NIBAF 2026: Obari Gomba To Open New Chapter For Niger Delta Literature & Arts
PROFESSOR Obari Gomba, award-winning Nigerian author and scholar, will deliver the keynote address at the maiden Niger Delta International Book and Art Festival (NIBAF).
The festival will take place from 27 to 28 November 2026, at the Arts Theatre, University of Port Harcourt.
Organisers describe NIBAF as a strategic social innovation initiative designed to stimulate growth, investment and innovation within Nigeria’s book and art sectors.
However, the festival will pay particular attention to the Niger Delta.
Its organisers want literature and the arts to become part of a broader conversation about heritage, knowledge, creativity, investment and sustainable development.
Putting the Niger Delta on the Literary Map
The festival’s theme is “Books, Art and the Niger Delta Heritage: Promoting Knowledge, Protecting Creativity.”
That theme reflects the organisers’ attempt to bring cultural preservation and creative enterprise into one conversation.
Rather than treating books and art solely as cultural products, NIBAF seeks to examine their wider economic and social value.
The programme will also explore partnerships that can strengthen opportunities for creative professionals.
Copyright and intellectual property protection form another important part of the festival’s agenda.
For writers, artists and publishers, the protection of creative work remains central to the development of a sustainable creative economy.
A Scholar With Deep Niger Delta Connections
Gomba’s selection reflects his connection to the region as well as his national and international literary profile.
He is Vice-President of the Association of Nigerian Authors and a laureate of the Nigeria Prize for Literature.
At the University of Port Harcourt, he serves as Director of Academic Planning, Research and Control.
He has also served as Associate Dean of Humanities.
Internationally, his academic engagements have included an Honorary Fellowship in Writing at the University of Iowa, a TORCH Global South Visiting Professorship and a Visiting Fellowship at All Souls College, University of Oxford.
The organisers believe that this combination of scholarship, literary achievement and regional engagement makes him well suited to the festival’s central conversation.
A Career Across Poetry & Drama
Gomba’s literary career has produced a substantial body of poetry and drama.
His book Grit won the 2023 Nigeria Prize for Literature.
The achievement followed several other major literary honours.
The Lilt of the Rebel won the PAWA Prize for African Poetry in 2022 and was listed for the Nigeria Prize for Literature.
Guerrilla Post won the ANA Drama Prize in 2018.
For Every Homeland won the ANA Poetry Prize in 2017, while Thunder Protocol received the ANA Poetry Prize in 2016.
Earlier, Length of Eyes was shortlisted for the ANA Poetry Prize and listed for the Nigeria Prize for Literature.
His collection Pearls of the Mangrove has also remained closely associated with literary festival culture.
It was selected as the Book of the Festival for the 2011 Garden City Literary Festival and the 2019 Festival of Poetry in Calabar.
From Port Harcourt to the World
Gomba’s literary activities have not been confined to Nigeria.
He curated A Piece of Daily Life in 2016 for the International Writing Program of the University of Iowa.
The anthology brought together 35 writers from 33 countries.
His poetry has also appeared in international literary journals and anthologies.
Among the publications that have carried his work are Prosopisia, Sentinel, Maple Tree Literary Supplement, Tydskrif vir Letterkunde and Third Text.
His work has also appeared in Nigerian literary and cultural publications.
Meanwhile, his poems have reached audiences through readings and performances in Nigeria and the United States.
In 2016, the Portland Stage Company in Maine performed his poems.
He has also read at the University of Iowa’s Shambaugh House and the Dubuque Museum of Arts.
In Nigeria, his appearances have included the Lagos International Poetry Festival, Lagos Book and Art Festival, Port Harcourt Book Festival and several literary and cultural gatherings.
Building the Next Generation
Gomba’s influence also extends into literary development and mentorship.
He has facilitated writing workshops, moderated literary events and served as a resource person for creative and educational programmes.
His engagements have included the Christopher Okigbo Foundation, International Writing Program, Gabriel Okara Literary Festival, Lagos International Poetry Festival and Port Harcourt Book Festival.
He has also facilitated workshops associated with the Port Harcourt UNESCO World Book Capital programme and Niger Delta Creative Writers’ Workshop.
Additionally, he has served as a judge, book reviewer and editor.
Such activities have strengthened his interest in human capital development.
For Gomba, therefore, literature operates beyond the production of books. It becomes a tool for education, cultural memory, public conversation and social development.
The Bigger Conversation
That perspective is expected to shape his NIBAF keynote.
The organisers say Gomba’s address will interrogate the festival’s central theme and examine the relationship between knowledge, creativity and Niger Delta heritage.
The discussion comes at a time when Nigeria’s creative economy is attracting growing attention as a potential source of employment, investment and cultural influence.
Yet, sustainable growth requires more than producing creative works.
Writers and artists also need functioning cultural institutions, stronger markets, professional networks and effective intellectual property protection.
NIBAF intends to bring these issues into one platform.
A New Platform for Creative Dialogue
The maiden festival is consequently being positioned as more than another literary gathering.
Its organisers want it to serve as a meeting point for writers, artists, publishers, cultural organisations, investors and other stakeholders.
The Niger Delta provides the geographical focus, but the issues extend beyond the region.
How can cultural heritage become an asset without reducing it to a commercial commodity?
How can creative professionals earn sustainable livelihoods from their work?
How can copyright systems protect creators while expanding access to knowledge?
And how can literature and art help preserve the memory and identity of communities undergoing rapid social and economic change?
Those questions sit at the heart of the NIBAF agenda.
Gomba’s keynote is therefore expected to set the intellectual tone for a festival seeking to connect literary expression with wider questions of development.
For its maiden edition, NIBAF is placing the Niger Delta’s books, artists and heritage at the centre of a conversation about what creativity can contribute to Nigeria’s future.
