Date:
Location:
“Hustles and Tussles: Understanding Kleptocracy in Nigeria”
Speaker:
Matthew T. Page, Non-resident Scholar, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Associate Fellow, Africa Programme at Chatham House.
Contacts:
Jacob Olupona
Olupona@fas.harvard.edu
Darren Kew
Darren.kew@umb.edu
Co-sponsored by UMass Boston's Center for Peace, Democracy, and Development (CPDD).
This event is online only. Please click the "Read More" link for full instructions on how to attend this seminar.
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Abstract:
"Largest economy in Africa”; "creativity and innovation hub”; "major petroleum producer”; "third-most populated country in the world by 2050”. In so many respects, Nigeria is a country of superlatives. As one of the world’s most evolved kleptocracies, the Nigerian state also outperforms its peers. A democracy only on paper, Nigeria is controlled by competing constellations of national and sub-national elites whose pursuit of political power is fueled by their need to gain—and retain—access to state coffers. Instead of providing public goods and services, these elites see the state as a mechanism for accruing perks, distributing patronage, and sequestering public funds. Leveraging twenty years of in-depth research, this talk will discuss some of the most interesting and important facets of kleptocracy in Nigeria, explain why it matters, and ask the question: what more can be done to fight it?
Speaker Bio:
Matthew T. Page is a nonresident scholar with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an associate fellow with the Africa Programme at Chatham House, and nonresident fellow with the Centre for Democracy and Development in Abuja. He does consultancy work and co-authored Nigeria: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2018). Until recently, Page was the U.S. intelligence community’s top Nigeria expert at the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. He has also served on the National Intelligence Council, at the Defense Intelligence Agency, and as an international affairs fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations.
