UNESCO NGO moves into Rivers in search of poetry talents in new warfare

A team of non-state actors representing the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Orgainisation (UNESCO) have arrived Rivers State in search of poetry talents needed to begin a revolution against ethnic intolerance. The talents are also to form a group of ambassadors for the promotion of culture through language and restoration of languages facing extinction.

To attract students and pupils, cash prizes of over N300,000 have been lined up in three categories. It is believed that talents in the state would emerge from the hunt to help push for the poetry revival and language revolution.

The group, Youth Orientation for Development (YOD) led by a UNESCO ambassador, Emmanuel Ejiogu, is to comb the rural and urban areas of Rivers State to fish out talents. The group, according to youth and programmes director, Euriel Momah, relies on schools in the state to get to the youth (students and pupils) of the state through its poetry competition.

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To flag off the talent hunt, YOD used the auspices of UNESCO’s World Poetry Day to stage the search in Rivers State for the first time ever. The team, including Tani Ifediora (UNESCO Book Director in Rivers State), and Badom Greatman, Team Lead of Maiden International Group involved in processing students for foreign admissions, disclosed that poetry can be used to communicate powerful messages to bring about changes in the society. It can also be used for entertainment and relaxation.

In his briefing, Ejiogu said the themes of the three categories of the competitions have been designed to reflect the two broad areas of UNESCO focus. “To achieve this, we have put together a poetry competition for schools in Rivers State. The objective is to discover talented creative children and provide them a platform to showcase and develop their talents. This competition which has three categories is going to be unveiled and flagged off in the main event for the day.”

Speaking at the pre-launch briefing at ABEC Group of Schools at Woji, Port Harcourt, Ejiogu said it is part of its goals as a UNESCO NGO to use the World Poetry Day to meet some of UNESCO’s objectives of promoting culture, peace and unity in spite of Nigeria’s divergent inclinations. “Language and culture are intrinsically bounded and as poetry gives opportunity to explore the power of language, we believe that this competition will help our pupils and students appreciate their languages and culture the more thereby helping to preserve our cultures, especially those that now face the danger of extinction.”

The event was facilitated by Maiden International Group, a partner. The ambassador stated thus; “Poetry reaffirms our common humanity by revealing to us that individuals, everywhere in the world, share the same questions and feelings. Poetry is the mainstay of oral tradition and, over centuries, can communicate the innermost values of diverse cultures.

“UNESCO recognizes the unique ability of poetry to capture the creative spirit of the human mind. This is to support linguistic diversity through poetic expression and to offer endangered languages the opportunity to be heard within their communities.

“It is also to encourage a return to the oral tradition of poetry recitals, to promote the teaching of poetry, to restore a dialogue between poetry and the other arts such as dance, music and painting, and to support small publishers and create an attractive image of poetry in the media, so that the art of poetry will no longer be considered an outdated form of art, but one which enables society as a whole to regain and assert its identity.”

Explaining further, Momah said the group encourages students to speak their native languages at home to promote indigenous languages. “We fight for restoration of History as a subject in schools in Nigeria. We want the competition to go to all corners of Rivers State and we seek sponsors to push this campaign further.”

Senior secondary students would write their poems around ‘Unity in Diversity’, the junior students would deal with ‘My Nation, My Pride’, while pupils would devour the topic, ‘We Are Strong as One’.