2017: Winner, the Humboldt Kolleg International Conference Grant (to be hosted by University of Ibadan, February 2018)
2017: Winner, Humboldt Alumni Award for Innovative Networking Initiatives.
2016: Grantee of the Alexander von Humboldt Alumni Research Award.
2015: Grantee of the Humboldt Talent Travel Award, Berlin, Germany.
2013: Book Shortlisted for the NLNG Prize for Poetry (Sea of my mind)
2006: Book Shortlisted for the Wole Soyinka Prize for African Literature (Lovesong for my Wasteland)
2006-07 Georg Forster Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.
2005-06 Visiting Scholar, Centre of African Studies & Wolfson College, Cambridge Universiy, UK.
2004-05: Guest Writer to the City of Stockholm, Sweden.
2002-04: College & University Affiliation Program (CUAP) Grant, Southern Illinois University, USA-University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
2003: Special Creative Writing Prize awarded by the African Information Society Initiative, UNECA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; (for “A Poem for Practical
Dreamers, or Dreams at Work”).
2002: Grantee, National Council for Arts & Culture, South Africa.
2002: Visiting Harry Oppenheimer African Scholar, Centre for African Studies University of Cape Town, South Africa.
2001: Scholar-in-Residence, Department of English, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, US.
2001: West African Research Center Travel Grant, Dakar, Senegal; Fellow, Institute of Gender Studies, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South
Africa.
2000: Recipient, The Ford Foundation (West Africa) Research Grant in Culture, Media & Literature.
1999: Summer Institute for International Professors and Scholars, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, US.
1997: Association of West African Writers’ Award for Best First Published Book of the Year (for A Harvest of Laughters).
1997: Association of Nigerian Authors-Cadbury Poetry Prize (for A Harvest of Laughters).