Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia with her novel ‘The Son of the House’ has won the 2021 Nigeria Prize for Literature sponsored by Nigeria LNG Limited.
The Chair of the Advisory Board for the prize, Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo made the disclosure of Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia as the winner of the $100,000 prize at a ceremony on October 30, 2021 at Expo Centre, Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos.
Her work beat Abi Dare’s ‘The Girl with the Louding Voice’ and Obinna Udenwe’s ‘Colours of Hatred’.
The one million Naira award for the NLNG’s Prize for Literary Criticism was won by Uchechukwu Uwazurike. There was no winner for the $100,000 prize for Science.
In the presentation, Adimora-Ezeigbo, said the novel was chosen not only because it was full of suspense and intrigue but for how it was able to “tell human and indeed universal stories of rural as against urban life, suffering and survival, loss and redemption, decline and renaissance, destruction and reconstruction, and death and rebirth.”
Speaking to Sunday PUNCH, author and professor of Law at the Babcock University, Ogun State, Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia said:
“I am excited and thrilled. I am even a bit numb. I think that by tomorrow (today), it will sink in a bit more. I am just so thankful. God has been good to me in a different way this year.”
The Advisory Board for The Nigeria Prize for Literature announced the shortlist of 11 drawn from 202 books in the running for the 2021 edition of the prize.
The 11 books on the shortlist, in alphabetical order by the title of the book, are:
1. Delusion of Patriots, Obianuju V. Chukwuorji
2. Give Us Each Day, Samuel Monye
3. Imminent River, Anaele Ihuoma
4. In The Name of Our Father, Olukorede S. Yishau
5. Mountain of Yesterday, Tony Nwaka
6. Neglected, Lucy Chiamaka Okwuma
7. The Colours of Hatred, Obinna Udenwa
8. The Girl with The Louding Voice, Abi Dare
9. The Return of Half- Something, Chukwudi Eze
10. The Son of The House, Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia
11. Your Church My Shrine, Law Ikay Ezeh
The list was presented by the Chairman, Panel of Judges for this year’s Nigeria Prize for Literature, Professor Toyin Jegede, who is a professor of Literature in English at the University of Ibadan.
The other judges are Professor Tanimu Abubakar and Dr. Solomon Azumurana. Professor Abubakar is a Professor of Literature in the Faculty of Art, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Dr Azumurana is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Lagos.
The judges described the shortlist as fresh approaches to looking at issues, using new and exciting narrative strategies, techniques and well-written organic plots to present topical discussions in realistic ways.
The judges stated that there has been a visible improvement in writing skills and commended Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, (founder and sponsors of the prize), for giving writers the platform to blossom and experiment.
The Nigeria Prize for Literature has since 2004 rewarded eminent writers such as Gabriel Okara (co-winner, 2005, poetry) for The Dreamer, His Vision; Professor Ezenwa Ohaeto, for his volume of poetry, Chants of a Minstrel (co-winner, 2005, poetry); Ahmed Yerima (2005, drama) for his classic, Hard Ground; Mabel Segun (co-winner, 2007, children’s literature) for her collection of short plays Reader’s Theatre; Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo (co-winner, 2007, children’s literature) with her book, My Cousin Sammy; Kaine Agary with her book, Yellow Yellow (2008, prose); Esiaba Irobi (2010, drama) who clinched the prize posthumously with his book Cemetery Road; Adeleke Adeyemi (2011, children’s literature) with his book The Missing Clock; Chika Unigwe (2012, prose), with her novel, On Black Sister’s Street; Tade Ipadeola (2013, poetry) with his collection of poems, The Sahara Testaments; Professor Sam Ukala (2014, drama) with his play, Iredi War; Abubakar Adam Ibrahim with his novel Season of Crimson Blossoms (2016, prose); Ikeogu Oke with his collection of poetry, The Heresiad; (2017, poetry); Soji Cole with his play, Embers (2018, drama); and Jude Idada with his book, Boom, Boom (2019, Children Literature).
The Nigeria Prize for Literature runs concurrently with the Nigeria Prize for Literary Criticism (also sponsored by NLNG), for which four entries were received in 2020. The literary criticism prize carries a monetary value of one million Naira.
The Nigeria Prize for Literature rotates yearly amongst four literary categories – prose fiction, poetry, drama, and children’s literature.
