A Nigerian doctor and artist, Fola David-Tolaram has said he is honoured with the Guinness World Record for the largest drawing by an individual to celebrate a country’s culture.

He said this on Thursday, November 14, 2024 during an interview with the official website of the Guinness World Record after turning his passion for art into a record-breaking feat.

Fola’s gigantic piece of art, created on the pitch at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena in the Onikan area of Lagos State is a love letter to his home country, depicting its diverse culture.

It measures a massive 1,004.7 m² (10814.5 ft²), which is the size of 3.8 tennis courts. Fola, 31, explained during an interview with the official website of the Guinness World Record: “The drawing is a map of Nigeria showing the various cultures.

“The Nigerian country is a multi-cultural nation. I wanted to create something that speaks to that and give people an avenue to celebrate their cultures.

“Before embarking on this record drawing, I took a trip around my country to experience these different cultures personally and it was this experience that I brought to the stadium to create this drawing.

“The food, the clothing, the way of life, the festivals, the things that are used to create music in each of these cultures, are things that I brought together to create the largest drawing in the world by an individual.

“The drawing is entitled The Unity of Diversity. This is me showing my people the beauty that resides in our culture.”

The medical doctor, who has also been a professional artist for 10 years, created his drawing on a 1,360 m² canvas with waterproof markers.

It took two days just to join all the canvases together to make one big enough for Fola to draw on.

He began from the centre and planned to work his way out in a circular motion, but changed up his technique after he got started, sometimes taking a break from difficult areas to work on something he found easier, before going back to it later.

Fola, who has had his art exhibited around the world, said he wanted to attempt this record to push the limits of his ability as an artist.

He said: “I remember standing right in the centre of this canvas, about to start this drawing, and feeling a lot of apprehension and fear because all these years had led to this moment.

“For five minutes I stood there making sure I conditioned myself for the beginning of such a challenge.

“I believed in myself, but at the same time, standing right there I felt something pushing me back, I felt something telling me, ‘are you sure you’re ready?’

“I had to tell myself everything had been taken care of.” But once he got going, he knew he could do it.

“All I had to do was start,” the Nigerian artist confessed. “The moment my marker touched the canvas there was no going back. All the fear had gone away.

“After the first few strokes I remembered who I was and everything I’d learned and all the years of experience as an artist and it started flowing freely for me.

From that moment, I was fearless and I kept going until the final day. Fola had lots of visitors at the 5,000-seat stadium over the six days it took him to complete his drawing.

He often had a crowd of people there to cheer him on and said the atmosphere was “electrifying”.

The Nigerian doctor said: “Holding a Guinness World Record title is absolutely unbelievable. I grew up reading about world records and I never thought that I would be a record title holder.

“I’m still trying to process the emotion of this entire thing, but I feel very honoured, I feel distinguished, and I feel Officially Amazing.”