Yahaya wins ANA/Lady Ejiro Umukoro Poetry Endowment Fund Slam

By Donald Sunday

AFTER a thrilling poetry performance, Sahada Yahaya emerged as the 2025 ANA/Lady Ejiro Umukoro Poetry Slam Champion out of the 11 contestants at the 2025 ANA Poetry Slam that took place at the Mamman Vatsa Writers’ Village, Abuja. It was an electrifying contest that has the support of LightRay! Media and the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA).

Under the calm November skies of Abuja, the Mamman Vatsa Writers’ Village transformed into a living, breathing theatre of words and rhythm. The 2025 ANA Poetry Slam, aptly themed ‘Code Switching in Spirit Realm’ had the N100,000 prize money endowed by Lady Ejiro Umukoro, Founder and CEO of LightRay!, one of Nigeria’s passionate advocates for media innovation and literary rebirth. Yahaya’s winning performance embodied the night’s theme – code switching between the earthly and the divine. Her delivery was raw yet refined, spiritual yet grounded.

The night was a mesmerizing tapestry of voices and styles, as poets wove threads of passion, pain, and triumph. With very deliberate eye contact, defiant facial expression, and calculated gesture, the performers summoned the power of the spoken word, their voices rising and falling like the tides. Costumes shimmered and swayed, echoing the rhythmic pulse of the poetry, as ancestral chants mingled with sharp, contemporary metaphors, creating a sonic landscape that was at once raw and refined, ancient and avant-garde. It was also a night where female poets dominated the stage.

Lady Umukoro, said, “Seeing more young women dominate the vocal space of prose and poetry is a narrative worth hyping. Literary excellence comes in all shades of gender and we must celebrate them and support our creative economy to thrive. Poetry is not just performance; it’s grit, prayer, and prophecy. Our voices must keep echoing beyond the page.”

Sahada Yahaya

The Association of Nigerian Authors also honored distinguished figures who have advanced Nigeria’s literary culture, including the Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, Prof. Madaka Abdullahi, and Prof. Udenta Udenta.

The ANA Prize for Children’s Prize was awarded to Dave Okoroafor for The Boy Who Built a Titanic Raft, the Chinua Achebe Literary Prize 2025 went to Ndidi Chiazor-Enenmor for her japa-themed fiction, See Morocco See Spain while the drama prize went to Majekodunmi Ebhohon for his play, The Great Delusion.

The convention featured panel discussions, book and art exhibitions, live performances, and a grand dinner night where writers, scholars, publishers, and policymakers broke bread together.

“Words can build nations,” said the Chairperson of the ANA Benue Chapter, Onwanyi Ulegede, at the clsoing of the convention.

The 2025 convention was a movement – one that reaffirmed the purpose of Nigerian literature: to document, to challenge, and to heal.