Winner of the 2025 Nigeria Prize for Literature, Oyin Olugbile, has expressed deep gratitude to Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) for recognising her debut novel, Sànyà.
Speaking at a press briefing last Thursday at Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, Olugbile said, “I really want to thank NLNG once again. Imagine someone saying my work isn’t good enough, and yet they’re seeing Oyin Olugbile’s first work – well, my only one for now. This recognition is deeply inspiring. It makes me want to do more. It’s proof that you don’t need to have millions of published works to create something exceptional.”
She shared how she started the novel back in 2017. “I wrote down the summary and how I imagined the story would unfold. I even started with Chapter One. But then, life happened. I was having children, so I would stop, research, stop again, and continue whenever I could,” she explained.
On the challenge of writing while managing family life, Olugbile said, “For any writer out there, writing is the real hard work. Thinking about the story is the easiest part, but actually writing it and making it good – that’s where the work is. To stay consistent, I surrounded myself with a few people who helped with accountability and progress. My husband was my main accountability partner, he hounded me daily because, at the time, I wasn’t a creative writer. He’d always say, ‘Hmm, this thing you’re doing, go and write that one,’ and every time he said that, I would push myself to write a bit more. I also had an editor, someone I paid to review each chapter. Many first-time writers think writing is a one-person journey, but it’s not. You need people around you, people who tell you the truth and keep you accountable.”
Olugbile, who was pregnant with her fifth child during submission, credited her publishers for handling the NLNG application. “While I was juggling pregnancy, family and everything else, my publishers took it upon themselves to handle the submission process. They believed so much in the story that they said, ‘Don’t worry, we’ve got this.’ It was such a relief because, at that point, I didn’t even have the mental or physical energy to go through the process myself.”
Reflecting on her writing process, particularly dealing with “brain fog”, she said, “Brain fog is constant for us, especially mothers with young children. Sometimes I walk into the kitchen and forget why I’m there. I remember one of my children standing in front of me one day, and I said, ‘Wait, which one are you?’ She looked at me like, ‘Mommy, why would you say that?’ and I just said, ‘Sorry, sorry, sorry.’ The weirdest part of writing is that sometimes you dream about a plot, see it clearly in your mind, and think, ‘I’ll write this tomorrow.’ Then morning comes and you’re like, ‘How?’”
On overcoming brain fog, Olugbile added, “I have a process. I work on my phone. I don’t need to set up an office or sit in front of a laptop. Fun fact, all of my editing, rewrites and the entire process of putting Sànyà together, I never once wrote on a laptop. I would scribble notes to myself, this idea here, that phrase there and when I finally had time, I merged everything together and sent it to my editor. Most times, we think we need the perfect setup before we can create. But analysis paralysis is real, you can overthink until you produce nothing. Just scribble. That’s how stories get written.”
She also spoke about her research for the book. “I didn’t exactly grow up in Ibadan, so my focus wasn’t even on the modern Oyo area – it was on the Old Oyo Empire. Sànyà, the main character, embarks on a journey, travels through different lands, and ends up somewhere else. I wanted a map to help readers visually follow her journey. Even without physically travelling to Oyo, my research and imagination were grounded in the history and legacy of the Old Oyo Empire, a civilization that continues to inspire me because of its depth, culture and untold stories.”
Comparing her character’s journey and that of humanity, Olugbile said, “- is there a journey of Sànyà, a journey of humanity, or the journey of a Nigerian child? Definitely yes. Sànyà was always becoming. There was a continuous evolution, from the time she was conceived, to when she was born, when she ran away, disappeared, re-emerged, became king, fell in love and eventually conceived fire. That journey mirrors the journey of everyone, including mine.”
On future projects, she revealed, “I’ll definitely try other genres, but I think I’m very comfortable and confident in speculative fiction. Before now, I had already begun working on the sequel to Sànyà. After Sànyà, I moved into screenwriting, particularly for projects based in the UK and parts of America. Right now, I’m working on three books at the same time and I’ve been developing them for about two or three years. For me, I never put pen to paper until I’ve done serious research. People will always ask questions and I want to be able to stand confidently and say, ‘I’ve done the work. It may not be perfect, but it’s deeply informed and honest.’”
She concluded with a call to support future writers: “I would try, as best as I can, to invest in future writers. I’ve had that conversation already. We’re now on the lookout for good writing, it doesn’t have to be mythology or fantasy. When we find such stories, there will be that contribution, that support, for those books to be published. Because if Sànyà could find its place in the world, then there are countless others waiting to be discovered.”
The Nigeria Prize for Literature, established in 2004 by NLNG, is one of Africa’s most prestigious literary awards.
The 2025 edition focused on prose fiction and was awarded to Olugbile for her exceptional work in Sànyà. She beat Chigozie Obioma and Nikki May to clinch the $100,000 prize.
