Saheed Sunday, a 200-level English Language student of Lagos State University (LASU) has emerged as the winner of the Zaccheus Onumba Dibiaezue Memorial Library (ZODML) 2023 poetry challenge for Nigerian students in public universities in Nigeria.
Sunday, age 18 was declared the overall winner out of 791 contenders that were prone down to 10 and subsequently to five at an event held on Saturday, May 27, 2023 at ZODML Library, 196 Awolowo Road, Ikoyi-Lagos.
His poem titled ‘My Mother’ was considered the best of the outstanding final five poems selected by the judges. The theme of the 2023 ZODML poetry challenge was “Motherhood”.
According to Ifeoma Esiri, executive chairman at ZODML the poetry challenge was aimed at inculcating reading culture in students building on the legacy of the late Zaccheus Onumba Dibiaezue, who dropped out of primary school due to socio-economic issues but later became a graduate and lawyer through self-reading of books.
“The ZODML Poetry Challenge is part of our commitment to nurturing and inspiring that demographic. This challenge will improve their competence and confidence, and awaken creative thinking in them.
We looked at our impact and what we are able to achieve over the years, and we said, let’s challenge the children intellectually and creatively, so we said well, let us have a poetry challenge.
And chose poetry because we felt that Africans in general and Nigeria to be specific, people use language in a very rhythmic and beautiful way and that is what poetry is all about.
Read also: Artsplit kicks off art competition to mark Nigeria’s power transition
We decide to have a poetry challenge because we felt like it was tasking, and we thought that it was going to allow the students to play with language which is something that we as a people always do.”
The prize money for the overall winner is N100,000, the first and second runner-up goes home with N50,000 and N25,000 respectively, while the rest will receive N10,000 each.
Chidiebere Nwuguru from Ebonyi State University was announced as the first runner-up, Lenient Amidu of Federal University Lafia in Nasarawa State was the second runner-up, while Ademola Jerry-Adesewo of Federal University of Oye-Ekiti and Seyi Ojenike of Tai-Solarin University of Education were joint fourth place winners.
Esiri, who is the daughter of the late Zaccheus Dibiaezue explained that the reason the poetry challenge was opened to Nigerian students in public tertiary institutions in Nigeria alone was that the organisation have limited resources, and had to spend it where it is needed most.
“We are an NGO, and as a result, our resource is limited, so we have to spend it where we feel there is the greatest need.
And we feel that private universities have a lot of backup and a lot of options which is not the case in public universities and so that’s why we limited it to public universities.
Besides, we wanted the students in public tertiary institutions to know that they’re not forgotten,” Esiri said.
The judges were drawn from renowned poets and authors such as Tade Ipadeola, a legal luminary and respected Nigerian poet. Aduke Gomez, a legal practitioner, and author, and Acharaugo Ilozumba, a playwright.
ZODML is a charity organisation in Lagos working in the education sector. Since its inception in 2000, we have established 54 libraries, 34 in local government primary schools in Lagos and Anambra States, 19 in prisons across Nigeria, and one community library at 196 Awolowo Road, Ikoyi.
Much of the work at ZODML is centred on getting young Nigerians to imbibe reading and other intellectual pursuits.
And to achieve this, the non-governmental organisation has set up an annual challenge open only to public tertiary students in Nigeria to inculcate a competitive spirit in them.
