Abdul-Qudus Ibrahim emerges winner of the Beeta Playwright Competition, takes home N1 million

Out of 348 entries and 10 shortlistees, a winner was selected.

The grand finale of the second edition of Beeta Playwright Competition held on Wednesday, January 30, 2019 at the MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos.

The competition is organised by Beeta Universal Arts Foundation (BUAF), which is led by award winning actress and producer, Bikiya Graham-Douglas.

Graham-Douglas, speaking about the process, says: "It is a National Competition to find the new voices of Nigerian Literature and we received 348 entries from 30 states across Nigeria."

Abdul-Qudus collecting his prize Pulse Nigeria

The entries were judged by a panel chaired by award-winning playwright, Prof Ahmed Yerima, and a shortlist of 10 was created for the final stage: Tick Tock More Talk (Shehu Zock-Sock), Mr. Macaroni (Rukee Ejigbo), Beyond the Wig (Joshua Alabi), Echoes of the Drum (Ubonla Adenike), Jagagba (Abdul-Qudus Ibrahim), A Love like This (Kehinde Ademoye), Room 7 (Ekpeno Ukut), Transparent (Kelvinmary Ndukwe), Shark Boy (El Osas Iyalekhue) and Queen Akhadze (Elias Ozikpu).

Eventually, Jagagba by Abdul-Qudus Ibrahim emerged as the winning play, earning the writer the sum of N1,000, 000.

While giving his vote of thanks, Ibrahim says how grateful he was and stated that he actually heard about the competition late and the story came to him just a week before the deadline.

Congrats to the winner!