With Unmatched Grit, Obari Gomba Won It!

A serial participation in the contest for the much-coveted and winner-take-all NLNG-sponsored literary prize eventually yielded the desired result for Obari Gomba. Yinka Olatunbosun writes 

For Obari Gomba, giving up even after several attempts at winning the Nigerian Prize for Literature wasn’t an option. If anything, he said that he often looked forward to every edition of the annual competition, which, revolving around the four literary genres—prose fiction, poetry, drama, and children’s literature—was instituted in 2004. “I am always very excited to compete for the Nigerian Prize for Literature,” the associate dean of humanities at the University of Port Harcourt said. 

“If I have the capacity to compete every year, I think I will. It would have been a shame if the book had not come out in time for the Nigerian Prize for Literature. I wouldn’t have been able to come this far.”

Perhaps his being conscious that competing for a coveted prize requires cautious optimism helped. Hence, it wasn’t until his five nominations for the coveted $100,000 prize that he won at this year’s edition of the prestigious literary award.

The news of his victory travelled far and wide, but it might not have surprised the majority of literati who have watched with keen interest over the years as the prize eluded the writer, for sheer grit—puns intended since that was the title of his winning entry—won it for him.

The poet and playwright, who teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Port Harcourt, emerged from 145 entries—11 on the long list and later a shortlist of three—to finally clinch the prize at the ceremonial end of the suspense that accompanies the final moment of revelation. Before the life-changing announcement at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos on Friday, October 13, the anticipation among the members of the literary community was palpable.

No doubt, the other playwrights, Abideen Abolaji Ojomu, who wrote Ojuelegba Crossroads, and Henry Akubuiro, the playwright for Yamtarawala: The Warrior King, must have held their breaths, bracing for the announcement.

With his victory, which comes after five attempts at the prize across three longlists and two shortlists, the 46-year-old takes home the $100,000 grand prize in the winner-take-it-all contest for his drama titled Grit.

Indeed, Gomba’s win is a homage to grit. Although the NLNG-sponsored prize had eluded him for years, he had won other notable literary prizes with his previous works. Such works include his piece Thunder Protocol, which won the ANA Poetry Prize in 2016. Guerrilla Post, which won the ANA Drama Prize in 2018, was on the shortlist for the Nigerian Prize for Literature in the same year. Another work titled For Every Homeland won the ANA Poetry Prize in 2017 and was on the shortlist for the Nigeria Prize for Literature in 2017.

In 2013, Length of Eyes was on the shortlist for the ANA Poetry Prize and the Nigeria Prize for Literature. Other recognitions include his book Pearls of the Mangrove, which was adopted as a Book of the Festival for the 2011 Garden City Literary Festival and the 2019 Festival Poetry Calabar. He curated an anthology featuring 35 writers from 33 countries, entitled A Piece of Daily Life, for the International Writing Program of the University of Iowa (USA) in 2016.

A versatile writer, Gomba’s impact has been felt in the poetry scene. His poetry has been featured in Re-Markings: A World Assembly of Poets and The Second Genesis: An Anthology of Contemporary World Poetry. Other poems had been published in international journals such as Prosopisia, Sentinel, Maple Tree Literary Supplement, and Eleven Eleven.

Gomba spoke of his winning work. “Grit can be defined in two ways. In one way, you look at grit as courage. In another way, you look at grit as bits of a thing after a thing has been broken into bits. That is what happens in the play. There is the courage to speak truth to power, and there is also the exercise of power in a manner that breaks people.”

The Alesa-Eleme-born scholar studied English at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and obtained master’s and PhD degrees in the discipline at the University of Port Harcourt. 

He said of the Nigerian Prize for Literature: “The significance of the prize is bigger than the statement of a jury. It is the biggest reward in literature in our country and on our continent, and it is something to be proud of. We should all be proud that we have the biggest literary prize on the continent.”

Gomba shared a backstory on this award-winning drama in an online interview.

“It takes a lot of time to publish a play,” he began. “I wanted to write a play about politics, and I had started jotting down things for this play a few years ago. Although it didn’t turn out to be exactly the type of play I wanted to write, I travelled in 2001 with the draft of the work, and I hoped at that time that I would be able to complete the writing. But I couldn’t do it.

“Somehow between 2001 and the moment I started writing the play, I started working on something entirely fresh. What I had conceived as the subject matter and play structure turned out to be a lot more different from what I had produced. I am very excited that I was able to get the play done in good time for the Nigerian prize for literature.

“The decision does not rest on you but on the judges who evaluate your work. What you do is to enter your work in good faith.”

While comparing his initial manuscript with the published work, he noted that his entire plot was reworked and new characters were created to suit the narrative.

“There was a female character that was in the original draft but it is not in this draft. A lot of things have changed.”

The writer had promised to set aside some part of the prize money to promote the award-winning drama, Grit.