UI students release poetry anthology

A group of students from Nigeria’s premier university, the University of Ibadan, have launched a platform they call UitesCreate, which seeks to promote the school’s students and alumni who are exploring and excelling at the spheres of art, technology, business and so on.

The first project from UitesCreate was unveiled virtually on Saturday, August 13, 2016, and tagged The UitesWrite Anthology. It is a collection of over 200 poems which were selected from about 400 submissions from poets in the university student and alumni community. The project, which started around September 2015, has materialised into a digital book, which is now available for free download on UitesCreate.org.

Dr. Olayinka Egbokhare, author of Dazzling Mirage which was adapted into a blockbuster movie by Tunde Kelani, wrote the foreword of the book. She wrote: “The journey took me like in a swirl through curves and crevices, and streets broad and narrow and left me richer than when the journey began.

“It is refreshing to see intending pharmacists, doctors, engineers and other scientists become wordsmiths who succeeded in breathing fresh air into this favourite pastime of many sages.”

The UitesCreate platform was founded by Dolapo Amusat, who is a final-year student of Electrical Engineering, and Habeeb Kolade, who is a graduate of Mechanical Engineering, and the team consists of Ibrahim Oredola (Law), Moyosore Orimoloye (Pharmacy),  Darafunmi Olanrewaju (Law), Kelechi Ogueji (Industrial Engineering), Kunle Adebajo (Law) and Rasaq Malik Gbolahan (English).

The founders believe that Unibadan students have what it takes to positively affect the immediate society and the world at large with incremental steps.