Nigerian poet Ogaga Ifowodo has been announced as the winner of the 2026 Nigeria Prize for Literature for his poetry collection Why Does God Need a Gun?, earning the $100,000 award sponsored by Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG).
The winner was announced on Friday, October 9, at NLNG’s Grand Award Night in Lagos. The collection was selected from 223 submissions for the 2026 edition, which focused on poetry.
Published by Masobe Books, Why Does God Need a Gun? is a collection that listens for voices nearly erased, the screams of schoolgirls stolen in the night, the heartbeat of a daughter who refuses to renounce her faith, the refrains of prayers drowned by gunfire. In these poems, the forest becomes both prison and mirror, a place where innocence is hunted and where the question of God is turned back on those who claim to kill in His name.
Speaking on the winning poetry collection, the Chairman of the Advisory Board for The Nigeria Prize for Literature, Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, said:
“Equally compelling is the conversation that unfolds across the three books. Though distinct in voice and style, they engage with related concerns: questions of identity and belonging; the promises and disappointments of nationhood; the consequences of extremism and displacement; and the enduring impact of conflict on individuals and communities. These are works deeply rooted in the Nigerian experience, yet they reach far beyond our borders.”
The winning collection emerged from a shortlist of three books. The other finalists were Unbind Me Now by James Ngwu Eze and Flora’s Love Colony by Tares Oburumu. The three titles had been selected from an 11-book longlist.
Born on May 14, 1966, in Oleh, Delta State, Ifowodo studied law at the University of Benin, graduating in 1989. He was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1991 and worked with the Civil Liberties Organisation, where he was involved in human rights advocacy during Nigeria’s military rule.
In 1997, the military government of General Sani Abacha arrested and detained him after he advocated stronger international sanctions against the regime. He was released in 1998 following campaigns by writers and human rights organisations. That year, he received the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award in recognition of his defence of freedom of expression.
He later pursued postgraduate studies at Cornell University in the United States, earning a Master of Fine Arts in poetry and a PhD in English in 2008. He subsequently taught poetry and literature at Texas State University before returning to Nigeria, where he continued his legal and public service work.
His published poetry collections include Homeland and Other Poems, Madiba, The Oil Lamp and A Good Mourning. His first collection, Homeland and Other Poems, won the Association of Nigerian Authors Poetry Prize as a manuscript in 1993. Madiba received the ANA/Cadbury Poetry Prize in 2003, while The Oil Lamp won the ANA/Gabriel Okara Poetry Prize in 2005.
In 2017, A Good Mourning, which reflects on political violence and the annulment of Nigeria’s June 12, 1993 presidential election, was shortlisted for the Nigeria Prize for Literature. It competed alongside Songs of Myself by Tanure Ojaide and The Heresiad by Ikeogu Oke, who won that year’s award.
The Nigeria Prize for Literature was established by NLNG in 2004 to recognise outstanding literary works by Nigerian writers. Its four categories: prose fiction, poetry, drama, and children’s literature rotate annually.
Congratulations, Ogaga Ifowodo!
