Professional Affiliation

Assistant Professor, Harvard University

Expert Bio

Daniel E. Agbiboa is Assistant Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. He holds a PhD in International Development from the University of Oxford and an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on the relationships between state and non-state actors in West and Central Africa. His books Mobility, Mobilization and Counter/Insurgency: The Routes of Terror in an African Context (University of Michigan Press) and They Eat Our Sweat: Transport Labor, Corruption and Everyday Survival in Urban Nigeria (Oxford University Press) are forthcoming.

Expertise

• Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding
• Governance
• International Development
• Security and Defense
• Society and Culture
• Urban Studies
• Africa
• Nigeria
• Cameroon
• Niger
• Chad

Wilson Center Project

Civilian Defense Groups and Counterinsurgency in Northeastern Nigeria: The Role of the Civilian Joint Task Force

Project Summary

Why do some vigilante groups in conflict zones go to great lengths to support state security forces when their very rise was motivated by the poor work of these official armed forces? If civilians in conflict are so resentful of state security forces, why do they not exit the state or defect to rebel groups? Given similar local pressures, why do some youth join pro-government militias instead of armed opposition groups? This project takes up this puzzle through an empirically grounded study of the role of pro-government militias in the protracted war against Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin (comprising Cameroon, Niger, and Chad), with particular focus on the anti-Boko Haram Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) or "yan gora" (youths with sticks).

Major Publications

• "Youth as tactical agents of peacebuilding and development in the Sahel," Journal of Peacebuilding & Development, 10(3): 30-45
• "Protectors or predators? The embedded problem of police corruption and deviance in Nigeria," Administration & Society, 47(3): 244-281
• "Borders that continue to bother us: The politics of cross-border security cooperation in Africa's Lake Chad Basin," Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, 57(4): 403-425