By Chukwuma Ajakah

Renowned Nigerian arts connoisseur and founder of Slum Arts Foundation, Adetunwase Adenle is poised for a fifth Guinness World Record through a massive legacy project being executed by his foundation, Slum Arts Foundation.

Slum Arts Foundation located in the heart of Ijora Badia, one of Lagos Nigeria’s most underserved communities, is typically run as a special-needs-meeting school that uses arts to uplift the poor. The school is strategically set in a vibrant, but harsh environment, where the children are surrounded by poverty, pollution, and limited opportunities.

“Our school, famously built using PET bottles, stands not just as a learning space but as a symbol of possibility — a space where children come to dream, create, and find hope through art and innovation,” Adetunwase said.

In a Press Conference held at the Slum Arts Center last Saturday, August 23, 2025, the iconic artist unveiled his plans for the indigent whom he intends to launch on the world’s stage by engaging them in painting a 1,040 ft artwork, showcasing Nigeria’s rich heritage as the country marks her 65 Independence Anniversary on October 1, 2025.

While speaking on the impact of the foundation on street urchins and hitherto neglected children, Adetunwase remarked that the school has become a a place of refuge to many children in the area, especially those who hawk goods or roam the streets unsupervised. “Beyond literacy and creative learning, we provide structure, mentorship, and emotional healing,” he said, adding that”Some of the children had never held a pencil before walking through our gates. Today, they are painting, animating, and even teaching others.”

Although the visionary artist has been passionately impacting lives and empowering the young over the years from that seemingly obscure setting through tuition-free training in visual arts, mentoring, scholarships, and provision of shelter, he is presently upgrading it to a full-fledged school and building an animation studio. Explaining why he is embarking on the new initiatives, Adetunwase remarked: “We’ve seen what is possible with so little — imagine what we can achieve with more. Our dream is to transform this humble initiative into a full-fledged school and Africa’s first slum-based animation studio. We want to give these children world-class creative education, digital skills, and storytelling tools so they can change their lives and export Africa’s untold stories to the world.”

The humongous art initiative is expected to feature young Nigerians from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, visually narrating Nigeria’s journey before, during, and after independence. The eclectic visual narrative will also depict images of political actors, heroes, cultures, trials and momentous periods in the anals of the country.

While commenting on the foundation’s achievements, the artist revealed that one of the most inspiring young men in their team, Al-Amin Olarewaju Odugbemi, was one of the children they supported. “Today, he’s a leader, guiding others with passion and discipline,” he said, adding, “What moves me most is how Al-Amin shows up every day — early, eager, and full of ideas. He reminds me that what we’re building is more than a school. It’s a movement.”

Adetunwase is leading over 11,000 teenagers, including 500 students from 20 secondary schools to create a new historic artwork, depicting diverse aspects of Nigeria’s 130 years history, 65 years before and 65 years after independence. The creative campaign which holds from September 8 through October 1, 2025 comes at a crucial time in the country’s history, as existing narratives are fraught with half truths, biases, and deliberate misinformation. According to the organizers, “This legacy artwork is a national awakening, designed to teach the youth the true history of Nigeria through the power of creativity, instead of textbooks.”

The phenomenal artist and his team are retelling Nigeria’s story by using arts to unveil some hidden truth, conveying a message of hope for the future , comfort for past hurts, and the way forward from present realities. The painting will also highlight the roles of past and present political figures in pictures.

Adetunwase’s Slum Arts expedition targets not just another world record, but to empower the young, especially the indigent to actively participate in the nation’s developmental strides. Describing the legacy painting as a gift to the future as Nigeria celebrates her independence from colonial rule, Adetunwase Adenle implores the government and other stakeholders to support genuine efforts aimed at creating enabling environment for the youth and upcoming generations to fulfill their potentials. “Let us not allow our future generations to forget the greatness they come from,” he pleads.

Yusuf Durodola, a multi disciplinary artist and lecturer at the Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoka, Lagos, attested to Adetunwase’s demonstrable ability in handling ambitious projects, saying: “We attended the same school, Federal College of Education (FCE), Akoka. Tunwase has been a multi talented, multitasking, and very meticulous thinking person right from our school days. We did a series of intense projects together. I am not surprised that he is combining collage arts and education today.”

According to Durodola Adenle’s kind of collage involves diverse layers of different forms and contents, including papers, bottles, and waste materials from different sources which he merges to reflect the kind of life he lives. “Adetunwase is an events person who would take unimaginable projects as evidenced in the ones that resulted in the four Guinness World Records he holds,” he said. The records include,”The World’s Largest Painting by Numbers” (2010), “The Most Children Reading Aloud with an Adult at a Single Location (2011), which featured the then Lagos State Deputy Governor, Mrs Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, “Most Number of People Washing their Hands at One Single Event” (2011), and “The Largest Special Stamp” (2016).

Collaborating Adetunwase’s account on his involvement in education, Durodola reveals that “Aside from being an artist, he was trained to be an educator at FCE and his being in education is not a mistake as he has been carved in that direction, helping in pulling many children out of poverty and building them up to have the kind of lives they would be proud of has become part of his lifestyle.”

Noting that the kids have participated in a festival of arts he had curated with amazing artworks, Durodola stressed that “Tunwase is giving the children hope that the future is bright for them and attaining the Guinness World Records was extraordinary feat, showing that we can achieve anything we can imagine.”