Ogaga Ifowodo has won the 2026 Nigeria Prize for Literature with his poetry collection, Why Does God Need a Gun?, receiving the $100,000 award.
The poet, lawyer and activist was announced as the winner at Nigeria LNG Limited’s Grand Award Night in Lagos on Friday. His collection, published by Masobe Books, was chosen from 223 poetry entries.
Ifowodo reached the final alongside James Ngwu Eze, whose shortlisted collection was Unbind Me Now, and Tares Oburumu, author of Floral’s Love Colony. The competition had been narrowed to an 11-title longlist in July and three finalists in August.
Advisory board chair Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo described the winning collection as a portrayal of religious and political violence in Nigeria through the imagined voice of a victim. She praised the finalists’ technical skill and command of language.
Ifowodo previously reached the prize’s final in 2017 with A Good Mourning, when Ikeogu Oke won with The Heresiad.
Established in 2004 and sponsored by NLNG, the literature prize rotates among prose fiction, poetry, drama and children’s literature. This year’s competition was devoted to poetry.
At the same ceremony, Peter Oghenetega Oke and Feranmi Abiola jointly won the inaugural Nigeria Prize for Creative Arts for their documentaries Beyond Tarkwa Bay and Mara Mania, respectively. They shared the category’s $20,000 prize.
The documentary competition received 98 submissions and was narrowed to five finalists under the theme “Identity”. Organisers recognised the winning films for documenting communities and preserving cultural memory.
Sources: Punch, Premium Times
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