NIGERIAN STUDENTS POETRY PRIZE (NSPP) 2021 WINNERS ANNOUNCED
- Adeyemi, Titus, Udeoba win NSPP 2021
- University of Uyo emerges as top-performing school
- Oluwasegun Oluseyi Adesina, Ubeke Mark Eche clinch consolation prizes
Poets in Nigeria (PIN) has announced Samuel A. Adeyemi, Divine Inyang Titus and Ebubechukwu Ifenna Udeoba as winners for the sixth edition of the Nigerian Students Poetry Prize (NSPP) at an awards ceremony which held earlier today at the University of Ibadan.
Closing to submissions on 15th of March, 2021, the NSPP received 247 poems from students representing 64 tertiary institutions including universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, schools of nursing and seminary schools.
Adeyemi, a 300-level student of English and Literary Studies, Federal University, Lokoja clinched the first prize with his poem titled “Portrait of Water” while Titus, a 500-level student of Fisheries & Aquatic Environmental Management, University of Uyo came 2nd with his poem titled “A Naira Shy of Rebirth”. “Stories in the Wind” authored by Udeoba, a 300-level Law Student, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Uli won the 3rd prize.
A 5-man judging panel, including Prof. Amanze Akpuda (Professor of Literature and History of Ideas, Department of English Language and Literature, Abia State University, Uturu), Dr. Santosh Bakaya (poet, novelist and winner of the International Reuel Award), Dr. Soji Cole (Winner of the Nigeria Prize for Literature, 2018), Kukogho Iruesiri Samson (Winner of the GTB Dusty Manuscript Prize) and Shola Phebian Oguntoyinbo (Performance Poet and Creative Director) reviewed the entries to select the top 81 poems for inclusion in the NSPP 2021 anthology.
“The Initiators of the Nigerian Students Poetry Prize should be commended for their vision and sustenance of same in the past six years. They have through this remarkable Platform encouraged the hunger for literary creativity among our students. Notwithstanding that many of the contestants might be new to the business of composing Poems, some of the contestants demonstrate a mastery that is often amazing. Quite evocative of the organizations that promoted poetry contests in the 1950s and 1960s, there is no doubt that the NSPP paradigm will be a big boost to Nigerian students interested in becoming Poets,” remarked Prof. Akpuda.
University of Uyo, which had the highest number of selected entrants on the longlist and a second-place representative, emerged as the top-performing school.
The prize winners have been awarded a total cash prize of N350,000 while the consolation prize winners – Oluwasegun Oluseyi Adesina (Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife) and Ubeke Mark Eche (Federal University, Wukari)– will share a total sum of N50,000.
The NSPP was instituted in 2016 to stimulate literary creativity among Nigerian students. Noah Oladele (Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife), Bakre Fadil Adedamola (University of Ibadan), Godstime Iberiyenari Tamunofiri (Niger Delta University), Ogugua Micah Okoye (Enugu State University of Science and Technology) and Okwubi Godwin Adah won the 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 editions of the Prize respectively.
Kolade Olanrewaju Freedom
Moderator, NSPP 2021