- Safiu Kehinde
Nigerian author, Oyin Olugbile, has emerged winner of the 2025 Nigerian Prize for Literature.
Olugbile bagged home the award sponsored by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) with her novel, Sanya.
The author had at the grand award ceremony held on Friday, at Eko Hotels, Lagos beat Chigozie Obioma’s The Road to the Country, and Nikki May’s This Motherless Land to clinch the prestigious honour.
According to reports, the award is regarded as Africa’s most prestigious literary prize which celebrates excellence in creative writing and rotates yearly among the genres of prose fiction, poetry, drama, and children’s literature.
Meanwhile in her remark, the Chair of the award’s Advisory Board, Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, hailed the finalists.
She appraised Olugbile’s work stressing that it “distinguishes itself through masterful plotting, characterisation, and a good command of language that transports readers into imagined worlds.” S
Adimora-Ezeigbo further commended the judging panel for their thorough evaluation and the authors for their creativity.
The judging panel, chaired by Associate Professor Saeedat Bolajoko Aliyu of the Department of English, Kwara State University, with members Professor Stephen Mbanefo Ogene of Nnamdi Azikiwe University and writer and broadcaster Olakunle Kasumu, reportedly assessed the shortlisted entries for their originality and narrative strength.