A Literary Prize For Nigerian Students

Clark and Soyinka

Nigerian Literature got a strategic intervention on Friday, when Globacom unveiled a prize for undergraduates of Nigerian universities at a programme tagged ‘An Evening with Wole Soyinka’, Globacom unveils a literary prize for Nigerian undergraduates. The annual prize will give N1.5m to the winner of the three categories coming in prose, drama and poetry. Although the competition will give the judges an added challenge of having to ascertain that entries would truly and wholly have been produced by the students who submit them, the competition is capable of re-engineering the country’s literary heritage.

The reason is that there have been concerns over the quality of works by younger writers, just as many of them appear to be attracted more to music than to literary endeavours.

The Punch report continues:

The Glo Literature Prize for Undergraduate Students is thus capable of rekindling the interest of young people in writing.

That is why it was not surprising that many writers, publishers, book lovers and other stakeholders gathered at the Eko Hotel and Suites where the prize was inaugurated amid drama, music, readings and goodwill messages.

Ebenezer Kolawole, Gloworld Coordinator, who unveiled the prize on behalf of the Board and Management of the company, explained that it was meant to promote literary studies among youths, and stimulate creativity and keen competition in the subject in tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

He said that the prize’s panel was made up of renowned scholars to ensure a credible selection and award process.

But Glo, too, was very smart in the way it introduced the prize. It presented it as part of the programmes of ‘An Evening with Wole Soyinka’, an encounter with the Nobel laureate, who had similarly been hosted by Globacom in 2003, when the telecoms company was starting business in Nigeria.

Unlike the maiden edition that mostly featured reading and performances – including the one by Lagbaja – the Friday’s feast was also significant in the sense that it presented two major generations of Nigerian writers in conversation.

Award-winning E. C. Osondu, Sefi Atta and Tope Folarin, all younger writers in the Diaspora, engaged the celebrated dramatist, digging into his ideology and experiences behind some of his writings. Of course, other stakeholders, including Dr. Adeyemi Daramola, who, alongside other lecturers such as Dr. Chimdi Maduagwu, led a group of students of the University of Lagos to the event, also sought illumination on some of Soyinka’s works.

While musicians like Ego, Bez, D’Banj and Tunji Oyelana were in action, in a documentary that traces hunter Soyinka to an expedition in his Ijegba, Abeokuta, Ogun State forest, his acolytes such as Jimi Solanke, Odia Ofeimum, Francesca Emmanuel and Kunle Ajibade, extolled his contributions to the development of literature and humanity in general.

For Atta, author of Everything Good will Come, it was a night to know Soyinka’s perspective on feminism. Osondu asked a question on writers and politics, while Folarin sought to know if Soyinka had deliberately aimed at becoming Africa’s mouthpiece/pen soldier at the beginning of his writing career.

On the panel of judges are veteran writers and critics, Professors Femi Osofisan, Akachi Ezeigbo, Umar Brutai and Olu Obafemi, with award-winning writer and founder of the Lumina Foundation, Promise Ogochukwu, as its secretary.

On the question of feminism, Soyinka said he had nothing against whoever professed to be one – including lesbians – inasmuch as they were exercising their freedom without injuring the right of others.

“I don’t have an ambassadorial temperament to say I want to represent Nigeria,” he said in response to the question of how he rose to become a national brand. According to him, that a writer eventually finds himself in a position where he enhances his country’s reputation is a bonus.

Concerning Osondu’s poser on the possibility of being a writer without being political, Soyinka said there was nothing bad if one felt strongly about issues of justice, welfare, feminism and others.

He, however, warned that non-political poems and other genres could also be very good, adding that part of the problems was that some people got trapped in slogans.

He said, “My temperament is a combatant one. It shows in my literature. But one crime totally deplorable is for one to force one’s creative tendency in one direction.”

Of course, it was also an auspicious occasion for the Nobel laureate to throw jabs at former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in response to the latter’s description of him as a good hunter but a political illiterate, as recorded in Obasanjo’s new book, My Watch.

Saying the former president was a liar, Soyinka said, “When an economic illiterate calls someone a political illiterate, no problem at all.”

Soyinka told the audience to expect more on Obasanjo in his next book, Intervention’ series.

Also at the event anchored by seasoned actor, Richard Mofe-Damijo, were Prof. J. P. Clark and his wife, Prof. Ebun Clark; General Alani Akinrinade (rtd), Mrs. Francesca Emmanuel, Prof. Duro Oni, Chief Ogunbiyi and Mr. Ofeimun.

So also were Globacom officials and friends from different walks of life.