The Words Finesse

The Advisory Board for The Nigeria Prize for Literature has approved and selected a final shortlist of three books out of the longlist of 11 released in July 2018.

The shortlisted drama books, according to the statement issued in Lagos by Manager, Communications and Public Affairs of the prize sponsor, Nigeria LNG Limited, Andy Odeh, on Sunday, 9th of September, 2018, include Embers by Soji Cole, Death and The King’s Grey Hair by Denja Abdullahi and The Rally by Akanji Nasiru.

"Embers, by Soji Cole, focuses on life in one of the Internally Displaced People’s (IDP) Camps in Northern Nigeria. The characters gave testimonies of their ugly encounters in Sambisa Forest, as well as their painful discovery of life in the IDP Camp. A member of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ibadan, Soji Cole teaches undergraduates play writing at the Department of Theatre Arts.

"In Death and The King’s Grey Hair, Denja Abdullahi, a literary essayist and National President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), confronts the issue of perpetuation in power, where rulers, like the king in this drama, employ all sorts of devices to cling on to power, long after they have overstayed their welcome.

"Akanji Nasiru’s The Rally, addresses the contemporary political theme of youth versus age. Nasiru is a professor of Performing Arts, Bowen University, Iwo, Osun State." The statement said.

The panel of Judges for the Prize, chaired by Professor Mathew Umukoro of Theatre Arts at the University of Ibadan, and which have a professor of Theatre and Performing Arts and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the Ahmadu Bello University, (ABU), Zaria Proffessor Mohammed Inuwa Umar - Buratai; as well as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Theatre and Film Studies at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ngozi Udengwu as members, expressed their delight at the high standard of writing evident in the entries for the competition this year.

Prof. Umukoro said, "all three plays have high literary qualities of effective dialogue, good dramaturgical structure, skilful handling of suspense, and credible characterisation, which have seen them through to this stage of the competition."

The International Consultant to the Advisory Board for this year’s prize is Jonathan Haynes, a Professor of English at Long Island University in Brooklyn, who was the founding Director of the West African Center of the Friends World Program (now LIU Global) in Kumasi, Ghana in 2001-2002. He taught at the American University in Cairo (Egypt), Tufts University, Albion College, Bennington College, and Columbia University, and spent three years in Nigeria as a Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ahmadu Bello University, and University of Ibadan. His specialty is African studies; African film, video, and literature; colonialism and post colonialism; and English Renaissance literature. For two decades, he has been closely following the growth of the Nigerian film industry, Nollywood.

The other member of the Advisory Board, besides Professor Emeritus Ayo Banjo, are Professor Jerry Agada, former Minister of State for Education, former President of the Association of Nigerian Authors, and Professor Emeritus, Ben Elugbe, former President of the Nigerian Academy of Letters and President of the West-African Linguistic Society (2004-2013).

Prof. Ayo Banjo assured that his board will retain the high literary standards the prize has already attained ensuring that it remains the most prestigious literary prize in Africa.

The Nigeria Prize for Literature has, since 2004, rewarded eminent writers such as Gabriel Okara (co-winner, 2004, poetry), Professor Ezenwa Ohaeto (co-winner, 2004, poetry) for The Dreamer, His Vision; Ahmed Yerima (2005, drama) for his play, Hard Ground; Mabel Segun (co-winner, 2007, children’s literature) for her collection of short plays Reader’s Theatre; Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo (co-winner, 2007, children’s literature) for her book, My Cousin Sammy; Kaine Agary (2008, prose) for her book Yellow Yellow; Esiaba Irobi (2010, drama) who clinched the prize posthumously with his book Cemetery Road; Adeleke Adeyemi (2011, children’s literature) with his book The Missing Clock; Chika Unigwe (2012, prose), with her novel, On Black Sisters Street; Tade Ipadeola (2013, poetry) with his collection of poems, The Sahara Testaments, Professor Sam Ukala (2014, drama) with his play, Iredi War; Seasons of Crimson Blossom, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim (2016, prose); and The Heresiad, Ikeogu Oke (2017, poetry).

The Nigeria Prize for Literature rotates yearly amongst four literary genres: prose fiction, poetry, drama and children’s literature. The 2018 prize goes to Drama. The prize has a cash value of USD $100, 000 (One hundred thousand United States Dollars). A total of 89 plays were submitted for the 2018 edition prize. A winner will be announced at a public presentation in October.

Nigeria’s leading e-publisher, OkadaBooks has teamed up with one of the country’s biggest financial institutions, Union Bank of Nigeria, for a writing competition eligible to only undergraduates of the Nigeria's tertiary institutions. 

Entry to the Campus Writing Challenge, worth N960,000 total cash prizes for winners is free and will be judged by two winners of the NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature: Chika Unigwe and Abubakar Adam Ibrahim.

