Kunle Adelabu
-Monetary, publishing, performance contracts for winner
Organisers of the Ikorodu – Oga Development Association (IKODASS) Writing Competition, have stated that the literary initiative was designed to change some of the negative narratives about Ikorodu Division.
According to report, the competition, which is part of IKODASS Ikorodu Literary Initiative (ILI), focuses on publishing literary works that would focus on Ikorodu which would project her to the state, nationwide and the global village at large.
The prize money for the competition that is being organized by IKODASS in conjunction with Promocom Ventures Limited, is N500, 000 with winner going home with N300, 000. 000 with publishing and performance contract, while he first and second runners – up will get N100, 000. 00 each.
Mr Rotimi Erogbogbo, Chairman, IKODASS, and Mr Austin Awulonu, Lead Consultant, Promocom Ventures Limited, provided details on the competition which its entry opened July 7th and will close on September 31st, 2022.
“It is a competition that seeks to curate literary works (plays in this first instance) on Ikorodu. It is a component of what IKODASS has called Ikorodu Literary Initiative,(lLI). Of course, the event covers Plays, poetry and prose”, Mr Austin Awulonu said.
“But for this first year, the focus is plays”, he added.
“The goal of Ikorodu Literary Initiative is to change the general negative narratives about Ikorodu through publication of literary works that focus on Ikorodu. The intention is to market Ikorodu globally”, Mr Erogbogbo also said.
“Through this competition, the world will see Ikorodu afresh as winning entries shall emerge through professional assessment. The broad objectives also include positively engaging the youths and show them the immense opportunities available in the literary world”, the IKODASS Chairman emphasied .
Explaining what the initiative was designed to achieve during the session on THE IMPACT platform, Mr Awulonu, who is a movie director and content developer, said:
“The competition is conceived as 100% Ikoroducentric. By that, we mean the thematic concern of any work submitted must be on Ikorodu. Writers are at liberty to choose whatever area of focus they so like provided it is positive”, he said.
“Remember that beyond writing, the winning play shall be published and commissioned for performances. Hopefully, it will tour the world.
“Truth to tell is what most of us know about other cultures is a function of reading. Shakespeare’s body of work is inter alia our window in the Elizabethan era. Ditto China Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’ and his other works. We hope that through this competition we can unearth such work that will place Ikorodu effectively in the global map of literary works”, he added.
“Ola Rotimi’s ‘Kurunmi’; ‘Overanmwen Nogbaisi’; ‘Hopes of The Living Dead’ not mention ‘The God’s Are Not To Blame’ etc. are further examples of such works”.
In his own explanation on the objective of ILI, the IKODASS Chairman, Mr. Rotimi Erogboggo, said:
“”Perception is everything”, so the saying goes. The negative perception of Ikorodu continues to slow the pace of our development. Just think where we could have been with a more positive perception if despite the present negative perception we have, we have been able to come this far? We must quickly remember that name is what you are called by others not necessarily not necessarily what you call yourself. To get people to call you what you want, you must model that thing for them. This is one of the goals we’re trying to achieve through this initiative”, he said.
The team also assured members of the public, especially participants that the process of selection will be fair and transparent with the mechanism put in place for submission of entries and quality of judges that would determine the final outcome.
Speaking, Mr Awulonu said:
“Seasoned professionals from the academia with years of practice shall be the judges of the entries.
“All entries go to them without name or any reference to writer. They basically assess the work on its merit.
“The only partiality that would be in this is the quality of work each writer enters for the competition. The caliber of Assessors we have assembled have their name and reputation to protect”, Awulonu added
In his own reaction, Mr Erogbogbo said that the organisers who are using the initiative to address some issues and rebrand Ikorodu with it, cannot afford not to make the competition one that people would not want to associate with.
“We are going somewhere. We cannot afford to mess up the amazing vision of this project. Fairness and transparency shall be our watch word. Winners shall emerge through professional assessment (judges)”, he assured.
According to organisers, the competition will be an annual event and there are plans to get corporate bodies, individuals and government to buy into the concept for its sustainability.
“Yes, it conceived as an annual competition. First level of sustainability is partly what is happening here tonight – stirring the creative juices and challenging writers to think Ikorodu for themes of their works:, Mr Awulonu said during the session.
“The other plan of sustaining this is the financial aspect. We are reaching out to individuals and organisations to join hands with us on this. Some conversations are on-going”, he added.
The IKODASS Chairman, Mr Erogbogbo, said that the organisers are planning to push for the adoption of winning entries into the school curriculum.
“We also intend to push the works through the State Government to adopt our play, prose, poetry into the school’s curriculum just like that of ‘Things Fall Apart’, ‘Akin the Drummer Boy’ and ‘Eze goes to School”, he said.
“We have well over 3 million students in Lagos secondary schools. Just 100 Naira profit per book is 300,000,000 (300million Naira).This should guarantee sustainability of the whole exercise”, he emphasised.
Writers across the world who will be minimum of 18years by December 2022, are qualify to participate provided the work he or she enters for the competition has never been published before.
Entries for the competition must be in Microsoft/ PDF format with writer’s details, contact number of parent/guardian(s) are expected to be submitted to: https//www.ikoroduoga.com,ng/ikorodu-literary-initiative/
