The winners of the maiden edition of the Ayodele Bamidele/ Idris Amali Environmental Poetry Prize 2016/2017 have been selected after a thorough examination and evaluation of over thirty submissions from different participants, all students in Kogi State University. It was a tedious job and we salute the various judges for their steadfastness and tenacity towards the completion of the project. Hence, we  hereby present the best seven poems out of all submissions entered for the contest.

Ayodele Bamidele/Idris Amali Environmental Poetry Prize

Shortlisted poets and Poems:

Kolawole Taye                            “THE CALL”
Omeiza Jeremiah                      “WAR OF giANTS"                       
Abugu Kizito                               “ILL AT EASE”
Michael Ogboji                            “A MEMORABLE OCTOBER”
Emmanuel Abraham                 “August Rain”
Roselyn Nseobong Ekanem    “STOP THE FLAMES”
Musa O. Victoria                         “THIS AMAZING EARTH”

As displayed in the poster above, the winner gets ten literary books/plaque/certificate while the first and second runner up will also get plaques/certificate, and eight and six literary books respectively. The amazing thing is that consolatory prizes will be awarded to the 4th to 7th places!

The date for giving out these prizes will soon be communicated. Finally, to our lucky winners and writers of the best seven poems, we say big congratulations  to you all.

Keep visiting the site for updates on the poetry contest and also to know when the submission for the 2017/2018 Bamidele/Amali Environmental Poetry Prize will commence.

Thank you.

Announcer: Akwu Sunday Victor (Award Curator)

TRIBUTE

(FOR BUCHI EMECHETA)

The world is clad in a black garment!
We are thickly clothed in the slough of despondency.
The gong resonates, the gunpowder blasts
Didigo, digo, roars the great ikoro
The comets hover across the bereaved sky
Mournfully warbling sullen dirges,
Dirges of a departure.

Oh, Emecheta how nobly you
To that great summon answered!
A creative leviathan has joined the trail of the spirits,
Who can protest the inviolable will of the ancestors?

You were a maverick griot
Of renaissance generation pullulating
Along our fledgling nation
Telling the story of your cultural heritage
Adding fine feathers to the cannons of African literature
Indeed, you created a feminine space
In an arena of creative patriarchy
And became a deathless testament
Marbled on the lips of mother Earth.

"It is finished," so decrees the eternal tablet.
You can now go and rest on your laurels
Which cannot be blotted out by the fast hands of Time.
If only the strength of pen could reclaim you
From the tight talons of death
Thousands of literati would maim death
With their boundless brook of ink.

Alas, we the budding writers are greatly pained
Yet we have taken consolation in the baton
You passed; to us and those after;
To ensure an unbroken continuum of creative vocation.

Go well,the trove of treasured stories
Go in peace, Ibuza's finest breed.
We are powerless before death!
As you sojourn beyond, take home also
Amongst your virtuous impedimenta
Our salutes to the owners of the great Hall!
Tell them...
We from this mundane world send our greetings
Adieu great one!

Amadi P. Njoku
2017