Announcing the Finalists: 2022 Prize for Satire

We are excited to finally announce the finalists for the third edition of the Prize for Satire competition.

After through review and evaluation of a total of 145 entries received, we longlisted 22 entrants, earlier announced. Upon further inspection and evaluation, we are glad to announce these entrants as winners of the Prize for Satire 2022.

1st: Toheeb Aremu Jamiu for his entry “Leaders of Tomorrow.”

2nd: Aaliyah Rahman for her entry “Why Everyone Should Study in Nigeria.”

3rd: Som Adedayor for his entry “The Advanced English Dictionary of Nigeria.”

The evaluation of the articles was based primarily on the quality of writing, humour, socio-political relevance, and creativity. We are proud to mention that we recorded more balanced participation from both genders this year, with 41.4 per cent of the entrants being female while the rest identified as male. This is opposed to 25.7 per cent and 33.6 per cent female participation in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

We would be leaving the words of satirsts we admire, Elnathan John and Chuma Nwokolo, for your reflection:

“Good satire not only ridicules our political failures or cultural foibles, it is also a call to action. For satire to be this call to action, it must avoid things which may distract from this engagement. Poor editing, obvious grammar mistakes and overwrought metaphors, all stand in the way of engagement and more than most genres, satire must be meticulous. Satire can be subtle or brutal, and can use various styles, but it always has a serious concern. It cannot be flippant. Like a person wielding a weapon, every stroke must be deliberate or one risks harming the wrong person or harming oneself.”

— Elnathan John

“Satires come with thorns; this is the nature of the art. To be effective, those thorns – be they soft or prickly – must be delivered on roses of distractingly beautiful writing. This speaks to a native balancing act of enchantment and vex. All this to say that the satirist’s anger must be subordinate to, and never overwhelm, his artistry. His literary devices must zing. They should be either novel or burnished, must be neither clunky nor heavy-handed. We the readers are drawn to wit, not to rage. But it is the writer’s superlative wit that gives him licence to rage against society’s failings. In the end, it is beauty – that lightness of touch, that spice shaker of humour and that creative nous of the skilled artist – that seduces us, again and again, to the pages of satire.”

— Chuma Nwokolo

We say hearty congratulations to everyone on this list.