​The winner is Ol​uwatimilehin.

​​Title: Garri For Breakfast
Author: ​Seun Lari-Williams
Pages: 147 pages

Seun Lari-Williams is “a Nigerian” in his poetry. By the first statement, I mean that; just like Tolu Akinyemi, Seun is very skilled with adding sarcasm, wit, and a sprinkle of savagery to poetry.
 
In his book Garri for breakfast, Seun writes about human experiences, highlighting little things that we overlook and take for granted. Seun’s poetry brings meaning to some Nigerian traditions, norms, and beliefs. Seun uses code mix in some places to add to the allure and effect of his words and in some places, he compares Nigerian languages to the foreign English language.
 
Particularly, in the poem titled “Winches,” we can see that Seun’s humor is over the fence.
He writes about an “Oyinbo boy’s” curiosity of African juju and witches. The Nigerian persona in this poem then says the following;

Emily Dickinson in her definition of poetry made bold claims that poetry is a genre that rips off the top of one’s head that makes one’s body cold so much that no fire can ever warm it. Indeed, it is this goal that every poet drifts towards, whether consciously or unconsciously. For the poet is burdened with the duty of ensuring that each piece tastes like the nectar of Olympus, and this has often birthed avant-garde expeditions; poets who intentionally break “rules” in order to satisfy the wailing of the Muse. It is from this experimentation that the free verse movement was born, and also the insistence on imagery by Ezra Pound upon his encounter with the Japanese haiku.
Poetry is fluid, like memory. It takes the form of the container. It takes the form of the poet. However, most often the poets who satisfy our thirst for “newness” are those who utilize the manipulation of reality, those who learn to not just use concrete images in their work, but also knead these images into desired forms. For the purpose of this essay, I would love to call it the Principle of Transubstantiation of Images. It would be better to classify it as a sub-genre of the surrealist movement. Where surrealism desperately seeks for haunting images that would unleash the subconscious, the poet who uses transubstantiation not only achieves this, but also induces new images from old ones.

Many mentors mentored me,
And their wise words
Mended my mentality.

Many mentors mentored me
And mended my mishap mind,
Hence, my mind mutated to a mighty mind.

Brethren, mend your thinking tanks
Towards thinking thinkable things.

Can you shed a barrel of tears after your eyes are plucked out?
Can you walk on air with me after your legs are eaten up?
Can you break a laughter or paint a smile on your spotless sur-Face
Which when beheld, lightens up the darkness within me
After your teeth are fallen and face fiendishly frozen?
Can your heart sing the melody my heart sings after its breath is sucked out?
 
Why is it becoming unbecoming to become yourself just this once again?
Or can you still love me after you lay low in the soil?
 
Victoria Fakiya is an essayist, poet and a writer of fiction. She's also a blogger and she blogs at latoriaa.com. She is currently a 400-level student of the prestigious, first and the best university, University of Ibadan where she studies Animal science.

I am having to unlearn things -
Like the gift of the journey is not always in the arrival.

I am having to unlearn things -
That I do not need the night's darkness
I am enough.

I am having to unlearn things -
This stem that I am,
Stem off Father's tree,
Is too heavy for me.
Eagles and vultures find solace here
And I am to touch the earth every time.
This is good for Father
For His roots are sunken deep in the sea.

Behind that crowd is the man's sky
Like being in his once upon a time boyhood
When he'd hide behind success scenes
To watch, wish and rehearse his dreams
In glorious thoughts of persistent themes
That will always cost his last breath
But he never took a step further
Till success ran away farther
And he became the Tortoise chasing Cheetah
Till every path of his became dead luck.

Balogun Ibrahim Ayobami is a student of Sociology at the University of Ibadan. Although he is an indigine of Ibadan, he was born in Lagos State and he grew up in Ogun State, Nigeria. Hailing from a humble background, he went through 'warms and hots' of life which later served as source of inspiration in the later parts of his life as a writer. He is a poet, a press-man and a public speaker. 

He tugged at my arm, I looked at him. 
He was unruly and dirty, I smirked in hatred,
Pulled my arm away from him, 
I was in a rush, I was well dressed, 
With no time to spare the begging brat. 
I crossed the road, jumping in time away from an over speeding car, 
And then I heard a loud bang, 
A sound that will forever torment me. 
I turned, only to see the road splattered with a hue of red. 
Then it all dawned on me, he did not need my money,  
He only needed me to cross the busy road which I failed at. 
Too late, he is gone. 
Here is the innocent driver being arrested, 
I looked at myself, the guilty one. 
A murderer dressed in suit.   

Owolawi Miracle is a Nigerian writer, currently studying Human Nutrition and Dietetics in University of Ibadan. Ibadan
His passion for humanity and a better world is reflected in his writings.