20 Years After: The Prize That Changed Nigerian Literature
BEFORE 2004, Nigerian writers depended on endorsement from Europe and America such as Booker, Commonwealth, Caine and Noma et al. The Caine Prize, which started in 2000, had significant push for young writers who were in dire need of how to assess their writing skills.
Helon Habila was the first Nigerian writer to win the prize.
However, the most recognisable awards for literature were the Association of Nigerian Authors ( ANA) sponsored prizes such as ANA/ Atiku Abubakar Prize for Children Literature, ANA/ NDDC Drama Prize ( In honour of J. P. Clark), ANA/ NDDC Prize ( In honour of Gabriel Okara), ANA/ NDDC Prose Prize ( In memory of Ken Saro- Wiwa), ANA/ Spectrum Prize, ANA/ Cadbury Prize, ANA/ NDDC Flora Nwapa Prize for Women Writing and ANA Literary Journalist. They were open to both young and old Nigerian writers at home and abroad. However, the cash prizes were very low.
In 2003, the Board of Directors of Nigeria LNG Limited approved the proposal by the company’s External Relations Division for reputable prizes for science and literature for Nigerian.
Following this, 14 eggheads in arts and sciences were selected to brainstorm and recommend the process for administering the biggest and most prestigious prizes in Africa and one of the biggest in the world.
They recommended a Committee for the administration of each of the Prizes and also a collaboration with The Nigerian Academy of Sciences for Science ( NAS) and Association of Nigerian Authors ( ANA) in the Administration of the prizes. The committee in turn appointed a five- member panel of judges to adjudicate on the entries.
For the Nigeria Prize for Science, members include very distinguished Professors like Emeritus Prof Umaru Shehu; Prof Olaniyan Taylor, Prof Gabriel Ogunmola, Prof Anya O Anya, Prof Mosto Onuora, Prof Njida Gadzama, Prof Olabopo Osuntokun, among others.
For the Nigeria Prize for Literature, literary icons like Emeritus Prof Ayo Banjo, Prof Dan Izavbaye, Charles Nnolim, Pheabean Ogundipe, Theo Vincent, Abubakar Rasheed, Tanimu Abubakar, Zaynab Alkali among others.
In 2010, after a series of stakeholders’ forum, there was a reform of the administrative process of the prize where the committees were also replaced with members of the Advisory Board.
The Advisory Board for Science was made up of an appointee of NLNG as Chairman while the rest were of the Nigerian Academy of Sciences. Similarly, an Advisory Board replaced the Literature committee of Nigeria Prize for Literature with the appointed Chairman and a representative each of The Nigerian Academy of Letters and The Association of Nigerian Authors.
And to all intent and purpose, 2004 marked the dawn of an era, as the very lucrative, high profile Nigeria Prize for Literature was established in the country by Nigeria LNG ( NLNG) Limited.
The current Advisory Board for Literature is headed by Akachi Adimora- Ezeigbo, an emeritus professor of English at the University of Lagos and a 2007 The Nigeria Prize for Literature joint- winner in the Children’s Literature category.
Other members are Prof. Olu Obafemi and Prof. Ahmed Yerima. Prof. Obafemi is a playwright, poet and Professor of English at the University of Ilorin. Prof. Yerima is a professor of Theatre and Performing Arts at the Redeemer’s University. He is also a Laurette of The Nigeria Prize for Literature in the Drama category ( 2006).
The implementation of the Prize is the responsibility of the Advisory Board, supported by the secretariat provided by NLNG.
“Prior to inauguration of the Prize, the quality of writing, publishing, news features and articles in newspapers and magazines, and the quality of film production on television and radio did not paint a picture of excellence the industry was previously known for,” the organisers of the prize said .
“It, therefore, became evident to us at Nigeria LNG that a well- run literary prize with transparent adjudication process, administered by respected academics, writers and lovers of literature, and with respectable monetary reward will spur creativity and contribute to the improvement of the quality of writing, editing and publishing in Nigeria. The rest, as they say, is history.”
The Chairperson of the prize’s Advisory Board, Professor Aka chi Adimora Ezeigbo, stated that excellence “is the watchword of the prize.”
Only entries published in the year of the competition or in the three years before then shall be considered.
The big story in 2004 was apparently a winner- takes- all cash prize worth $ 20,000. It was also reserved for Nigerian writers at home. Such a cash prize for literary endeavours was hitherto unheard of in this country. However, criticism of this prize came from Nigerian writers in the diaspora who considered it, ‘ Ghetto Prize’.
Undaunted, the Nigeria LNG, stuck to its guns. Home- based Nigerian writers, it had reasoned, were making strenuous efforts to produce creative masterpieces and hence deserved to be reasonably encouraged.
No sooner had the organisers shrugged off the criticisms than they courted further controversies through the non- award of the prize in its inaugural year. The prize – designed to rotate yearly among four literary genres of prose fiction, poetry, drama and children’s literature – found none of the three shortlisted entries worthy of it. This made many writers to allege that the Nigeria LNG had no plans to award the prize in the first place.
