287 Poets Compete For $100,000 NLNG’s Literature Prize

Two hundred and eighty-seven poets will compete for this year’s edition of the Nigeria Prize for Literature, sponsored by Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG).

At a ceremony in Lagos yesterday, the entries received were handed over to the panel of judges by the Chair of the Prize’s Advisory Board, Prof. Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo.

The board also handed over 87 entries for the NLNG’s Prize for Literary Criticism.

Prof. Sule Egya will lead the panel of judges for this year’s edition. Other judges are Toyin Adewale-Gabriel and Dike Chukwumerije.

Speaking at the handover, NLNG’s General Manager for External Relations and Sustainable Development, Mr. Andy Odeh, said significant strides had been recorded in the Nigeria Prizes.

He said NLNG recently launched the website – www.thenigeriaprizes.org –a one-point information hub for the prizes.

“This site serves as the submission portal for entries received this year. Our goal with this new gateway is to make information about the prizes, process, governance and winning works and winners available to the public. Based on feedback from stakeholders, this year, the board appointed two judges that are practitioners, not from core academia,” Odeh added.

Prof. Adimora-Ezeigbo advised the judges to take the opportunity to put Literature on a pedestal and make it an enabler of development.

Prof. Egya, the head of panel, is a professor of African Literature and Cultural Studies at Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Niger State. He is a celebrated poet and a novelist, who writes under the pen name E. E. Sule Adewale-Gabriel is a poet and a narrator, who works as a literary critic at The Guardian, Post Express and Daily Times. Chukwumerije is a Nigerian Spoken Word and Performance Poetry artist and an award-winning author.

Other members of the board are Prof. Olu Obafemi and Prof. Ahmed Yerima.