A former NYSC corps member, Oluwasogo Oladele’s entry won the top prize at the first #WritingGamesNG ahead of 135 others
It is interesting how a single event can catapult you, swing you into a hitherto unexplored territory and change your perspective about life. Better still, it can challenge your life goals, and make you see the bigger picture; a picture you never imagined. Participating and subsequently winning #WritingGamesNG 2016 did exactly that to me.
It seems unbelievable that it is just a little over a year ago that I participated in the first edition of the #WritingGamesNG. That edition that was used to commemorate the 20th year of Nigeria’s unprecedented victory in the Men’s Football event of the Olympic Games at Atlanta ’96 came at the right time for me. So much has changed about me over the course of the past year, and it seems almost like a lifetime ago. While change is a constant phenomenon, the changes in perspective I have experienced are attributable to my experiences during and after #WritingGamesNG.
Being a struggling writer before the competition, #WritingGamesNG exposed me to writers, in Nigeria and outside. Meeting with the Goal.com Nigeria team was a special experience for me. I had the opportunity to interact with top sports writers who are always starting up critical discussions around football and its management in Nigeria. What better way to get motivated than meeting people who are concerned about the comatose state of sports in Nigeria, and fighting hard to resuscitate it.
The greatest leap, however, was travelling to Uganda. It was a place where my perspective about writing got revamped. Writing is a craft and I learnt how to weave my way around it. At the Writivism Festival in Kampala, I was able to meet writers whose books I could have only dreamt of reading. Meeting writers like Michela Wrong (author of It’s Our Turn To Eat) and Oduor Jagero (Ghosts of 1894), felt like a young footballer meeting Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo for footballing tips. Above other things, I got the motivation to push on as a writer, and to use my craft to fight for a better world.
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