Tunde Onakoya
Record breaker. History maker. Life shaper.
Onakoya is the gift that keeps giving. He sits eminently on the seat of influence, supported by the kindness the world can still point to despite all its predicaments and moved by the immense opportunities for impact.
What stands this young Nigerian out from the rest of the crowd is a feat many desire to have but never manage to- courage.
It takes courage to take on the world. It takes even greater courage to attempt to shape the future of a people, especially from a small place. Onakoya represents the innate desire of every child. He sits in the hearts of his people, being the person many want to become and staying humble about his achievements.
Nigeria, the most populous black nation on earth has its imprints on every part of the world. They are everywhere, continuously shaping opinions and moulding perceptions. What becomes of these opinions are strictly a result of experience. And what an experience Onakoya has taken the world through.
Sitting through a strong crowd of his compatriots and admirers from every part of the world, Onakoya withstood the pressure and challenge of moments to take the message of hope to the world. His actions, evidently beyond his direct gain is focused on the many people around him who may never have such opportunities. And it only took a game - chess to change, shape and charge the world.
Should the many people lacking opportunities also lack courage to engage the world on a cerebral adventure like Onakoya, they must at least dream to be and become. Become something bigger than their immediate concepts and close realities. What Onakoya has shown every black child out there is it’s possible. Everything is possible, and in adversity, there is always an opportunity. However, it takes courage, real courage to find such an opportunity and take on the world. Invention, innovation and humanity made the world, and nothing more than these will keep building it.
Onakoya has felt the world, seen the world and demanded of the world a better future for many kids who today do not know what the future holds for them. He has rewritten scripts and destinies by the virtue of his bold desire, his ‘impossible’ ambition and keen eye for a way where there is seemingly none. Perhaps, that’s all it takes. To dream, to dare and to dare to dream.
In a TEDx Talks speech in 2023, Onakoya said;
At the intersection of your own privilege and another person’s oppression, you find real opportunities to make change.
Change is all around us. It could be small but the recipient of that single action may make a life out of it, and that’s how big things come from small places. People are a gift, people are gifted and for every man who chooses to furnish a gift to fulfilment and take a child closer to a better life, a gift has been refined for the future.
Look around you, it may not take so much to make a difference. It could be a word, an action, a song, something you uttered from your wide, wild thoughts that will make the difference you desire.
Like Onakoya, you can make the world happen and that world is in your room, in the corner of your head, and somewhere in your heart seeking a move, begging your mouth, and pleading with your body.
Move. Think. Feel. They may be all the world needs from you for an opportunity to make a difference.
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