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Olubunmi Familoni pays tribute to two women in his life after USD$100,000 literary prize win

anote
  • October 12, 2024
  • 8 min read
Olubunmi Familoni pays tribute to two women in his life after USD$100,000 literary prize win

New York, My Village, Dream Count, When We Were Fireflies, The Road to the Country, The Middle Daughter possibilities for 2025

By Anote Ajeluorou

I also want to thank the love of my life (my wife Isioma), and my mum as well. She made me read all those books; they got me to where I am today. Thank you, mum!”

That was the emotional, celebratory and grateful note star writer Olubunmi Familoni expressed his feelings after winning The Nigeria Prize for Literature 2024 for the children’s literature category worth USD$100,000 when he stepped up the podium to receive his diadem for his hard-fought win. That was how much the two women in his life matter to him in his journey as a writer, and he wasn’t shy in pouring praises on them. Chairperson of the Advisory Board for the prize and professor of English Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo had just announced the Ibadan-based writer but who set his story in Lagos when the floodgate of emotions was let loose. Adimora-Ezeigbo’s hype of The Road Does Not End while reviewing the three shortlisted books – Wish Maker by Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike and A Father’s Pride by Ndidi Chiazor-Enenmor – ostensibly gave it away as possible winner, and it was.

Familoni also expressed gratitude to everyone involved in the process of the prize, from his publisher to Nigeria LNG Limited for instituting the prize and those who graced the award night. He did not leave his wife out but reserved particular praise for his mother who he said helped shaped his creative imagination by making him read tomes of books while growing up, noting it was such early devotion to books inspired by his mother that has taken him thus far.

“I’m very grateful for this, first to God for putting these words in me. Everybody has talent, but there’s a supreme being. So, I’m very grateful to him. I’m also very grateful to everybody that has been with me on this journey. I’m grateful to my publisher, Mr. Servio Gbadamosi; we hardly ever hear writers talk about their publishers in such podium as this. We were supposed to enter the book for the prize in 2019, but at the last minute something happened and we entered it late. But five years later we are.”

Last year when he was longlisted for the drama prize, Familoni did not hide his admiration for the prize sponsor Nigeria LNG Limited, expressing gratitude for the company’s desire to encourage writing with the prize that has seen 20 years of making millionaires of writers in recognising and elevating Nigeria literature and its writers to an enviable status. Familoni particularly commended the prize sponsor for rewarding writers in the drama and children’s literature, noting that it was perhaps where the prize stands out from the crowd, as there were fewer recognition and rewards for these two categories of literature in spite of the unique place they occupy in the collective consciousness.

“And also, I’m very, very grateful to Nigeria LNG,” he stated. “I’ve said it countless times in interviews before and at different fora, for instituting a prize for children’s literature and drama. I said it last year; look at the entire country, look at the despondency; how many literary prizes are instituted for these two genres of writing (children’s writing and drama), which are very important. There are a number of prizes for poetry, a number of prizes for prose fiction – whether it’s short fiction of long fiction. But for children’s literature, which is a very important literature and also drama; so, I’m grate to Nigeria LNG, not for winning this prize, but for instituting these two prizes for children and drama; they are very important. They encourage writers; writers see people that get longlisted, people that get shortlisted; it encourages them to keep writing. It’s a very difficult, very tortuous journey, writing; everybody that writes knows that it’s a very difficult journey, but with prizes like this, it encourages; it validates your work, the quality of your work. I’m grateful to Nigeria LNG. I’m grateful for everybody who’s here; you could have been anywhere else but here.

“Thank you!”

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Olubunmi Familoni and the love of his life, Isioma at the award night… in Lagos

By this win, Familoni has joined the league of children’s literary laureates and the company of Jude Idada (Boom Boom – 2019), Adeleke Adeyemi (The Missing Clock – 2011) and joint winning by Prof. Adimora-Ezeigbo and Mabel Segun (My Cousin Sammy and The Readers’ Theatre – 2007)

Meanwhile, as Familoni went home rejoicing with his covetous win, the same could not be said for Nigerian academics whose critical works returned a ‘no winner’ verdict this year. This means that The Nigeria Prize for Literary Criticism was not awarded to any literary critic on account of the works submitted not meeting the required standards of critical evaluation. It is not the first time a ‘no verdict’ decision is being made on the critical prize since its inception. The first edition of the prize in 2004 was first to return a ‘no winner’ verdict for prose (novel) fiction. Then came 2009 for poetry with a ‘no winner’ verdict. This was followed in 2015 when children’s literature also returned a ‘no winner’ verdict and now for literary criticism in 2024.

In fact in its 13th year since establishing The Nigeria Prize for Literary Criticism, it has only been awarded six times. There were no winners in its first two editions in 2012 and 2013 until 2014 when Prof. Isidore Diala won it. 2015, 2016 and 2017 returned a ‘no winner’ verdict until 2018 when again Prof. Isidore Diala won it, the only critic to have won it twice. Dr. Abba A. Abba won it in 2019, Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike won it in 2021, Dr. Sakiru Adebayo won the prize in 2022, and last year, the prize went to Dr. Eyoh Etim.

Next year writers will vie for the prose fiction genre, which promises to be a year of keen contest if some of the great prose works published so far are submitted for the prize. Already we can wet the appetite of readers and followers of Nigerian literature with the books that would likely be up for the contest next year. Three heavyweights readily come to mind. There’s Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who is coming out with her fourth book Dream Count (Narrative Landscape Press) in March 2025. Chigozie Obioma’s third book The Road to the Country (Masobe) is already being enjoyed by readers across the world in its immersion into real battle lines during the Nigeria Civil War. Sadly, Adichie and Obioma have not featured in The Nigeria Prize for Literature so far in spite of having published some great works like Half of a Yellow Sun and Americanna for Adichie, and The Fishermen and An Orchestra of Minorities by Obioma. There’s also the winner for 2016 (Season of Crimson Blossom, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim who has a bold new work When We Were Fireflies (Masobe) that is a narrative marvel. Uwem Akpan’s novel New York, My Village (Perrasia) will also be in contest next year and present stiff competition in its searing evocation of the nasty side of life in New York and in Nigeria.

Drama is the only genre in the prize’s 4-year circle in 20 years that has not suffered ‘no winner’ verdict yet. Hard Ground by Ahmed Yerima was the first book to win in the drama category in 2007; this was followed by Esiaba Irobi’s Cemetery Road in 2010. In 2014 Iredi War fetched Sam Ukala, a professor of theatre, now deceased, the prize, followed by Soji Cole in 2018 with his play Embers. Grit fetched another university don Obari Gomba the prize in 2023 in the long line of Nigerian academics who have won in the drama category of The Nigeria Prize for Literature. No non-academic has won it so far.

Chika Unigwe who won the prose prize in 2012 with her novel On Black Sisters Street also has a new book The Middle Daughter (2023) that could compete for the prize next year. Although less popular on the Nigerian literary scene largely because she does not engage, Ukamaka Olisakwe’s Don’t Answer When They Call Your Name (2024) is a possibility in the contest for The Nigeria Prize for Literature 2025. Of course, there will be a lot of other writers who will participate but who are perhaps still honing their craft; there is no doubt that the prize will continue to attract a large followership as it begins another 20-year circle after it was instituted in 2004!

Already, Noirledge, Masobe, Narrative Landscape Press, Ouida, Parresia and a few other independent presses are the new publishing brides in the Nigerian literary scene. They are defining the pace of creative writing and getting accolades for their works. Noirledge Publishing has two prize winners in its kitty – Idada (2019) and Familoni (2024).

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