Taofeek Olatunbosun has emerged as the grand winner of the maiden edition of the TY Buratai Young Adult Literature Prize.
Six winners had earlier emerged from the six geopolitical zones. They include Sima Essien’s ‘Dreamwalker’ (South-South), Michael Igbonekwu’s ‘Mysteries of the Haunted House’ (South-East), Bilqisa Abubakar’s ‘The Last Sacrifice’ (North West), Taofeek Olatunbosun’s ‘Truth and Dare’ (South West), Hajarah Bashar’s ‘Portraiture of a Dreamer’ (North Central), and Yohanna S Daniel’s ‘The Northern Boy’ (North East).
While Olatubosun received the grand prize of N1 million, the other five winners received a cash prize of N250,000 each.
The award ceremony which held Friday at Tukur & Tukur farm along Abuja – Keff road, Nasarawa state, was organized by the TY Buratai Literary Initiative (TYBLI).
Speaking at the event, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babagana Kingibe, who was the special guest of honour at the event, said literature and writing are at the foundation of all human communication and civilizations.
He also emphased the importance of grammatical accuracy in writing.
He said: “Today we are confused by all sorts of means of communication. Technology has made the function of communication go in a different direction but technology can never supplant the power of the written word.
“Whatever you do or whatever your profession is; a teacher, a business man, a soldier, communication and communicating well is the key to success.
“Literature involves not just novel writing and story telling, I believe in good grammatical foundation in whatever language you communicate with.
“Whatever literally form you want to concentrate in, you have to master it on the basis of strong grammatical foundation.”
He also lauded the former Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and Nigerian Ambassador to the Republic of Benin, Tukur Yusuf Buratai, for the initiative.
“I am not surprised that Ambassador Buratai is behind this initiative. I didn’t know that your foundation was at Teacher’s Training Collage.
“Now I understand your passion for education , your passion for research. In your career in the military you emphasized the need to broadened and deepened intellectual contents of the career of your officers and men,” he said.
Earlier in his remarks, Buratai said the initiative was born out of his passion for literature.
Buratai while calling for partnership, said the prize money for the next edition would be increased to encourage more people to participate.
According to him: “I remember when I was at Borno Teacher’s College, I was a member of literary club. And from there when I went went to Potiskum I continued there.
“I want to call on those who want to support this initiative to please do so.
“Join us to promote this literary works, join us to promote intellectual development of our youths, promote leadership through critical thinking so that the youths will be developed to be able to lead in the future. ”
He said one of the advantages of literary writing is the ability express yourself.
“For you to express yourself very well you must write and if you don’t write, whatever you have in your mind, you may tend to forget .
“Today’s event is quite historic. I want to appreciate those who contributed one article or the other during the selection period.
“We appreciate the number of participants who entered for the competition. The geopolitical spread is very interesting because we want to extend it to all parts of the country. ”
In his speech, the grand winner, Olatubosun, pledged to be a good ambassador of the foundation.
“I want to assure the foundation that I am going to be a good ambassador of the foundation both at home and abroad.
“I am going to do everything possible to promote this foundation using all a avenue available to me,” he said.
He added that his story belongs to the military family though very deep.
“My own father is a retired military officer. He served in the Congo, he served in Liberia, he served in Yugoslavia and Ghana.
“I was sent to a military school but I left because my mother was not comfortable with the idea, so I went back to Lagos to continue my schooling.
“My elder brother joined the military but unfortunately he died in Maiduguri (Major Olatubosun ) May his soul rest in peace.
“”Unfortunately, a month later his son committed suicide in his house in Jaji. It was when I visited his house that I got the idea for the manuscript. ”
