Eze Says 'Unbind Me Now' Turns Outrage on Nigeria's Insecurity

Poet James Eze says his collection, *Unbind Me Now*, one of three books shortlisted for the 2026 Nigeria Prize for Literature, uses outrage to confront the insecurity, ethnic divisions and disappointments of present-day Nigeria.

 

Eze spoke in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Wednesday.

 

The prize, worth $100,000, is devoted to poetry this year. Eze is competing with Tares Oburumu and Ogaga Ifowodo for the award.

 

Eze said the collection grew out of his disillusionment with the country's failure to live up to the promises of independence.

 

"Unbind Me Now is a collection of poems that uses outrage to communicate intense disappointment, disillusionment and disenchantment with what Nigeria has become in our time," he said.

 

According to him, insecurity, displacement and the departure of young Nigerians seeking better lives abroad have shaped how he sees the country.

 

He said the poems also respond to deepening ethnic divisions and the violence that has hit communities across Nigeria.

 

"I chose to write a poetry of outrage to capture the present-day Nigeria and the dilemma of being a Nigerian at this moment," he said.

 

 

Fire recurs throughout the collection, carrying its associations with burning, purification, cleansing and destruction.

 

Eze said the motif was part of his literary technique for getting his message across, linking the imagery to the violence and suffering Nigerians have endured.

 

The poet said the collection was also an attempt to preserve the realities of his generation before memories of the period fade.

 

"I consider myself as someone, an artist, who is trying to document his time for posterity," he said.

 

Eze said he hoped the book would encourage Nigerians across ethnic and political lines to recognise their shared vulnerability and find common ground.

 

He said he wrote the collection between 2020 and 2025, and that some of the poems emerged from the isolation and uncertainty of the COVID-19 period.

 

The Nigeria Prize for Literature began in 2004 and rotates among prose fiction, poetry, drama and children's literature.