Readings Café, a sponsored literary event hosted by FinishedWork Enterprises and NASELS, Department of English, University of Lagos, held at the Arts Block, University of Lagos, on Thursday August 2, 2018.
It was an opportunity for TheNiche, one of Nigeria’s best and popular online newspaper to institute a prize in poetry competition for the best student in that area.
The events featured the reading of Novelist Olukorede Yishau’s new novel, In the Name of the Father, the reading of The Blood of a Stranger, an award winning play from FESTAC 77 by Dele Charley, a Sierra Leonean and short story reading, The Tale of ‘Alvine’ Chike by Harry Nzube.
Other activities were talks by Dr Moji Shodipe of Department of English, UNILAG, on the Reading Culture; Dr Sola Ogunbayo on Literary Appreciation and Mrs. Lechi Eke of FinishedWork Enterprises on The Purpose of Literature.
Also, featuring this year for the first time was TheNiche Online Newspaper Poetry Competition.
Oluwaseyi Oso (300 level) won the prize and smiled home with the prize money while three other contestants, the runners up – Victor Ibidapo Ogunleye (2nd position), Richard Okata (3rd position) and Anastacia Onyinyechi Azuma (4th position) did not go home empty-handed as Novelist Olukorede Yishau graciously lined their pockets with thousands of crispy naira notes.
Among the dignitaries that attended the event were, the Head of Department of English Department, UNILAG, Prof Hope Eghaghe, Dr Mrs Ify Marinze, one-time Dean and head of Department of French Language, YabaTech, Dr Mrs Bose Afolayan, Dr Nurayn Aliu, Dcns Joe Okonedo of TREM, a seasoned English Language teacher and retiree of St Mary’s College Broad Street, Lagos, among others.
The well attended programme which had problem sitting all participants, was sponsored by UBA, Peak Milk, TheNiche online newspaper, Larboni (cake and confectionary, a subsidiary of Sumptuous Meals), WABP and PrintPlanet.
Human Resources Manager, Kehinde Okeowo while presenting the prize to the overall winner said TheNiche was glad to be part of the event, and advised the students to take advantage of the Reading Cafe to distinguish themselves in their courses of study.
He added that TheNiche will always support courses that deal with human capital development, no matter how small, using its widely read platform.
