University of Benin (UNIBEN) has emerged winner of this year’s Nigerian Students Poetry Prize (NSPP).
Uniben having secured the highest number of selected entrants on the initial shortlist and on the list of the top five, UNIBEN emerged as the top-performing school of the NSPP. The previous edition was won by the University of Ibadan (UI).
Instituted in 2016 by Poets in Nigeria (PIN) at UI, the NSPP is reputed for being foremost poetry prize for undergraduates with a national reach. It has since awarded over a million Naira cash prizes to winning students and published 400 exceptional poems from about 2500 entries in four anthologies:
The Sun Will Rise Again (2016), Mixed History (2017), Deep Dreams (2018) and Micah (2019).
For the fifth edition, Okwubi Godwin Adah (UNIBEN), Samson Abanni (Ebonyi State University) and Biachi Ndidi Anointing (Benue State University) were adjudged winners for the fifth edition of the prize.
The announcement was made at an awards, which held at Virginrose Resorts, Victoria Island, Lagos. The top three prize winners were received N500,000. An excited Adah went home with a cheque of N250, 000.
The consolation prize winners – Gimbiya Galadima from UNIBEN (fourth best entrant), Uchechukwu Ezenwa-Ohaeto from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka (fifth best entrant) and Ndipmong-Uwem Dickson Isaiah from University of Uyo (fifth best entrant) – were not left out. They shared N50,000.