By Joseph Joy, Ruth Ani, Onyekachi Agu and Amarachi Daniel

Divine Adachukwu Onyekwena, has emerged winner of the 2025 Poetry Slam competition.

Organized by the Enugu State Literary Society in Collaboration with the West Africa Broadcast and Media Academy (WABAMA), the competition was part of activies to mark the 2025 World Poetry Day on March 21.

A spoken word artist, voice-over artist, event host, and English language teacher, Onyekwena overcome stiff competition from other 7 contestants to pocket home the N100, 000 prize.

Expressing he delight, Onyekwena said the vicroty is huge motivation and thank the organizer for putting up the competition. She commended her fellow contestants for their spectacular show adding that they were all winners.

“I feel excited! The invite came as a surprise; if not, I wouldn’t be here. Let’s say every event that led up to this was like a miracle. I actually came to have fun, and it didn’t matter to me if I won or not, because I knew there were good poets here. But then I won, and am happy!”

As the overall winner of the competition, Onyekwena was awarded a cash prize of ₦100,000. The prize was presented to her at the end of the competition, which was held in Enugu and featured participants from across the region.

Ezikiel Blessing Odorenyi came second. As first runner up of the competition, Odorenyi took home a cash prize of ₦30,000. In a surprise move, the organizers added an additional ₦30,000 to her winnings, bringing her total prize money to ₦60,000.

The 2025 Poetry Slam competition was held in Enugu, with participants from across the South East region with foremost Nigerian-American journalist and poet, Chika Oduah reciting some of her poems during the event.

Speaking on the essence of the Day and the competition, the Rector of WABMA , Mr Ken Okere said the competition was part of activities to mark the Global day and to create awareness and encourage younger generations to take to the spoken words.

“Part of the objective of WABMA is to support people, and that’s why we partner with the Enugu Literary Society. March 21 each year is World Poetry Day, declared by the United Nations. And we marked it with two major events in one.

“First, hosted an international journalist, Chika Oduah, a Nigerian-American, who has a background in CNN and several other international media. She was the only international journalist who broke the Boko Haram story by going to Sambisa Forest herself. She produced the first documentary on that issue. She is very famous and happens to be a poet, dancer, and cultural curator who creates stories about cultures.

“She is doing a lot of work and also spending a year in Enugu, and we thought we should bring her in, so young people can see that you can be successful in mass media practice. So, we are going to be featuring her today.

“The second part of the event is the Poetry Slam. It’s a performance poetry competition, that’s why it’s called a slam. For those who don’t even like poetry, would enjoy it because it’s not about coming to read some scripted lines. The poet actually performed their work and put more life to it. It’s one of the best ways to introduce people to poetry.

“Many of us were introduced to poetry in a hard way by having to read Shakespearean sonnets and all that. And that turned many people off. But performance poetry takes people back to their origins, which originated from storytelling, folk tale, drama, and draws people back to poetry,” he said.

In his speech, the Head of Department, Mass Communication, ESUT, Dr Chidiebere Ezinwa commended ELS and WABMA for organising the programme stressing that the experience is enriching. He enjoined the students to see the need to take interest in poetry writing as a passion particularly as a tool in reshaping society.

Students and other participants interviewed depressed delight over the programmed adding that it has deepened their passion and disposition to poetry.

Highlights of the occasion were reciting