• Laments family pays N2,000 daily as mortuary bill without govt’s support
• It’s tragic that Akinkunmi is abandoned, govt must apologise, says Farounbi
A group, Yoruba World Congress Worldwide (YWC), has petitioned President Bola Tinubu over the delay in the burial of Nigeria’s flag designer, the late Taiwo Akinkunmi.
In an open letter to Tinubu, signed by its Vice President, Adekunle Ogundana, and made available to journalists, yesterday, the group urged the President to intervene to enable the burial of the late icon without further delay.
Akinkunmi, a native of Abeokuta in Ogun State, was a student in the United Kingdom (UK) when he designed the National Flag.
His design was selected as the best in 1958 among all the presented designs for the competition to get a new national flag design for the country (Nigeria) that was about to get her independence from the colonial masters.
The late icon has not been buried despite the promises made by the federal and Oyo State governments.
The group, while appealing to Tinubu to personally look into the issue as a matter of urgency, said information revealed that the family of the deceased had been paying N2,000 daily as a mortuary bill to date without any support from the government.
It, therefore, called on Tinubu to urgently look into this matter so that the family can bury their dead and be pacified.
However, a former Nigerian Ambassador to the Philippines and veteran broadcaster, Dr Yemi Farounbi, yesterday, decried the continued stay of the body of Akinkunmi in the mortuary, saying it is tragic and unfortunate that the government has abandoned the late icon even in death.
Farounbi, who spoke with The Guardian in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, said the government must apologise to the family for its inaction in giving their patriarch the befitting burial on time.
The former envoy said: ”It is tragic that the man that did such a symbolic thing for Nigeria is abandoned in the mortuary. It is very unfortunate that the country does not recognise patriotism. Doing this to Akinkunmi will not encourage younger ones to do creative and great things for Nigeria.
”He gave the country a national symbol. I think the government should apologise to the family and do the right thing forthwith.”
