For a prize that awards literature that tackles widely disparate subject matters, it is important for the Nigeria Prize for Literature to diversify its judging panel away from a wholly academic affair.
By Chimezie Chika
The NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature recently opened for submissions for the 2025 edition of the Prize. The $100,000 dollars prize, awarded annually to Nigerian authors, remains one of the richest literary awards in the world given to a single author for a single work of literature.
The Nigeria Prize for Literature has a workable structure that rotates the Prize every year amongst four different genres of literature, namely: Poetry, Prose Fiction, Drama, and Children’s Literature. For obvious reasons, the prize holds an immense pull for Nigerian authors; that being in a country that yearns for more monetarily rewarding literary prizes.
Yet, no one wants a prize which lacks transparency in the manner in which it is run; no one wants prizes that may evince subjectivity rather than objectivity, no matter what it professes to offer.
Despite having been criticised for its structuring—why award only one author or genre at once? Why is the award not doing something about literacy and the larger literary culture? Some critics say—NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature has, for the greater part, awarded deserving individuals.
But there is a recurring pattern of sameness which I feel must be addressed urgently. The Nigeria Prize for Literature is administered at the upper level by an Advisory Board composed of three seasoned scholars—Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, Professor Olu Obafemi, and Professor Ahmed Yerima—who are also writers.
Adimora-Ezeigbo has written books across multiple genres, including her novel, Roses and Bullets, and have also been a past awardee of the Nigeria Prize for Literature when she co-won the prize in 2007, with her children’s book, My Cousin Sammy. Obafemi has written many plays and works of poetry. Yerima, another past laureate of the Prize, with his play, Hard Ground, is a well-known playwright.
The most important function of the advisory board is selection of Prize judges on an annual basis. Obviously, the criteria may differ based on what genre’s turn it is for year, and so on, which means that judges’ interest would vary as well. But herein lies the problem: they mostly seem to come from the same place
This year’s judges were announced alongside the typical call for entries. So who are the judges? Professor Saeedat Bola Aliyu, Professor Mbanefo Ogene, Book club organiser, Olakunle Kasumu and, last, Dr. Grace Musila, the international consultant. Not a terribly overwhelming panel of judges, to be sure.
In addition—though this seems obvious enough to people with literary interest—it is not immediately clear what role the ‘international consultant’ plays, for there is no place on the website where such a position was explained. It should at least, for that singular reason, be spelt out in writing, for reference purposes.
However, the website does clearly tell us something about the criteria for selection of judges. I will list the most important criterion here: “The judges(s) must be experts, adjudged to be sufficiently versed in the genre under consideration for the particular year”.
This is standard literary prize fare, no doubt. Judges must be experts in the genre of the prize they are about to judge, and must know literature in general. But, by the logic of the NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature and its advisory board, these experts can only be academics. Why? I am not sure there is anywhere in the world where any important literary prize has been turned into an academic quorum.
For a prize that awards literature that tackles widely disparate subject matters, it is important for the Nigeria Prize for Literature to diversify its judging panel away from a wholly academic affair.
Researching hundreds of literary prizes around the world, the overriding injunction is often that the composition of the judging panel of a literary prize must capture the spirit of the prevailing reading public, which includes interests across media, art, academia, and others.
What this means is that literary prizes must have a diverse judging panel to reflect and represent sections of the literary infrastructure. At first glance, a judging panel that has only academics will be adjudged by a dispassionate onlooker to be an academic prize. That is, a prize awarded for and by academics for peer-reviewed journal research essays, not creative works of literature.
Many prestigious prizes around the world understand this important need to pick judges from diverse literary backgrounds. Which is why a typical prize judging panel usually includes writers, academics, journalists, publishers, artists, broadcasters, etc. This helps to create a more rounded judging process, and allows each person to bring their unique experience to bear on the books being judged.
If we look at the recent judging panels of prizes around the world, including African prizes, it tells a different story from the Nigeria Prize for Literature fixation on the ivory tower. For instance, the 2021 judging panel of The Caine Prize included Ugandan novelist, Goretti Kyomuhendo; poet, Nick Makoha; Broadcaster, Razia Iqbal; artist, Victor Ehikhamenor, and journalist, Goergina Godwin.
And this is a judging panel for a short story prize. Does this panel not look more encompassing and inclusive of what contemporary stakeholders of the literary enterprise looks like? But the Nigeria Prize for Literature would have us believe that the only notable stakeholders in literature are academics.
A few further examples: The Booker Prize for Fiction, one of the Anglophone world’s most prestigious prizes, had the following judging panel in 2024: artist, Edmund de Waal, who chaired the panel; novelist, Sara Collins; Guardian UK editor, Justine Jordan; renowned writer and professor, Yiyun Li, and musician, Nitin Sawhney.
The €100,000 International Dublin Literary Award, which has an equivalent monetary reward as the Nigeria Prize for Literature, had the following judging panel last year: Professor of Irish Writing, Chris Morash, who chaired the panel; Professor of Comparative Literature, Daniel Medin; poet and translator Ingunn Snædal; author, Anton Hur, Associate Professor, Lucy Collins; Nigerian-British author, Irenosen Okojie. I am not trying to do a roll call of prizes, but the point here is quite clear.
It is high time the Nigeria Prize for Literature became more progressive with its selection of judges, more open, in short, to constructive criticisms. It is time for the Nigeria Prize for Literature to start including some of its past winners and shortlistees in its annual judging panels.
This is one important way to keep the prize touch with contemporary writing. Nigerian Novelist, Chigozie Obioma, who has been a two-time shortlistee of the Booker Prize, in 2015 and 2019, was selected as a judge for the same prize in 2021. This is the practice world over: previous awardees being given the opportunity to contribute their experience as celebrated writers and help determine the current temperament of the literature or genre.
Another significant practice is that the chair of judges could be someone of different occupation (than a writer or literary academic) who has interest in literature. The Nigeria Prize for Literature will be able to advance its objectives if it begins to reflect an understanding of the generality of the literary enterprise of the mainstream.
At the moment, there are publishers such as Masobe, Cassava Republic, Narrative Landscape, and others publishing contemporary Nigerian literature; there are also the likes Lola Shoneyin and Efe Paul Azino who have, over years, contributed tremendously to the literary culture through their literary festivals: Ake Arts and Books Festival and LIPFest respectively. Who is making use of these people’s experiences?
The world’s most prestigious literary award, the Nobel Prize for Literature, had to make certain subtle changes in recent years following criticism of heavy gender bias that recurred (it has dealt with this accusation throughout its history) during the 2017 scandal that rocked the Swedish Academy.
Progressive change is therefore important for growth and for purchasing cultural capital. With the Nigeria Prize for Literature, we want to see something that transcends the semblance of subtle cronyism. A judging panel of four, with three academics, is not a good look for a prize of such monetary heft which aims for cultural prestige in the long run.
The hegemony of the academy is not aligned with global best practices in literary prize judging; judging panels are more embracing of the wider literary culture.
Adding more literary diversity in the composition of its judges would allow the Nigeria Prize for Literature gain more authenticity and a sturdily entrenched place as one of the most prestigious prizes in the world.
Chimezie Chika is a staff writer at Afrocritik. His short stories and essays have appeared in or forthcoming from, amongst other places, The Weganda Review, The Republic, Terrain.org, Isele Magazine, Lolwe, Fahmidan Journal, Efiko Magazine, Dappled Things, and Channel Magazine. He is the fiction editor of Ngiga Review. His interests range from culture, history, to art, literature, and the environment. You can find him on X @chimeziechika1