Ogaga Ifowodo has been crowned winner for the Nigeria Prize in Literature 2026, for his poetry collection, Why Does God Need a Gun? The announcement was made at the Grand Event Ceremony on October 9th, 2026, and shared on their social media.

The collection was selected from 223 entries, eventually making the final three alongside James Ngwu Eze’s Unbind Me Now and Tares Oburumu’s Flora’s Love Colony. Professor Adimora-Ezeigbo gave an even more direct assessment. She described the collection as a “sensitive portrayal” of religious and political violence in Nigeria, presented through the voice of an imagined victim.

Ogaga will be taking home the sum of $100,000 as the winning entry.

Why Does God Need a Gun? is a poetry collection by Nigerian poet, lawyer and activist Ogaga Ifowodo, published by Masobe Books in 2026. It had been announced as forthcoming by Masobe in December 2025.

The collection is concerned heavily with religious extremism, terrorism, political violence, memory and the suffering of victims. A major section uses the experience of Leah Sharibu, the Nigerian schoolgirl abducted by Boko Haram, as a poetic point of departure.

Ogaga Ifowodo (born May 14, 1966, in Oleh, Delta State) is a Nigerian poet, writer, lawyer, human-rights activist and scholar. He studied Law at the University of Benin and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1991 before becoming involved in human-rights advocacy during Nigeria’s military era. His activism led to his detention in 1997, for which he later received the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award. He subsequently studied at Cornell University, earning an MFA and PhD, and taught literature and creative writing at Texas State University. His poetry collections include Homeland and Other Poems, Madiba, The Oil Lamp, A Good Mourning, Augusta’s Poodle, and Why Does God Need a Gun?, the latter winning the 2026 Nigeria Prize for Literature and its $100,000 prize.

Author

Paul Olayioye