Boycott the 2007 NLNG Prize - Oha

Sadly, the most prestigious literary award in literature in Nigeria comes from the same group of people who killed one of our own and who have constantly destroyed our environment, our economy and our intellectual framework. The same people, according to Nimmo Bassey, who live on the blood of the Niger Delta people. Unfortunately, our writers have consistently followed this disgraceful development with tight lips. Everybody scrambles for awards. $20,000 USD was enough to buy our souls, our conscience and our rights! Incredible!

Disgracefully, the president of ANA, Dr. Wale Okediran, has often campaigned for support to this literary suicide. I do not wish to insult my elder, but it is necessary that we advice our elders whenever they seem to throw caution to the dogs. Selfishness is one of the major diseases that the present ANA executive is suffering. To them, whatever brings about the 'cash' should be supported, undermining our conscience and our sensibilities. Adding to this is the fact that NLNG award is never organised with the input of ANA, the foremost and the most recognised association of writers in Nigeria. ANA is even hardly recognised in LNG programmes. They moronly follow each LNG program like the proverbial dog eating the crumbs that fell from its master's table. They follow unrecognized, unacknowleged.

To add salt to injury, General Babangida, is invited as the Special Guest in this year's NLNG award. IBB is an enigma, a destroyer of intellect and a habinger of illegalities. To be in LNG Award is to remind us that we are still victims of what we have been fighting to eliminate. IBB and Nigerian literature are two parallels that should never never merge. I call for a boycott of this year's NLNG award by Nigerian writers and to advise that a more credible company than LNG should be called into this literary business. This is the time to shop for a credible partner....

Tony C. Oha

26 September 2007

*Writer's image © Tolu Ogunlesi

New Reads

Excerpts from winning stories in the Bath Spa University (BSU)/BOAC Creative Writing Competition for Nigerian writers – judged by BSU and Caine winner Segun Afolabi.

Winner – Ngozi Ifeyinwa Razak-Soyebi with a novel excerpt, The Whip – which begins in shocking fashion, with a woman mercilessly assaulting her housemaid with a horsewhip. We come to realise that the abuser was herself the victim of vicious assaults at the hands of her own mother.

By now, Mother is a like ticking bomb just waiting to explode. ‘So none of you stole the cake from the fridge, eh?’ she bellows. ‘Would you rather have me think that a ghost wandered into the house while we were all asleep, realized we had some cake left in the fridge and decided to help itself to some?’
Mother often speaks like that, conjuring up images of impossible scenarios into a serious situation. Of course no matter how much you long to laugh, you can’t because you are so intensely aware of the seriousness of the situation and afraid your bowels might give way any time soon.

Read “The Whip”...

~

Runner Up – Adeboyin Thomas with “The World is a Bubble” – a story of love, jealousy and tradition. It is a testament to how good Thomas’ story is, that it did so well in the competition despite the many punctuation opportunities missed.

Arit looked hopefully at the entrance of her tent; she hoped John would come. It was true what the man said about screaming. It could work either way. People could come in and chase the man away or they could draw negative conclusions and the village of Oron did not forgive a ruined reputation easily. At her age and in her position, she couldn’t afford any stain on her reputation. It was bad enough to be encumbered by the shackles of tradition that bound every virgin in the village but for a virgin of the priestly lineage, the weight of the shackles was heavier. Afam followed the movement of her eyes. He wondered jealously who she was expecting.

Read “The World is a Bubble”... (I never did get the relevance of the title, but lovely, lovely story).