Bernard Nweke, Chinaza James, and Russel Ndoboke were announced as the top winners at the 2024 Zaccheus Onumba Dibiaezue Memorial Library (ZODML) Poetry Prize Award, a competition organised for undergraduates in Nigeria’s public universities.
Nweke, a student of Nnamdi Azikiwe University had his poem announced as the overall best from the selected best 10 poems sent in by students from across Nigerian public universities at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) recently.
According to the organisers a total of 1445 entries were received for the 2024 competition from 35 states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
Nweke was rewarded with a cash prize of N250,000, and Chinaza James, the first runner-up got the sum of N150,00, while Russel Ndoboke, the second runner-up received N100,000.
The sum of N50,000 each was given to the two honourable winners.
Ifeoma Esiri, the coordinator of ZODML speaking with journalists said that poetry competitions are essential to improving students’ productivity and helping them to shun crimes and cultism in schools.
Esiri reiterated that the contest which was established to empower students to become more creative and help them imbibe reading culture recorded an impressive 1,445 submissions against 791 witnessed in 2023, which amounts to 82 percent increase.
She said that the annual poetry contest is centred on getting young Nigerians to imbibe the reading culture and become creative.
“This year we chose “Hopefulness” as the theme for the contest because, in these challenging times, we wanted to encourage an exploration of the strength, optimism, resilience, and perseverance of the human spirit.
“The long-listed poems show that poetry can inspire and uplift, reminding us of our capacity to overcome adversity and find the rainbows after the storm,” she said.
Esiri clarified that the ZODML Poetry Award is part of the organisation’s commitment to nurture and inspire youngsters to become innovative and shun vices common with their demographic.
“This challenge will improve their competence and confidence, and awaken creative thinking in them,” she said.
The organisers emphasised the poetry contest was only open to Nigerian students in public tertiary institutions in Nigeria because of the need to support indigent students, and most students in private universities are from rich homes.
“We feel that private universities have a lot of backup and a lot of options which is not the case in public universities and so that’s why we limited the contest to public universities,” they said.
She further explained that the winners emerged through an independent panel of judges which comprised Tade Ipadeola, a multiple award-winning author, whose book “The Sahara Testaments” won the prestigious Nigeria Prize for Literature in 2013 is the chair of the panel.
Others are Aduke Gomez, a poet and author of children’s stories; and Chioma Ilozumba, an award-winning playwright and author.
According to Esiri, “The surged number of entries witnessed in the 2024 ZODML poetry competition depicts that students are embracing poetry as a productive means and a way out of vices.
“This year, we had 1445 submissions from 120 tertiary institutions across 35 states plus the FCT, it’s only in Zamfara State that we didn’t receive entries.”
Speaking on the choice of the theme, then she quoted Ipadeola who said, “That a student from our public university system can produce such finely textured work, replete with evocative imagery and sublime music is indeed a reason for hope in our larger society”,
Esiri maintained that Nigerians must not give up in despair, despite the challenges.
“Let’s look at what tomorrow can give us; tomorrow is pregnant, let’s see what it is going to deliver. Let’s be positive!” she said.
The ZODML University Poetry Challenge is open to students in public tertiary institutions in Nigeria, and entries must come from poets only.
ZODML is a charity organisation in Lagos working in the education sector. Since its inception in 2000, it has established 54 libraries, 34 in local government primary schools in Lagos and Anambra States, 19 libraries in prisons across Nigeria, and one community library at 196 Awolowo Road, Ikoyi.
Much of the work ZODML is centred on getting young Nigerians to imbibe reading and other intellectual pursuits.
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