Ogaga Ifowodo (born May 14, 1966) is a Nigerian lawyer, scholar, poet, columnist/public commentator and human rights activist.
He was called to the bar in 1991 and has worked for many years as a human rights activist with Nigeria's Civil Liberties Organization (CLO).
[3] He also holds the Master of Fine Art (MFA) in poetry, and a PhD in English (post-colonial literary/cultural studies) from Cornell University, New York.
[6] He has also published four books of poetry and his poems have been widely published in several anthologies and literary journals across the world, including Voices from all Over: Poems with Notes and Activities, The Times Literary Supplement, Poetry International, The Massachusetts Review, Crazyhorse, The Dalhousie Review, Atlanta Review, Mantis, Drumvoices Revue, and Migrations (an Afro-Italian anthology selected by Wole Soyinka for the Lagos Black Heritage Festival).
[10] In 2014, Ifowodo returned to Nigeria from the United States where he had done postgraduate studies and taught for thirteen years.
[citation needed] He sought the nomination of the All Progressive Party for a seat in the House of Representatives but, hampered by inadequate financial resources, did not get past the primaries.
[13][14] Ifowodo's first collection of poems, Homeland and Other Poems was published in 1998 by Kraft Books;[15] a second edition was published in 2008 by Africa World Press[16] It is 69 pages long, a collection "largely written in (and bordering on) the military era of Nigeria... describing the despicable situation of the Nigerian society during the period in question.
"[25] A Good Mourning, the author says, is his poetic reflection on "the intimacy of evil",[26][27][28] particularly the devastating blow to the psyche of the people caused by the annulment of the June 12, 1993 elections[29] "by General Ibrahim Babangida, a military dictator.
"[30] In July 2017, A Good Mourning was longlisted for the Nigeria Prize for Literature, along with ten other works by Nigerian authors.