Nigeria Prize for Literature

Nigeria Prize for Literature is a Nigerian literary award given annually since 2004 to honor literary erudition by Nigerian authors. The award rotates among four genres; fiction, poetry, drama and children's literature, repeating the cycle every four years. With the total prize value of US$100,000 to individual winner, it is the biggest literary award in Africa and one of the richest literary awards in the world.

Nigeria Prize for Literature
Soji Cole in his office with his winner's plaque, 2018
Awarded for	Excellence and literary craftsmanship
Sponsored by	Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited
Date	Annual
Country	Nigeria
Presented by	Nigerian Academy of Science with advisory board constituted from: Nigerian Academy of Letters Association of Nigerian Authors
Reward(s)	US$100,000
First awarded	2005; 19 years ago (2005)
Latest recipient	Olubunmi Familoni
Website	Official website

History

The Prize was established in 2004 and sponsored by Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas company. However, the process and judging are administered by Nigerian Academy of Science with advisory board made up of members from Nigeria Academy of Letters and Association of Nigerian Authors.^[1]

The Prize was initially $20,000. This was increased to $30,000 in 2006, and again to $50,000 in 2008. In 2011 the prize was increased to $100,000.^[2]

Years with no winner

Since its inception, the award is normally awarded in October. However, on three occasions the panel of judges were unable to select a winner, with no prize awarded in 2004, 2009^[3] and 2015.^[4][5] In 2015, chair of the judging panel Ayo Banjo noted: "Unfortunately, the entries this year fall short of this expectation as each book was found to manifest incompetence in the use of language. Many of them showed very little or no evidence of good editing ... Hence, there will be no winner this year."^[5]

Past recipients

Nigeria Prize for Literature

Year	Recipient	Book	Genre	Note
2024	Olubunmi Familoni	The Road Does Not End	Fiction	[6]
2023	Obari Gomba	Grit	Drama	[7]
2022	Romeo Oriogun	Nomad	Poetry
2020/2021	Cheluchi Onyemelukwe	The Son of the House	Prose	[8]
2019	Jude Idada	Boom Boom	Children's Literature	[9]
2018	Soji Cole	Embers	Drama
2017	Ikeogu Oke[10]	The Heresiad	Poetry
2016	Abubakar Adam Ibrahim[11]	Season of Crimson Blossoms	Prose
2015			Children's literature	No winner[4][lower-alpha 1]
2014	Sam Ukala	Iredi War	Drama
2013	Tade Ipadeola[12]	The Sahara Testaments	Poetry
2012	Chika Unigwe	On Black Sisters Street	Prose
2011	Adeleke Adeyemi	The Missing Clock	Children's literature
2010	Esiaba Irobi	Cemetery Road	Drama	Posthumous[lower-alpha 2]
2009			Poetry	No winner [3]
2008	Kaine Agary	Yellow Yellow	Prose
2007 (Shared prize)	Mabel Segun	Readers' Theatre: Twelve Plays for Young People	Children's literature
	Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo	My Cousin Sammy	Children's literature
2006	Ahmed Yerima	Hard Ground	Drama
2005 (Shared prize)	Gabriel Okara	The Dreamer: His Vision	Poetry
	Ezenwa Ohaeto	Chants of Minstrel	Poetry
2004			Prose	No winner

See also

• Nigeria Prize for Science
• List of literary awards
• List of richest literary prizes
• Grand Prix of Literary Associations
• 9mobile Prize for Literature
• Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa

Notes and reference

Notes

1. Out of 109 shortlisted books, no winner emerges. The prize money was then used to fund a workshop for children’s literature authors later in the year.
2. Dr Esiaba Irobi, won the prize with his play Cemetery Road. However he died after submitting the work.

References

1. "Nigeria Prize for Literature". Nigeria LNG. 2018. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
2. "On the hundred thousand dollar prize". The Nigeria Prize for Literature. 26 June 2011. Archived from the original on 1 December 2011.
3. Abdullahi, Nuruddeen M (11 October 2009). "No Winner in 2009 NLNG Prize for Literature". Daily Trust. Archived from the original on 12 January 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
4. Osagie, Evelyn (25 September 2015). "No winner for 2015 NLNG's Literature prize". The Nation Online. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
5. Quadri, Zainab. "Entries assessed were all 'incompetent in the use of language". Pulse. Archived from the original on 13 January 2018. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
6. Sobowale, Adetutu (11 October 2024). "Familoni wins 2024 Nigeria Prize for Literature $100,000 award". Punch Newspapers. Retrieved 20 October 2024.
7. Odeh, Nehru (13 October 2023). "Obari Gomba wins 2023 Nigeria Prize for Literature, carts home $100,000". P.M. News. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
8. Braide, Damiete (30 October 2021). "BREAKING: Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia wins Nigeria Prize for Literature 2021". The Sun Nigeria Newspaper.
9. "BREAKING: Jude Idada wins NLNG 2019 Nigeria literature prize of $100,000". Vanguard. 11 October 2019.
10. Sam-Duru, Prisca (10 October 2017). "Ikeogu Oke is 2017 winner of Nigeria Prize for Literature". Vanguard. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
11. Bamas, Victoria (12 October 2016). "Abubakar Adam's A Season of Crimson Blossoms wins the 2016 NLNG literature prize". Daily Trust. Archived from the original on 21 November 2017. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
12. Alakam, Japhet; Prisca Sam-Duru (10 October 2013). "Tade Ipadeola wins 2013 Nigeria Prize for Literature". Vanguard. Retrieved 11 January 2018.

External links

• Children's literature portal

• Official website