The Nigerian edition of football’s leading Website, Goal.com Nigeria, is currently accepting essay submissions for its #WritingGamesNG competition.

Organised in partnership with the University of Sussex, the aim of #WritingGamesNG is “to engage Nigerians on how to improve football in the country.” The competition has two categories: Category 1 for final year undergraduates and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) personnel; and Category 2 for secondary school students and seniors in sixth form colleges in the country. The theme of the 2017 competition is “Making Nigerian football attractive in a digital age.”

Here are the prizes for winners.

Category 1

Gold Medal – 100,000 Naira and £500 #WritingGamesNG bursary for the University of Sussex MA in Creative and Critical Writing (2018 entry)

Silver Medal – 50,000 Naira

Bronze Medal – 25,000 Naira

Category 2

Gold Medal – 75,000 Naira

Silver Medal – 50,000 Naira

Bronze Medal – 25,000 Naira

In an email to Brittle Paper, the competition’s inaugural winner in 2016, Oladele Oluwasogo, states that “the second category is in its first year.” Goal.com Nigeria, he explains, “are interested in seeing how intelligent and creative Nigerian secondary school students are, especially when it comes to writing,” and that “competitions like this can help build the interest of kids in creative writing, and we are ready to encourage them.”

Deadline for submissions: September 11, 2017.

Guidelines

  • Must be a final year student of a Nigerian university or a final year student in a secondary school.
  • Must be a current NYSC personnel.
  • IDs will be presented alongside entries.
  • By participating, entrants agree that their names, profiles and images can be used for publicity purposes for the competition.
  • Entries must be between 500-750 words and will be judged on the originality of ideas and creative solutions for the topic.
  • Entries will only be accepted via email, [email protected].
  • Entries close at midnight on September 11, 2017.

The winners will be announced on September 18, 2017, on Goal.com Nigeria‘s Website. All entrants in the top 10 in both categories will be invited to the awards reception in Lagos.

The judges are Professor Dipo Salami of the Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, and Professor Richard Follett of the Department of International Recruitment and Development, University of Sussex. The competition is supported by the Study Group, the sports communication company CampsBay Media, Nigeria’s NYSC programme, and Writivism.

Read Oladele Oluwasogo’s essay on how winning the competition changed his life.

We urge football fans to enter for this.