The Christopher Okigbo Poetry Club is one of the major arms of the National Association of Students of English and Literary Studies (NASELS) University of Ibadan. The club exist in honour of one of the Nigerian renowned poets, Christopher Okigbo, who was among the first crops of Classics graduate produced by the University of Ibadan, and was killed in the Nigeria/ Biafran Civil War.

Over the years, the Okigbo Poetry Club has been a platform where young   poets from within and outside the Department of English and even those from other universities meet to showcase their poetry talents. The club stages an annual poetry contest which draws poets within and outside of the University of Ibadan as they thrill poetry enthusiasts and judges with their mused inspired verses. The previous editions saw Miss Kaothar Monisola Salahudeen from the Faculty of Law, clinched the most coveted prize.

Despite its uniqueness and pride of place towards the promotion of literary scholarship among students of English Department and beyond, a lot seems no to be going well with the club. As we write, there is no formal leadership structure in place to pilot the affairs of the club. The leadership structure of the club has been non-existent since the last two years owing to the inability of the NASELS leadership to formerly appoint a substantive president to run the affairs of the club.

In the 2017/2018 academic year, the club was barely active. There were no regular meetings, poetry readings etc. Even the few ones that took place saw low turn ups by students.  Presently, the club membership is nothing to write home about.  Most NASELSites are either unaware of the club’s existence or those who are aware have shown no interests in joining it. Many have advanced reasons for this lack of interest, citing the aversion some students have towards poetry, coupled  with the popular myth that poetry is unnecessarily complicated, and inaccessible to lay readers. Others have blamed the poor patronage of the club on the lack of a standing leadership structure.  During the last session, the Oluwatoni Fawole-led administration appointed Mr Sofoluwe Mobolaji as the president of the club. But there was no significant impact aside the annual poetry contest which was staged as part of the activities to mark the NASELS Week.

Despite promising to revamp the club and organise weekly poetry readings and performances, ever since the Michael Awoyemi led administration came on board, the club has been dormant.  In terms of poetry activities, no concrete action has been taken to that effect. In our recent chat with the supposed leadership of the club, we sought the view of one of the emerging student poets, Mr Adekunle Yusuf Uthman, to explain why there has been no activity in place to promote poetry activities, but he said that he was not the substantive President of the Club. He stated that the President, Michael only asked him to come in on the interim and see if he could raise the ailing club from its slumber. YUA, as he is popularly called, further stated that he had made a concerted effort to contact Mr Sofoluwe Mobolaji who was in charge of the club in the last session, but no positive result was achieved as the latter has graduated and relocated to Lagos.

Following the development, it behoves us to say that there is an urgent need to revamp the club. Proactive steps need to be taken to install a substantive leadership of the club in order to put things in place. Also the President, Mr Michael Awoyemi is hereby reminded of the need to fulfill the promise which he made to NASELSite during his campaign. It would be recalled that during the Manifesto Night, Michael promised to ensure the weekly meeting of the club for poetry readings and performance both in the department and halls of residences in the university.

Next, effort should be made by the new leadership to put in place modalities to create awareness to NASELSites and other students of the university to join the club. This should be followed up with the holding of weekly poetry reading and performances. It is very shameful to note that for some years now, no student of the department has been able to win the prize, despite the existence of creative writing courses as part of their academic curriculum. The only person who came as the second runner-up in the last edition was Yusuf Uthman Adekunle. This is a slap on the faces of both the lecturers and students of the department. It should be a challenge on NASELSites to join the club and claim what it duly theirs.

On the other hand, the department should support the association towards the funding of the club, aside the merger annual budget earmarked as prizes to contestants during the annual prize. Efforts should be made towards promoting poetry and other literary activities among the students aside the usual subscription to regular academic courses. The Creative Writing course should be made a compulsory course for all student of the department, irrespective of their disciplinary emphasis, to awaken the inertial literary talents of students.  Poetry courses inclined should not just end in lectures, assignments tests and examinations, but they should be geared toward promoting practical application of the knowledge gained into live poetry performances.