Akeem Lasisi
Winner of the 2022 edition of the $100,000 Nigeria Prize for Literature will emerge on Friday, October 14, at the NLNG Grand Award Night holding at The Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.
The event, which has former President Olusegun Obasanjo as the keynote speaker, also involves the presentation of awards to winners of the Nigeria Prizes for Science and Literary Criticism, with all the three founded and sponsored by Nigeria LNG Limited. For the Science Prize, two entries the first by Muhyideen Oyekunle and his colleague, Prof Shehu Garki Ado; and the second, by Professor Sesan Peter Ayodeji and his colleague, Emmanuel Olatunji Olatomilola, were chosen from 107 entries for the year.
Three comparatively young poets are on the shortlist, which emerged from a longlist of 11 that included acclaimed Remi Raji, Ogaga Ifowodo, Obari Gomba, Segun Adekoya, Amu Nnadi, among others..
The three finalists are S. Su’eddie Vershima Agema, with his collection, Memory of the Call of Waters; Romeo Oriogun; Nomads; and Saddiq Dzukogi, Your Crib, My Qibla.
ALSO READ: Nigeria Prize for Literature: Evening of a longlist of beautiful voices
With the grand finale expected to be enriched with performances and readings, a statement by
Andy Odeh, General Manager, External Relations and Sustainable Development, underscores the significance of the competitions thus: “The Nigeria Prizes for Literature, Science and Literary Criticism sponsored by Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG), are annual prizes established to recognise and reward excellent works in literature and science.
“These prizes which are awarded to deserving Nigerians, have earned worldwide recognition as Africa’s most prestigious literary and science prizes. They are very clear demonstrations of NLNG’s commitment to its vision, of being a globally competitive LNG company helping to build a better Nigeria. The 2022 edition of the literature prize celebrates excellence in poetry, and that of the science prize focusses on innovative solutions in food security.”
Judges for the year are Sule Emmanuel Egya, who is the Chairman of the panel and a professor of African Literature and Cultural Studies at Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State; Toyin Adewale-Gabriel and Dike Chukwumerije. Adewale-Gabriel, a seasoned administrator, is a poet and fiction writer while Chukwumerije is an acclaimed spoken word and performance poet.
Synopsis of the shortlisted works
Memory and the Call of Waters (S. Su’eddie Vershima Agema; Sevhage Kikya; 2021)
Synopsis: The collection interrogates personal and collective memory juxtaposed with current realities woven into diverse facets from love, family, culture, politics, and depression, to survival, hope and redemption. Written in mixed styles, it is an unpretentious collection that will remain with readers long after its last page is read.
Profile: Multiple award-winning writer, development worker, cultural enthusiast and editor, Agema blogs at http://sueddie.wordpress.com and is @sueddieagema on Twitter/Facebook/Instagram.
S. Su’eddie Agema
Nomad (Romeo Oriogun; Griots Lounge Publishing; 2021)
Synopsis: Romeo Oriogun’s poetry explores alterity and displacements-of location, of intimate physical spaces, of colour/race, the remnant music of Caliban. He does this with a deft hand and an instinctive feel for the cadences of the lyric.
Profile: Author of Sacrament of Bodies, which was a finalist for the Lambda Award for Gay Poetry, Oriogun has received fellowships and support from Ebedi International Writers Residency, Harvard University, Hutchins Centre for African and African American Research, Oregon Institute for Creative Research, and the HE-Artist Protection Fund. Winner of the 2017 Brunel International African Poetry Prize and an alumnus of the lowa Writers’ Workshop, he currently lives in Ames where he is a postdoctoral Research Associate at lowa State University.
Your Crib, My Qibla (Saddiq Dzukogi; University of Nebraska Press; 2021)
Synopsis: Shortlisted for the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry shortlist, the collection interrogates loss, the death of a child, and a father’s pursuit of language able to articulate grief. In these poems, the language of memory functions as a space of mourning, connecting the dead with the world of the living. Culminating in an imagined dialogue between the father and his deceased daughter in the intricate space of the family, Your Crib, My Qibla explores grief, the fleeting nature of healing, and the constant obsession of memory as a language to reach the dead.
Profile: A 2017 finalist of the Brunel International African Poetry Prize, he is the author of Inside the Flower Room, selected by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani for the New Generation African Poets Chapbook series. Dzukogi’s poems have appeared in the Kenyon Review, Prairie Scooner, Gulf Coast, World Literature Today, New Orleans Review, Oxford Poetry, African American Review, Best American Experimental Writing, and elsewhere. He holds a degree in mass communication from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria, and is pursuing a PhD in English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, U.S.
PAST WINNERS of the Nigeria Prize for Literature:
Year Recipient Book Genre
2021 Cheluchi Onyemelukwe The Son of the House Prose
2019 Jude Idada Boom Boom Prose
2018 Soji Cole Embers Drama
2017 Ikeogu Oke The Heresiad Poetry
2016 Abubakar Adam Ibrahim Season of Crimson Blossoms Prose
2015 Children’s literature No Winner.
2014 Sam Ukala Iredi War Drama
2013 Tade Ipadeola The Sahara Testaments Poetry
2012 Chika Unigwe On Black Sisters Street Prose
2011 Adeleke Adeyemi The Missing Clock Children’s literature
2010 Esiaba Irobi Cemetery Road Drama
2009 Poetry No Winner.
2008 Kaine Agary Yellow Yellow Prose
2007 (Shared prize) Mabel Segun Readers’ Theatre: Twelve Plays for Young People Children’s literature
Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo My Cousin Sammy Children’s literature
2006 Ahmed Yerima Hard Ground Drama
2005 (Shared prize) Gabriel Okara The Dreamer: His Vision Poetry
Ezenwa Ohaeto Chants of Minstrel Poetry
2004 Prose No Winner.
