After COVID-19 blues, law professor wins literature prize

After a COVID-19 enforced break in 2020, the prestigious Nigeria Prize for Literature returned this year with a winner in Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia.

THE COVID-19 pandemic prevented the emergence of a laureate last year as the prize was suspended. Happily, there was nothing of the sort this time around as a winner emerged.

Saturday last week, the literati and other people of goodwill converged on Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, for the grand award night of the 2021 Nigeria Prize for Literature and Nigeria Prize for Literary Criticism. In the frame for the prize were finalists Abi Dare with her novel, ‘The Girl with Louding Voice’, Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia’s ‘The Son of the House’ and Obinna Udenwe’s ‘Colours of Hatred’.

But as was the practice, the winner’s announcement was the climax of the proceedings, which featured music, speeches, documentary screenings and finally, the crowning of the laureate.

While a man, Jude Idada, won the last prize awarded in 2019 with his children’s book, ‘Boom Boom’, a woman, Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia, took the 2021 diadem with ‘The Son of the House’.

Chair, Advisory Board, The Nigeria Prize for Literature & Literary Criticism, Professor Akachi Adimorah-Ezeigbo, who announced the professor of law at Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, as the winner offered why.

“After a scrutiny of the three novels, the Panel of Judges and the Advisory Board have, in consideration of its profundity of technique and subject matter as a Nigerian family saga, its thematic depth and social relevance as a commentary on the diversity of collective experiences that shape, hold and mar families in postcolonial Nigeria, and its feminist undertones, found Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia’s ‘The Son of the House’ outstanding, and declare it the Winner of the 2021 Nigeria Prize for Literature.”

Earlier, Canada-based academic and poet Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike won the Nigeria Prize for Literary Criticism worth N1 million for his critical essays, “Self-Publishing in the era of military rule in Nigeria, 1985 – 1999”, “Postcolonial Ogres in Ngugi WaThiong’o’s Wizard of the Crow”, and “Land of cemetery: funereal images in the poetry of Musa Idris Okpanachi”.

His essays, according to the judges, was the best out of four submissions received. Professor Olu Obafemi, who read the Advisory Board’s statement, noted: “Above all is the relevance of this author’s papers to literary studies in Africa, especially Nigeria. The publications contribute to scholarship in postcolonial studies and publishing as the works highlight and explicate postcolonial realities of disenchantment, alienation, exploitation, oppression, neocolonialism, deprivation, power relations, political leadership, loss of freedom, failure of leadership, abuse of power, and the gap between the rulers and the ruled. These issues, though peculiar to the African continent and the Nigerian nation-state, are universal. In this way, the writer rescues African/Nigerian imaginative works from their putative appellation in the West as anthropological materials.”

While Onyemelukwe-Onuobia was physically present at the event, Umezurike joined virtually from Canada.

Responding to his emergence as the winner of the Prize for Literary Criticism, Umezurike said, “I’m truly honoured for receiving the prize. The panel awarded my work such storied recognition,” adding that literature has enriched his life. He didn’t fail to thank the NLNG, his family and his PhD supervisor in Canada.

Onyemelukwe-Onuobia toed his path, appreciating God, her parents, husband, children, publisher, the team at her university and law firm, the judges and sponsors.

Earlier in a keynote address, Managing Director/CEO, Nigeria LNG Limited, Dr Philip Mshelbila, reviewed its investments in Nigeria’s creative sector and why it won’t relent. “For us to create a better society, we need the imaginative power of the fiction writer to dream up the impossible. We also need scientists using the scientific method to find the best and most efficient way to make that dream a reality.

“The interaction of these two sets of minds continues to drive the development of modern society. Their position is so important that visionary policymakers must seek them out, encourage and promote them and their works. If we truly want our country, Nigeria, to experience growth in its education, economy, technology and industry, we must court them, love, and make them productive and regenerative.”

He added, “That is why in NLNG, we have, since 2004, spent tens of millions of dollars to ensure that these groups of special minds never give up on their efforts and never give in to the emptiness that their solitary journey into the search for the unknown, sometimes, presents them with.”

Dr Mshelbila further affirmed the NLNG’s commitment to the three prizes it sponsors. They are The Nigeria Prize for Science, The Nigeria Prize for Literature and Prize for Literary Criticism while congratulating the winners.

He said, “The Nigeria Prize for Science, The Nigeria Prize for Literature and The Nigeria Prize for Literary Criticism are designed to encourage the daring mind to imagine, create and innovate with the intent of turning the wheel of development and leading to the emergence of a better man, a better society and a better world.”

With her emergence as the winner, Onyemelukwe-Onuobia joins an exclusive list of past winners, including Gabriel Okara, Professor Ezenwa Ohaeto, Professor Ahmed Yerima, Mabel Segun, Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, Kaine Agary, EsiabaIrobi, Adeleke Adeyemi, Chika Unigwe, Tade Ipadeola, Professor Sam Ukala, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, IkeoguOke, Soji Cole and Jude Idada.

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