Agema, Oriogun and Dzukogi

 By Nehru Odeh

Three poets have been shortlisted for the 2022 Nigeria Prize for Literature. They are Su’eddie Vershima Agema for Memory and the Call of Water, Romeo Oriogun for Nomad and Saddiq Dzukogi for Your Crib, My Qibla. The prestigious literature prize which is sponsored by Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) has a cash award of $100,000.

Announcing the three finalists in a live broadcast on the Prize’s social media channels  on Friday 26 August, 2022, the Chair of the Advisory Board, Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, said the books were selected out of a longlist of 11 recently announced by the Board. A total of 287 books were entered for the 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. she said, “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”.

The winner of the prize will be announced by the Advisory Board on 14 October, 2022. The Board will also announce the winner of 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.

Sule Egya leads the panel of judges. A professor of African Literature and Cultural Studies at Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State, Mr Egya is a renowned poet and novelist who writes under the pen name E. E. Sule.

He has written over 100 scholarly articles and literary essays. His first novel, Sterile Sky, won the 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize for the Africa Region. His poetry volumes include What the Sea Told Me, which won the 2009 ANA/Gabriel Okara Prize.

The Nigeria Prize for Literature, sponsored by Nigeria LNG to promote and reward excellence in writing, rotates yearly amongst four literary categories of prose fiction, poetry, drama and children’s literature.

Author and professor of Law at Babcock University, Ilishan Remo, Ogun State, Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia, won the 2021 prize with her novel, Son of the House.