Tinubu Hails Tunde Onakoya for Setting New World Chess Record

*Says world champion has displayed capacity to make good change happen

Deji Elumoye in Abuja 

President Bola Tinubu has congratulated Mr. Tunde Onakoya for setting a new world chess record and sounding the gong of Nigeria’s resilience, self-belief, and ingenuity at the square of global acclaim.

Onakoya broke the Guinness World Record for the longest chess marathon on Saturday, after playing for over 58 hours and winning every match in tow.

The President, in a statement issued on Saturday by his Media Adviser, Ajuri Ngelale, 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.

President Tinubu said 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.

He 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.

The President commended the inclination of Nigerians – across artificial partitions – for unity, once again exemplified through their undiluted support for this epoch-making endeavour.

President Tinubu, 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 into the future.