By Chiedu Uche Okoye. Poetry, a genre of literature, is an old art; William Wordsworth defined poetry as the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recollected in tranquility. Nigerian poets are holding aloft the poetic heritage left behind by Chris Okigbo, Wole Soyinka, Gabriel Okara, and John Pepper Clark. Thankfully, NLNG instituted a literary competition which rotates among children's literature, poetry, drama, and prose.
This year's edition is for poetry and 223 entries were received. Tares Oburumu is on the shortlist for the coveted 2026 NLNG literary prize, alongside James Ngwu Eze ('Unbind Me Now') and Ogaga Ifowodo ('Why Does God Need A Gun'). Oburumu won the Sillerman First Book For African Poetry in 2022 and the GAP poetry prize in 2014. He recounted that nursery school education eluded him; he attended a primary school where he sat on bare ground - 'We had no school library, no books, and only about four teachers.
We were taught just four subjects: English language, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Christian Religious Studies. We sat on the mud floor until primary four. It was then I wore my first school uniform, which my mother bought with funds she was saving for her fish trade.' His mother is the afflatus of his poetic enterprise. His shortlisted work, Flora's Love Colony, is a classic re-telling of our chequered colonial past.
If he wins, it will prove that the circumstances of a man's birth cannot impede his intellectual pursuits.