The following year, two veteran writers emerged winners sharing the much- coveted $ 20,000. That year, the late Gabriel Okara, with his poetry collection, The Dreamer: His Vision, shared the prize with the late Ezenwa Ohaeto, whose entry was Chants of Minstrel. The first time the prize would be won by one person turned out to be in 2006, two years after it was inaugurated. This was when Ahmed Yerima, with his play Hard Ground , was adjudged the overall winner.
By this time, the cash value had been upped to $ 30,000. This gesture seemed to have finally laid the ghost of the no- winner to rest, for Yerima did not have to share the prize
with anyone.
Thus, the prize gradually began to earn the trust of the local literati. Not even the sharing again of the prize in 2007 – this time between the two female literary titans Mabel Segun for her Readers’ Theatre: Twelve Plays for Young People and Akachi Adimora- Ezeigbo for My Cousin Sammy – could shake the literati’s confidence. There was no doubt: the literary prize had come to stay.
In 2008, the cash value of the prize was upped again to $ 50,000 as the award returned once more to prose fiction. Just like in 2006, the prize produced an overall winner in Kaine Agary, whose entry Yellow Yellow was adjudged the best.
In 2009, the painful memories of the nowinner year, 2004, returned, as none of the arguably Nigeria’s best poets, who had stepped forward for the prize, were deemed worthy of it.
But, thanks to a deft move by the organisers, the prize began to earn the trust of the Nigerian writers in the diaspora, to whom the door was open for the first time in 2010. Thus, the renowned Nigerian playwright in the diaspora, Esiaba Irobi, became the prize’s first- ever posthumous winner with his play, The Cemetery Road.
Then, the following year, when the spotlight shifted to children’s literature, the prize’s value was increased to its present $ 100,000. That year, Adeleke Adeyemi – aka Mai Nasara – won the prize with his entry, The Missing Clock.
The diaspora writers consolidated their gains in 2012 when Belgium- based Chika Unigwe emerged the overall winner with her entry, On Black Sisters’ Street.
Also, in 2012, The Nigerian Prize for Literary Criticism was added to the stable. With a cash prize of N1,000,000, the prize was to encourage literary critics who write on Nigerian literary works.
Still, after two winners – Tade Ipadeola in 2013 for his poetry collection, The Sahara Testaments, and Sam Ukala for his play, The Iredi War – the no- winner spectre returned in 2015 when it was the turn of the children’s literature genre.
Somehow, the prize had moved into its fourth cycle without controversies. Winners like Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s Season of Crimson Blossoms got the prize in 2016. In 2017, it was the late Ikeogu Oke’s The Heresiad that won. Soji Cole’s Ember won in 2018.
Jude Idada won the Prize in 2019 with Boom Boom. In 2021, after a year break owing to the COVID- 19 pandemic, Cheluchi Onyemelukwe- Onuobia’s The Son of The House went home with $ 100,000 at stake. For 2022, Romeo Oriogun won with Nomad Poetry and Obari Gomba’s Grit got the prize for drama in 2023.
As entries for 2024, which focuses on Children’s Literature, closes on April 2, the thought is, how the Prize has transformed literature in Nigeria. It may not be the ultimate in the world, depending on your prejudices, but it remains the most influential award in the continent.
The literary prize, which is currently the biggest in Africa and among the world’s most valued, has definitely turned around the values of the Nigerian literary scene.
Not only has the prize been complemented by the $ 10,000 Literary Criticism Prize, its winners have earned their place in Nigeria’s literary hall of fame.
Reading tours, organised especially for recent winners, have helped engrave their names in the collective consciousness.
The prize has risen in its symbolic value from its initial focus on revamping the quality of publishing in the country to become arguably the most powerful cultural institution for validating a Nigerian/ African view on artistic excellence.
The significance of what the NLNG has done has inspired some individuals and organisations to start their own prizes such as Beeta Playwriting Competition and Quramo Writers’ Prize.
Even more crucial, the prize has risen in its symbolic value from its initial focus on revamping the quality of publishing in the country to become arguably the most powerful cultural institution for validating a Nigerian/ African view on artistic excellence.
Obari Gomba, an Associate Dean of Humanities at the University of Port Harcourt where he teaches Literature and Creative Writing, who won the Prize in 2023, said, “the significance of the Nigerian Prize for Literature is bigger than the verdict of the jury.”
He continued, “this is the best support system that the literary space in Nigeria has and it is the most rewarding. It is a wonderful thing that Nigerian LNG has sustained it over the years. I pray that we can look back 100 years from now and say that this prize has been kept alive. The second thing is that every year you get a number of writers who are brought to public attention regardless of what their previous popularity or disabilities have been. It is not just the writers, but their books too.”
Gomba said: “There is a story this tells because if you look at the way things have been configured over the years, you will see that the writers that have emerged cut across generations. It is exciting to tell people that the creative spirit in Nigeria is not tied to a particular age bracket; you can look at every generation and tell that Nigerians are producing works of excellence.”