The contest, which is focused on discovering students with raw, bold and creative writing talents as well as providing them with the necessary exposure to hone their craft and become master storytellers, is expecting each entrant to submit only one story based on the adult genre of adventure, romance, and sci-fi, and that's between 3,000 - 5,000 words via Union Bank’s Website.

The submissions which was opened on 27th of August, will be closed on 7th of October, 2018.

The winning entry will receive a cash prize of N500,000, while the first and second runner up entries will receive N200,000 and N100,000, respectively. 

The contest will also reward 4th best and Audience Favourite entries with N50,000 cash prize each, while the best designed short story cover will go home with N60,000 cash prize.

The winning and shortlisted entries to be announced in December this year, will be sent to top publishing houses in Nigeria for a chance for the winning students to ink publishing deal. The entries will in addition be published in the 1st edition of the Collegiate Anthology to be compiled by OkadaBooks.

About the Judges:

Chika Unigwe has published short fiction in several anthologies, journals and magazines, including Wasafiri (University of London), Moving Worlds (University of Leeds. She won the 2003 BBC Short Story Competition and a Commonwealth Short Story Competition award. In 2004, she was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing. She won the 2012 Nigeria Prize for Literature; She sits on the Board of Trustees of pan-African literary initiative Writivism, and set up the Awele Creative Trust in Nigeria to support young writers.

Abubakar Adam Ibrahim debuted a short-story collection The Whispering Trees that was longlisted for the inaugural Etisalat Prize for Literature in 2014, and shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing. Ibrahim has won the BBC African Performance Prize and the ANA Plateau/Amatu Braide Prize for Prose. He is a Gabriel Garcia Marquez Fellow (2013). He won the prestigious NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature with his debut novel, Season of Crimson Blossoms in 2016. He has also won the Michael Elliot Award for Journalism, the BBC African Performance Prize, and the Goethe Instut/Sylt Foundation African Writer’s Residency Award, and has been shortlisted for the Brittle Paper Anniversary Award. 

To enter for the Campus Writing Challenge, click HERE TO ENTER. 

●Muhammad Auwal Ibrahim is a Nigerian poet and playwright. He writes from Gombe state, Nigeria.

A beautiful term has been coined for women- a baby machine. Women have been subjected to discrimination across all ages and it is still waging strong. A woman had her duties outlined for her once she is born. She graduates from a daughter to a wife and then a mother. As a wife she can only be considered as being fulfilled when she performs her duty of procreation and this brings to mind the story of Nnu Ego in Buchi Emecheta's "The Joys of Motherhood", what was expected of her, how she went about her ordeals and how she became a perfect example of a baby machine.

Men have a house but a woman turns it into a home, and as such they are to be celebrated. It is quite erroneous to assume that the only thing a woman is useful for is procreation and men are simply to provide for the family. You only know the value of something only when you have lost it, don’t lose your wife before you realize she is much more than a baby machine because you will be shocked when you find out how tiresome it is to care for those children you dumped on her.

However, men are not the only one guilty of subjugating their spouse, some women are too, because it has been said that people will make of you what you’ve made of yourself. It is not surprising that the moment some women get married, they turn themselves into old women around the house, even though they are still in their mid or late twenties. Perhaps these kind of women are of the opinion that their youthfulness ends the moment they get married and enrolled themselves into the category of old women. Their sole aim in life is then to get pregnant and fulfil their responsibility. As a woman, your youthfulness continues in matrimony, let your husband see traces of the woman he chose to marry out of the many out there.

One of the mistakes women make is to ignore their husband once they become mothers, deliberately turning themselves into a baby machine. Many a husband has complained of being ignored for his child by his wife in the sense that she gives her attention to the child while neglecting the father. This has been a cause of rift in many families, where the husband gets jealous of his own child because his wife has made him feel unwanted. Some women are only concerned with having children because of the belief which has been drummed into them since childhood as being what was expected of them.

Women are not to be regarded as baby machines, not by their parents, themselves nor their husbands. The function of a woman in a home is more than taking care of the house, her husband and children. The belief that has set women apart for discrimination must be rejected and the men should see other importance of their wives apart from procreation while the wife should know how important she is in the house and that her duties is not limited to her children. 

Oppression occurs in different forms and it is hypocritical to blame someone for it when you are practising it as well. A society where discrimination is enthroned will find it impossible to grow. Take care of that helper in your home and those wonderful issues.

● Yetunde Lois Ogunshola is a Nigerian, living in the city of Ilorin. She is a University undergraduate of the prestigious University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria, where she is studying English, with her specialty in Literature. She is an author and has published some stories online.