Asiat Meikudi reports
Zaynab Illiyasu Bobi, a 500-level student of Medical Laboratory Science at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto has been announced winner of the Inaugural-Akachi Chukwuemeka prize literature at an online event held on Saturday, 13th May, 2023.
The prize contest was organized to honor the memory of Akachi Chukwuemeka, a poet with mental illness. And it’s aimed at raising mental health awareness in Nigeria.
With a least expectation, Zaynab Illiyasu, who had once been the winner of Gimba Suleiman Hassan Gimba ESQ poetry prize 2022_ a Nigerian poetry contest organized by Gimba Suleiman Hassan Gimba_described her trials on knowing about the inaugural which she said she saw via a social platform and opted to give it a try.
“The contest came to me unexpectedly, even though I came to know about it via social media; Tweeter, Facebook and it was shared by some people on whatsapp, it’s via social media entirely,” She said.
Speaking with the NEWS DIGEST PRESS, Zaynab outlined the odds she experienced before achieving the momentum feat.
“I felt discouraged because my instinct was telling me otherwise. There were poets that are established and that I’ve been looking up to, a feeling of demean grab me and I knew I couldn’t win,” she said.
That she could win the contest was a dream she was never told. She described how stunned and happy she was upon seeing her name on the finalist’s list.
“The announcement came as a surprise to me because I never thought I could win the contest. When the long list was released, I was so confident enough that I wasn’t going to make it.”
“Then later on, my name appeared on the shortlist which ignited my hope, but when the finalist’s list came out I was very shocked when I saw my name as the winner, I never for once thought I would make it that far. But Alhamdulillah I did,”she added.