Look around you, we are left
alone with the mud of creation
and maybe that is all there is to life,
the creating of a new way of living
– Romeo Oriogun (Cotonou).
I was searching for a way to start this letter. Then these lines in your poem, ‘Cotonou’, seem to speak to why I am writing you. Usually, the first thing is to ask how you are doing, but the answer is almost obvious given the event of October 14. But first, how is Iowa, that American state with a university renowned for its legacy of training and hosting many of the world’s greatest literary voices? Iowa has been your home for some time and my wish is that you will get the best it has to offer. And if you choose to leave, I trust you will continue to be in good health.
Though you have poetically glowed in the interestingly named Story County in Ames city, I have no intention of boring you with stories. All I want to point out is that you have given history no choice but to remember you.
As I write this, I still see the image of you cupping your face as Prof. Akachi Ezeigbo announced you the 2022 winner of Africa’s biggest literary prize, the $100,000-worth Nigeria Prize for Literature. There was a palpable relief on your face as the marathon that prizes of this magnitude are ended on an exciting note. From the shortlist of 11 to the shortlist of three, it sure was momentous.
Having been a nominee in the last edition, I know how heart-pumping the waiting game can be.
The shortlist of 11 included Prof. Remi Raji-Oyelade and other older poets. By the time the list was reduced to the last three, only a new generation of poets was left. It was the first time poets of your generation edged out older poets from the shortlist. The pendulum eventually swung in your favour, and graceful is how you have carried this crown, which has once graced the heads of Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, Jude Idada and many more.
The judges, who include Toyin Adewale-Gabriel (poet) and phenomenal Dike Chukwumerije (also a poet), were blown away by the fact that the 67 poems in your collection, ‘Nomad’, ‘were held together by a travel motif, marshaled in each poem with equal intensity and linked to the African past, including the Middle Passage, and the African future’.
I write you today to congratulate you, not just for winning the prize, but for winning the honour, the honour of staying through to a gentleman’s agreement, an agreement made when neither you nor the other two contenders knew who the cap would fit.
Hours before you got the poet laureate crown, there was a tweet by culture activist and writer Kola Tubosun about sharing the prize money between all the three finalists. He tweeted: “$33k is 23,925,000 naira, which is what each poet on the @NGRLitPrize will get if they have a gentleman’s agreement to share the money among themselves instead of having one person take all the $100k.”
One of those who replied is Jumoke Verissimo, the brilliant writer of ‘A Small Silence’. She said: “I hope whosoever wins among the 3 poets will be willing to share the prize money. It’d make the “brotherhood” deeply meaningful. @SonOfOlokun @SaddiqDzukogi @Sueddieagema.”
There was also a reply to this call for socialism in poetry prizes by award-winning writer Kukogho Iruesiri Samson, who tweeted: “Honestly, I would be glad if this happened. Very, very glad actually. I have had this conversation with one of the three and he shared the same sentiment.”
Not a few have sought an end to the winner-takes-all approach of the prize.
As I scrolled through the discussion, I saw your tweet: “There’s already an arrangement in place.”
Read Also: Romeo Oriogun’s Nomad wins $100,000 NLNG literature prize
Your reaction that you and the two other finalists (Saddiq Dzukogi and Su’eddie Agema) had agreed on a sharing formula excited me like it did Jumoke who replied: “Yay!”
But somehow I was apprehensive about this brother code. I wondered if the winner would not renege. When you were announced the winner, it ascended a new meaning to me that the one who revealed the arrangement is the one the onus has fallen on to implement it. My joy knew heavenly bound when you announced on your Instagram handle that you would send $10,000 each to Saddiq and Sueddie, your ‘brother’ who you happily asked to pick up the prize on your behalf.
Like Paressia Publishers co-founder Azafi Ogosi-Omoluabi noted on Facebook, you have set a record. This is unprecedented. What this has done for Saddiq and S’ueddie cannot be overemphasised. Having been nominated for the prize before, I know what it feels like coming close to Jerusalem and being turned back at the entry point with no monetary reward to show for it when the winner gets a whopping $100,000.
Romeo, I believe that for a book to make the first 11 or the first three is no mean feat and each writer deserves a slice of the cake.
Organisers of literary prizes where the winner takes all need to change the model. If the Nigeria LNG Limited decides to reform the prize and let the runner ups get cash prizes too, the literary community has you to thank. Yes, you and the others agreed, but it takes the winner to seal the agreement, and that you have done with grace, and grace upon grace will follow you everywhere, anywhere and nowhere.
As I end this letter, my plea to the Nigeria LNG Limited is that the winner takes all regime of the Nigeria Prize for Literature has to end. The runners up must get cash prizes too and copies of the books of the first eleven must be acquired and made available to students all over the country free of charge.
Once again, Romeo, congratulations. I hope to meet you one day and pump fists with you for being a man of honour. Thank God, I am just two hours, fifteen minutes by air from you.
Always remember this: Posterity will never forget you, not just for winning the prize, not just for the generational statement that your win represents, but for the gracious spirit of giving out $20,000 that you have the sole right to. Like the lines in ‘Cotonou’, you have created something new with your gesture and you have told us that “all there is to life” is
“the creating of a new way of living”.
Stay blessed and continue to live because the time to leave is far, far away.