The NLNG Prize for Literature

I pride the fact that I can be totally objective even when my friends or family are involved, so again I'm faced with knowing one of two people in a situation that could strengthen the fact that Nigerians are just a bunch of overly corrupt and plain stupid people who would rather think of who they know and how the bond of being ex-classmates or relatives could out-weigh something as simple as looking at 'wait for it' WHICH IS THE BETTER BOOK arrghhhhhhhhhhh.

So before I go of tangent, I will introduce to my present bane of contention, The NLNG writers award. This group like the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature or the Booker Prize seek to give out prizes mostly cash to outstanding writers. The authors and their books who get nominated our all are all trimmed down by a panel till a final selection is made and these are entered for the award and the winner of the award should be chosen based on the books CONTENT.

Where such side attractions like the authors state of origin, schools attended, Cause presently pursued and who is known well and how come into play, then the award is said to be RIGGED, BIASE AND NOT TRUE TO WHAT IR SHOULD STAND FOR.

It's the 5th edition of the NLNG Prize for Literature, the two main contenders are Jude Dibia for the book Unbridled and Kaine Agary for Yellow Yellow.

Print media coverage for these two writers has however been suspiciously sided and so I wonder has a winner been chosen already and if this winner has been chosen, pray tell on what grounds; content of the book or knowing who the organizers are. An amazing occurrence in the build up to the finals of the book prize which should all end tomorrow is the ability for friends of friends to come out and bad mouth one writer to favour the other. How is it possible we let this happen without shutting these Idiots up. So I wonder how Ms. Miss Pamela Udoka (author of a children's book Rejected Blessings) could publicly call one of these writers a 'Bad and Corrupt writer' on what grounds and why not in the privacy of her own home where she could have been applauded by her friends and family.

There was also the comment in the Guardian's review page for the 10th of October very sadly today, a day before the final announcement "the new face of Nigerian literature is a woman, and when the curtain draws for 2008 Nigerian Literature prize tomorrow, one feminine...or mascu-feminine writer will emerge..." Yep this is what an obviously paid off writer in one of Nigeria's well reputed newspapers deemed it fit to be able to string his words together.

So will these books Yellow Yellow and Unbridled be judged objectively or not? Or has the winner been chosen based on who is known where and for how long, be the final outcome?

I know who has been reportedly chosen but lets see if corruption and a twisted mentality wins the day.

We await the results patiently.

My Past My Future

Dear Lord,

Please, please forgive Me for all the things Ive done, I know I haven't been exactly amazing or outstanding when it comes to doing the things I ought to have done, but now I realize all these and ask for your forgiveness especially now that I need a favour.

Well I know you know what I want since You're all seeing and all knowing so I'll code my request knowing You dear Lord understand perfectly what I need.



I humbly request that the lil bambino you've given enters the world strong and healthy and beautifully formed with all senses intact and his thinking faculty superb. Ok lord I know half the world most likely knows what my request is but I seriously need this request granted so that my past doesn't affect my future and my belief becomes strengthened thrice as much as it was before.

Thank you for listening.

Hummingbirds

Okay I know a hummingbird is a bird not even found in Africa, but this morning there I was minding my own business doing my own thing and slam it just popped right into my thoughts how WE might not be Hummingbirds literally but figuratively we do something they do.

So I'll tell a little story about what Ive observed about Nigerians, when it comes to how daft and incompetent our Government is. We have 3 groups of Nigerians, the screamers (the Niger delta advocates), the back benchers (those who don't give a flying f&%ck and who don't care if the shits thrown helter-skelter as long as they don't smell or are touched by it), and finally the hummingbirds ( moi and a whole lot of people who murmur, curse and stamp our feet all in private of course and talk mostly under our breathe and think 'hell its not as if I can do anything about the situation').

So we the poor Nigerian Hummingbirds who sometimes are filled with so much hope for an improved, brighter tomorrow, also look in disgust and become quickly disillusioned when we see something as simple as deliberate flaunting of traffic rules, then we once again fall into the very pits of depression and the utmost conviction that there can be no hope.


I ask myself why we are such an active group of back benchers, whether we are Niger delta activists, screamers or hummingbirds. Why do we have the innate ability to take things as they come, which can be oh so annoying. Yeah it took centuries for America, Great Britain and other developed countries to attain the level of development and orderliness they have today, but in this day and age when our progress should be faster because we have the great advantage to copy must we attempt to give the same excuse?