Akubuiro: The Nigeria Prize For Literature Has Become That Big African Prize

The Nigeria Prize for Literature, sponsored by the Nigeria LNG Limited, has become that big African prize – African prize in the sense that none is worth more than it in prize money. Also, what the Nigeria NLG commits to running it and promoting writers on the longlist and the shortlist is unmatchable of all the existing African prizes. Winning this prize opens doors for you as a writer.

It also provides monetary compensation capable of establishing you as an individual and assisting your writing projects. Writers from other African countries have been campaigning for it to be a pan-African prize, but I think it should remain a Nigerian prize. Big companies in these African countries should also invest in literature like NLNG has done.

Winning this prize is not a dog’s breakfast. It’s one of the most competitive prizes in the world. It attracts many of the best writers in the land each year, and the number keeps increasing.

Making the longlist is not always easy. This year, if you know the calibre of writers who missed out on the longlist, it would shock you – some of the biggest names in African literature from Nigeria. That shows you the standard of the Nigeria Prize for Literature is higher than we thought.

We should be grateful as Nigerian writers that it still exists. We need more like this for the literary enterprise. I was lucky to have a solid book background.

Even before I was born, my dad had already stocked the house with books and newspapers. We grew up se.