Ogaga Ifowodo is a lawyer, poet, writer, scholar and activist. He attended the University of Benin for his LL.B (Bachelor of Laws), the Nigerian Law School for his B.L. (Barrister-at-Law) and Cornell University in the USA where he obtained an MFA (Master of Fine Art) and Ph.D in English and Literary Studies. Why Does God Need a Gun? is his sixth volume of poetry. He had previously published five collections: Homeland and Other Poems (winner of the 1993 ANA poetry prize); Madiba (winner of the 2003 ANA/Cadbury poetry prize) and The Oil Lamp (winner of the 2005 ANA/Gabriel Okara poetry prize). A Good Mourning and Augusta’s Poodle were shortlisted and longlisted, respectively, for the NLNG prize. He has also published the scholarly work, History, Trauma, and Healing in Postcolonial Narratives (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
Ifowodo is also a columnist and public commentator. Since 1988 when he made his debut in the op-ed pages of The Guardian, he has maintained a steady presence in the newspapers. From 2012-2016, he wrote a fortnightly column under the caption “For Crying Out LOUD!” for Vanguard newspaper. His essays are also published by the popular online platforms Premium Times, SaharaReporters and The Cable.
Ifowodo worked for a decade with the Civil Liberties Organisation, Nigeria’s premier human rights group. Between 1997 and 1998, he was detained by the military regime of General Sani Abacha as a result of his frontline participation in the struggle to end military dictatorship and return Nigeria to democracy.
He is a recipient of the Barbara Goldsmith Freedom-to-Write Award of the American PEN Centre, the Free Word award of the Netherlands-based Poets of All Nations, an honorary member of the PEN Centres of USA, Canada and Germany, and a fellow of the Iowa Writing Programme. He was Assistant Professor of English at Texas State University until 2014 when he returned to Nigeria. In proof of P. B. Shelley’s declaration that poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, he lost his bid for the Nigerian House of Representatives in 2015 and for a seat in the Delta State House of Assembly in 2021!
He is currently Principal Partner at Remedium Law Partners, Abuja.