On Thursday, April 11, the entries received for the 2019 Nigeria Prize for Literature were handed to the panel of judges. There were a hundred and seventy-three (173) entries in all.

The event took place at the Ebony Hall of Èkó Hotels in Lagos, and was attended by members of the press, as well as the Prize Advisory Board and the members of the NLNG Corporate Communications and Public Affairs division.

The prize this year will focus on Children’s Literature. The number of entries this year show a 59% increase as compared to number of entries received in 2015, when the genre was last up for competition. The company also received 10 entries for the Literary Criticism Prize.

The Literature Prize, which is now in its 15th year, has a cash prize of $100, 000 while the Literary Criticism Prize has a prize money of N1 million (though it has been hinted that this might undergo a significant upgrade this year).

While handing over the entries to the Advisory Board, chaired by Professor Emeritus Ayo Banjo, NLNG’s Manager, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, Andy Odeh, said “as we deliver these 173 books for your vetting, we eagerly look forward to the discovery of yet another literary gem that will open up possibilities for millions of children not only in Nigeria, but all over the Africa.”

“We can confidently say that the Nigeria Prize for Literature has brought some previously unknown Nigerian writers to public attention. Our generation and those after us are becoming familiar with not just legends like Wọlé Ṣóyínká, Chinua Achebe, Gabriel Okara, Elechi Amadi, and Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, Mabel Sẹ́gun and other writers of longstanding acclaim that, perhaps, some of us had the opportunity of reading as children, but also a new cadre of writers like Kaine Agary, Adélékè Adéyẹmí, Tádé Ìpàdéọlá, Ikeogu Oke, Sọjí Cole and others.”

During the handover, Chairman of the Advisory Board, Professor Ayọ̀ Bánjọ recalled it was exactly 15 years after the first handover event was held.  He stated that at the start of this year’s cycle, the board was a bit jittery over the prize not being awarded in 2015 and writers being discouraged to send in their entries.

“When the call for entries was made, entries trickled in at the beginning but toward the deadline, it picked up and crossed the 100 mark. Professor Bánjọ said further that the board is hopeful that the numeric strength of the entries will be matched by strength in quality of the submissions,” he added”

He commended NLNG for having the vision to create the literature prize and The Nigeria Prize for Science, saying “the prizes have raised the creativity in the country, whether you are writing poetry or trying to solve the problem of electricity in the country.” He remarked further that NLNG has done its share of work in promoting innovation and creativity in the society, adding that “the company is contributing to the emergence of original thinkers and highly creative people in the society. It has managed to do that in the space of 15 years.”

The entries were immediately handed over to the panel of judges led by Professor Obododinma Oha who is a professor of Cultural Semiotics and Stylistics in the Department of English, University of Ìbàdàn with great interest in technology and language.

Other members of the panel include Professor Asabe Usman Kabir and Dr. Patrick Okolo. Professor Kabir is a professor of Oral and African Literature at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto. Dr. Oloko, a Senior lecturer at the University of Lagos Nigeria, specialises in African postcolonial literature, gender and cultural studies. 

The winners of the Literature and Literary Criticism prizes will be announced at an award ceremony in October 2019, to commemorate the anniversary of the first LNG export from the NLNG’s Plant on October 9, 1999. 

Members of the Advisory Board for the Literature Prize, besides Professor Bánjọ, two-time Vice-Chancellor of Nigeria’s premier university, University of Ìbàdàn, are Prof. Jerry Agada, former Minister of State for Education, former President of the Association of Nigerian Authors, and Professor Emeritus Ben Elugbe, former President of the Nigerian Academy of Letters and president of the West-African Linguistic Society (2004-2013).

One other piece of news that came out of the press conference is the commitment by NLNG, through Mr. Andy Odeh, its Manager, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, to provide copies of the three shortlisted books to any reviewer/journalist interested in reading and reviewing them for the public while the judging process is going on. “But with a caveat,” Professor Ben Elugbe added, “that this is not an endorsement by the NLNG of the views of the reviewer on the works or on their viability for the prize.”