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Heroes should be celebrated while they are alive. Many times, people do things in passing and just about no one seems to notice the accomplishments of these people. An African adage says,

“When one’s child is good, it is only imperative for one to say so.”

This is what we seek to do at Connect Nigeria.

Meet Bayode Treasures Olawunmi, the “Longest marathon read aloud” record-breaker

For the first time in Nigeria’s History, a world record in reading was broken.

The former longest marathon read-aloud Guinness World Record – which was set at 113 hours 15 minutes by a Nepali, Deepak Sharma Bajagin, in September 2008 – was broken by Bayode Olawunmi. Deepak had commenced reading on September 19, 2008 and ended on September 24, 2008, logging off at 113 hours.

Our very own

Bayode Treasures Olawunmi is a native of Ikorodu, Lagos State. Bayode, who will turn 40 on September 21, 2018, studied at Comprehensive High School, Ketu and Osun State Polytechnic, Iree. His marriage is blessed with three children – two boys and one girl. On February 26, 2018, he began the reading challenge sponsored by Lagos State Government, Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB), Tagheuer, among others, at the YouRead Library, Herbert Macaulay Road, Yaba. The marathon reading, which commenced at 1.30 p.m. on Monday, ended at 3.30 p.m. on Saturday, March 3, 2018, during which he read over 10 books, among which are The Carnivorous City by Toni Kan and Thoughts from A Wealthy Place by Samuel Egube. Before he commenced reading on Monday, he had taken to his Facebook and Instagram pages to say:

“I have always loved to read good materials right from secondary school. I am doing this for the youths.”

His aim before embarking on the project was to make reading popular among Nigerians and Africans, as well as to disdain the cliche, If you want to hide something form a black man, put it in a book. After logging off at exactly 120 hours, Bayode announced the accomplishment of his feat via social media:

FOR THE CULTURE! Hello everybody, something just happened right now! My name is Bayode Treasures Olubunmi – I have just finished reading aloud for 120 hours non-stop! I did it for the CULTURE! #ReadWithBayode #YouRead #GWR #GuinessWorldRecord #Books #Reading #Yaba #Education #Learning #Library #History #Nigeria #Lagos #Africa

A post shared by BAYODE TREASURES-OLAWUNMI (@iread_bayode) on Mar 3, 2018 at 8:17am PST

Interestingly, Bayode and his wife, Tosin, celebrated their tenth year wedding anniversary on March 1, 2018. His wife, children, and mother are proud of him; Lagos is proud of him, Nigeria is proud of him. We at Connect Nigeria celebrate you, Bayode! Feature image photo credit: thegeniusmedia.com.ng

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This article was first published on 14th March 2018
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