chairman of Yintab Private Academy, Prof. Babafemi A. Badejo recollects how his secondary school teacher and school father, Mr. Anthony J. Finch, had introduced him to the game of chess at Ijebu-Ode Grammar School, Ijebu-Ode.
Little wonder that he insisted that the game must be woven into the learning environment at the private school set up by his family. Furthermore, Prof. Badejo founded the Femi Badejo Foundation, a private, non-profit organisation that promoted the knowledge of the game of chess.
The foundation considers chess as a tool for helping young people cultivate skills in critical reasoning needed for both academic and social development. From 1999 to 2007, the foundation under the leadership of a former Judge of Ogun State, Justice Solomon Abidoye Olugbemi sponsored series of annual Chess tournaments in the under-14 and under-10 categories, in conjunction with the Nigerian Chess Federation (NCF).
Upon his appointment as a judge of Ogun State, he handed over to the Director of Competitions at the foundation, one Mr. Johnson. Justice Olugbemi, recounting some of his experiences while he led the Femi Badejo Foundation in an interview on April 24, 2024, said:
“I was involved in organising the chess tournaments for under-14 and under-10 children at the time. I worked in conjunction with the Tournament Director, one Mr. Johnson, I cannot remember his surname now. We held the tournaments at the National Stadium for seven years, and the 8th one at the Yintab School, Ikorodu. Funding was done by then Dr. Femi Badejo through his wife, while he was away at the UN as a multilateral diplomat. We did our best to get good participation, invited schools in Lagos State, Ogun State, and Oyo State. Some came from as far as Port Harcourt to participate in the competition. The tournaments had a lot of impact on the children. A lot of students and schools participated. One school even tried to come very far from the East, but could not make it. The children were so happy. Apart from the chess, we also gave them lunch, then later snacks as a result of increasing costs”
Justice Olugbemi recalled how his departure to take up a higher career created a critical leadership vacuum in the Femi Badejo Foundation, that led the founder to voluntary withdraw funding, which was majorly responsible for the current state of the foundation. There were usually a number of financial demands from federal and state government officials in trying to organise the tournaments, which tended towards corruption.
While he successfully talked officials out of breaking the law, his successors did not have the clout to do the same. Prof. Badejo was not ready to bribe to do good after paying for the use of rooms at the National Stadium, renting and fueling generator and still face demands from officials. However, it is important to note that the competitions provided the opportunity for Tunde Onakoya to have his first experience of traveling out of Ikorodu and compete with children from high-brow schools.
In a 2022 visit to Yintab Private Academy, his alma mater, in a moment of nostalgia and recollection of some of his fondest memories of the school and the chess programme at the school, he jokingly gave his young audience a fine treat of laughter with his “Rice and Chicken Secret confession.” As a young boy, he was personally attracted to the Chess programme of the school and the annual Chess Tournament organised by the Femi Badejo Foundation, because of the Rice and Chicken served as Lunch…but eventually picked up interest in the chess game.
Tunde essentially inspired the students to see that they can achieve anything, become whoever they want to be, just like him, irrespective of their backgrounds. He also spoke to the students on the need to understand the real meaning and use of education. Since his last courtesy visit to the school, Yintab Private Academy rekindled its chess programme with more students joining as the school also subscribed to the paid services of some of Tunde’s trained chess coaches.
Ameh is Special Adviser, Yintab Strategy Consults, Ikorodu, Lagos.
