A Nigerian boy defeated the acting Canadian high commissioner to Nigeria, Kevin Tokar, during a chess exhibition game at the under bridge axis of Oshodi in Lagos State.
This was made known by Tunde Onakoya, the founder of Chess in slums Africa – a non-profit organization known for using the game as a framework to promote education and raise champions from low communities.
Taking to his Twitter page on Tuesday, Onakoya disclosed that Tokar and a crew of Canadian sailors visited the Oshodi bridge, where they participated in a chess tournament with some children.
According to him, eight sailors from the HMCS Goose Bay — a Kingston class patrol ship in the Royal Canadian Navy led by Daniel Rice — were part of the high commissioner’s team.
While addressing the kids and other volunteers in attendance, Tokar said he has been in Nigeria for over two years and he is now a ‘Nigerian’ unlike the sailors who have barely spent 48 hours in the country.
The Canadian High Commissioner hailed the ”Nigerian spirit” that has seen its citizens do many spectacular things despite the challenges in the environment.
He also hailed how communities look out for each other just as the Chess in the Slum progenitor are doing and he promised support for more projects like this that would help women and children alike.
Onakoya said after Toker’s address, he paired some kids from his chess academy against the visitors for the exhibition game and one of his boys took on the commissioner and four naval officers and “defeated all of them with master-level precision.”
He wrote, “We received the Canadian high commissioner Kevin Tokar and 8 sailors from the HMCS Goose Bay-a Kingston class patrol ship in the Royal Canadian Navy led by Commander Daniel Rice.
“The highlight of the event was when one of the kids in our academy took on 4 Canadian Naval officers including the High commissioner in a simultaneous Chess exhibition and defeated all of them with master level precision.”
