By Zika Bobby
Chief Owolabi Salis, the America-based lawyer and astronaut, has become a national hero after making history as the first Nigerian to travel to outer space, beyond the Kármán Line.
Salis who runs a law firm in New York, has become a celebrated figure among Black Americans and Nigerians in the diaspora.
Renowned American artist, Steve N. Barber is planning to immortalize Salis in a monumental tribute.
The monument, designed to last for at least 1,000 years, will feature inspirational inscriptions and would bebe unveiled on July 4, 2026. After the unveiling, the structure will be transported to Salis’s birthplace in Ikorodu, Lagos.
He also expressed his fervent belief that the monument will serve as a beacon of inspiration expectedly hoped to fire the zeal of the Blacks and Nigerians in particular, including the succeeding generations towards a greater quest for space exploration and the limitless vista of possibilities latent in the revolutionary novel adventure in the annals of scientific voyage of exploration.
According to the California-based monument builder, the tribute not only celebrates Salis’s achievements but also elevates Nigeria’s global standing.
The National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) has already congratulated him on his historic journey, describing it as “a defining moment for Nigeria’s space ambitions.”
It would be recalled that Salis also made history as the first African to have ever visited the diametrically extreme hemisphere of the Arctic and Antarctic North and South pole respectively, within a season.
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