On the Heels of CORA-NLNG Book Party, Best Three Poets Emerge

Yinka Olatunbosun

The suspense came to a momentary halt last Friday as the Advisory Board for The Nigeria Prize for Literature announced Memory and the Call of Water by Su’eddie Vershima  Agema, Nomad  by Romeo Oriogun, and Your Crib, My Qibla by Saddiq Dzukogi as finalists for the 2022 edition of The Nigeria Prize for Literature. Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, the chair of the Advisory Board, announced the shortlist in a live broadcast on the Prize’s social media channels. The top three, drawn out of a longlist of 11 at the recent book party represent the best of the 287 books which were entered for this year’s competition, which is focused on Poetry.

According to the Board, Memory and the Call of Water is a collection that consistently uses memory to reflect on life and destiny through the metaphor of water, Nomad has a fresh language and a nostalgic engagement with the themes of exile and displacement, while Your Crib, My Qibla translates tragedy into lyrical poetry with pathos and effortless imagery.

For weeks, long after the drums stopped, bookworms still remember the mood of the select poets—11 of them on the longlist for this year’s edition of the Nigeria Prize for Literature. The party, which was preceded by a cultural dance performance, featured a book reading session with the poets.

Jahman Anikulapo, the compere for the annual literary feast introduced the Secretary General or Committee for Relevant Art (CORA), Toyin Akinosho who gave the welcome address at the event held at the MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos.

In his remarks, Akinosho noted that CORA has played a complementary role to the NLNG in its contribution to improving Nigerian literary space. This was as Andy Odeh, the General Manager, External Relations and Sustainable Development for Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG), extolled the prizes as a demonstration of the organisation’s commitment to building a better Nigeria.

The reading session was moderated by Kola Tunbosun, a foremost linguist, writer, scholar and cultural activist. The only female poet on the longlist this year, Iquo Diana-Abasi, who read from her collection, titled Coming Undone as Stitches Tighten, later explained:

“The poems were not written for a particular purpose. It was while I was collecting the poems that I started to see the cohesion to them. They document and pay homage to the situation in Nigeria in the last seven years. The first part of the collection called the staccato verses talk about every day and political issues in Nigeria, as well as love.” For her, poetry is an escapism of sorts from the madness of the world. Known for her performance poetry and thoughts deeply entrenched in cultural ethos, Diana-Abasi’s comfort zone is poetry even though her creativity has been expressed in other forms such as screenwriting and prose.

Reading from his collection, Memory and the Call of Waters?, the award-winning writer and poet, Su’eddie Vershima Agema, revealed the influences behind the poems. “I am bothered about what happens at the river,” he explained. “I created some reflections and recollections based on these waters and they ended up coming together in their own way. Also, I am inspired by my contemporaries. It is frustrating being a Nigerian sometimes and we always find ways to let go of the steam.”

Said Obari Gomba, an honorary fellow in writing at the University of Iowa (USA) whose collection, titled The Lilt of The Rebel had won the 2022 PAWA Prize for African Poetry said: “I wanted to do poems that had nothing to do with politics. But towards the end of the collection, I guess I started to get angry over a number of things. I couldn’t escape the anger so I added two new sections: one on my reflection on Nigeria’s situation and one of global import. Still, there are poems on morality, faith and divinity, poems on resistance and they are all lyrically poems. My language is accessible, almost chatty. I hope it draws people to reading poetry.”

Raji Raji, a one-time Association of Nigerian Authors president, held the audience spell-bound with his distinct voice and dramatic pacing as he read from his collection, titled Wanderer Cantos. This collection is his seventh.

“My sixth collection was published in 2013,” he told the audience. That’s a long time ago. Between then and the time I published the seventh one, there has been a lot of wandering on my part.”

For the author of Yawns and Belches, Joe Ushie, this would not be the first time he would be making an honours’ list in a poetry competition. In 2017, he was a finalist at the Brunel International African Poetry Prize. The unassuming poet addresses failure in leadership with a stylistic signature that is reminiscent of Niyi Osundare, Susan Kiguli and Eaman Grennan.

“My attitude to writing has been consistent,” he said. “My last poem is a short one titled ‘isms.’ The question is what it means to be human. We are divided into two in terms of those who belch because they have eaten to their fill and those who are yawning because they have nothing to eat. That is my division of society. When you look at my collection, it reflects this dichotomy. Nigerian society is so clearly divided between those who are eating and those who are not.”

Romeo Oriogun who currently lives in Ames as a postdoctoral Research Associate at Iowa State University, USA, raised the question of identity in his collection, titled Nomad. “When I left Nigeria in 2018 and travelled around some countries, I was reflecting on journeys through history. History is very personal. My poems interrogate history, identity and my experience in the US, especially on what it means to survive as a Nigerian in the world.”

Saddiq Dzukogi, a professor of English and the current Vice-Dean, Post-graduate School, University of Uyo interrogates grief in his deeply personal collection, titled Your Crib, My Qibla.

“Writing the book wasn’t about making a great gesture to the arts. I had just lost my daughter. My book is a manifestation of that loss and I am a dad trying to understand that grief.”

Segun Adekoya, the author of Ife Testament, teaches oral and written literature at the Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. His collection bears witness to a broad spectrum of disquieting human experience and the paradox of nature.

As for the pioneer literary editor of Sunday Sun, James Eze, poetry is a purgation of emotion. His collection, Dispossessed captures three kaleidoscopic stages namely: innocence, transgression and atonement.

Meanwhile, the award-winning poet, Chijioke Amu-Nnadi made the collection The Love Canticles as a blend of metaphors, imageries rendered in fresh language while Ogaga Ifowodo taps largely from his childhood experiences to deliver the collection Augusta’s Poodle. He has previously published four collections: Homeland and Other Poems in 1998 which won the 1993 Association of the Nigerian Authors poetry prize among others.

The judges will decide on the outcome, which will be announced by the Advisory Board on 14th October 2022 as well as the verdict on the 2022 edition of The Nigeria Prize for Literary Criticism. The panel of judges include 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. 

Other judges are Toyin Adewale-Gabriel and Dike Chukwumerije. Adewale-Gabriel is a poet and fiction writer. Dike Chukwumerije is a spoken word and performance poet, and an award-winning author.

The Advisory Board also announced the appointment of Professor Susan Nalugwa Kiguli as the International Consultant for this year’s Prize.  She is a Ugandan poet and literary scholar. Other members of the Advisory Board are Professor Olu Obafemi and Professor Ahmed Yerima.