By Abimbola Ogunnaike
President Bola Tinubu on Saturday, April, 2024 commended Chess maestro, Tunde Onakoya, on setting a new world chess record.
Tinubu thanked Onakoya for “sounding the gong of Nigeria’s resilience, self-belief, and ingenuity at the square of global acclaim”.
The Presidency said in a statement signed by the President’s spokesperson, Ajuri Ngelale on Saturday, 20 April, 2024, and made available to media houses.
The statement is titled ‘President Tinubu congratulates Tunde Onakoya on new world chess record.’
Onakoya broke the Guinness World Record for the longest chess marathon on Saturday, after playing for over 58 hours undefeated.
At the marathon taking place at New York’s Times Square, Onakoya exceeded the record set by Norwegian players Hallvard Haug Flatebø and Sjur Ferkingstad in 2018.
The President celebrated the Nigerian Chess Champion and founder of Chess in Slums Africa for the rare feat, but especially “for the reason driving this compelling demonstration of character, which is raising funds for African children to learn and find opportunity through chess,” said the statement.
Tinubu stated that Mr. Onakoya has shown a streak customary among Nigeria’s youth population, “the audacity to make good change happen; to baffle impossibility, and propel innovations and solutions to the nation’s challenges, even from corners of disadvantage.”
The President affirmed that Nigeria’s youths have demonstrated in all fields, including Afrobeats, Nollywood, the pulsating skit-making enterprise, education, science and technology, that great exploits can truly come from small quarters.
He commended the inclination of Nigerians – across artificial partitions – for unity, once again exemplified through their undiluted support for the epoch-making endeavour.
The President, therefore, assured all citizens that his administration remains strongly committed to creating and expanding opportunities for the youth to explore and exercise their abilities and become the symbols of greatness our nation represents in the future.
