By Anote Ajeluorou
As the literary community
awaits the final ceremony that would make one its own, Tade Ipadeola, a
millionaire by virtue of winning The Nigerian Prize for Literature 2013 worth
US$100,000 in the poetry category, a notable literary figure, Prof. Remi
Raji-Oyelade, has a word for the prize organisers and sponsors, Nigeria
Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG) company. The professor of English, poet and
President, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), who was also in contention
for the prize last year, has said the prize sponsors could do more to diversity
the prize to the four genres a year instead of just one, as is currently the
case.
For Raji-Oyelade, the foremost gas company,
with multi-billion dollar holdings, has the resources and wherewithal to award
prizes for the four categories - poetry, fiction, drama and children’s
literature – in one year rather than the cyclic thing of one category per year.
He notes, “So, if we have multiple prizes, so much the better. I mean, with the
kind of structures that NLG has now, it can replicate the prize in all the
categories – prize for poetry, prize for prose, prize for drama, prize for
children’s literature. I think that is what LNG can learn from ANA; that LNG
can award the four prizes the same year and not wait for the cyclic thing it
does now. And, it’s very easy for them to do. I’m sure those in the
administration of LNG needs to look at the prize again. I don’t think money is
the problem for LNG”.
Although Raji-Oyelade acknowledges that ANA
doesn’t have a tenth of the resources of LNG, it still awards multiple prizes
each year to various genres of writing, as a way of carrying the entire
literary community along. The fact that ANA members helped the gas company to
fashion out the prize system at inception also convinces Raji-Oyelade it ought
to take a cue from ANA’s award system that rewards all genres of writing the
same year.
According to him, “Among those who actually
structured the prize for LNG were ANA members over 12 years ago. The difference
is the prize money that goes with it. ANA does not award such a lump sum to
just an individual. In fact, ANA does not have that kind of money to give out.
I think that one of the ways there will be improvement is to begin to diversify
so we can have multiple prizes within the same year so we don’t have to wait
for four years in a circle because you can have the best work five years ago
and that writer who refused to enter his work would have lost”.
Although he didn’t eventually win the prize,
he says making the best eleven poets in the country with his work, Sea of My Mind, was a boost and a
vindication that he is still working hard as a poet. His work in 2009 was disqualified
on a year that became notorious for a no-winner contest verdict. Raji-Oyelade
notes, “This work is a vindication of the fact that one is hard at work; it’s
just to prove that writing is an active thing. You don’t just talk it you do
it. And that’s what I have achieved and I feel happy and vindicated about it
all”.
He also acknowledges that there is some kind
of commendable radical change in the prize system in its 10 years of existence
of adding value to Nigerian literature, and points out, “I think that the prize
on its own has turned attention to the importance of writing, and has giving it
some form of direction on how quality writing should be; writing should not
just be a localized matter. Our publications should be able to stand not just against
the test of time but should stand shoulder to shoulder with what is on offer
around the world. There’s a certain form of improvement even in the quality of
the published text, and I think LNG among other institutions should be commended
for remaining steadfast in spite of certain controversies around it, in spite
of arguments for and against The Nigeria Literature Prize. I think when you
persevere as an individual or organization you can only get better. I think
that’s what the prize has done for Nigerian literature”.
Being among those who argued for the
inclusion of foreign-based Nigerian writers in the prize system, Raji-Oyelade
says he’s happy the prize is better strengthened today with such inclusion than
before when it was merely localised. As he said, “I do not want us to look at
it as onshore versus offshore dichotomy between home-based and Diaspora writers.
I believe that those who are reading the poems go beyond the covers; the
quality speaks for itself. I was one of those who clamoured for the inclusion
of American and Europe-based Nigerian writers for the prize. I remember telling
a friend back then that I didn’t want to be a big fish in small ocean; I want
to contest against the best not just only on the local scene. It should really
be a prize for all those who are writing good literature. The issue of the
quality, the finishing is also very important”.
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