Usman Alabi is a passionate crusader for social change and a social reformist who believes in the need for disruptive methodologies to address the current extant socioeconomic condition in sub-Sahara Africa. Most of his short briefs in the corporate sector before returning to academia had been in the governance transparency and accountability space, where he had contributed substantially to policy transparency and civic engagement. He was a Senior Associate with Red Media Africa for five years, leading The Future Project governance department. He was responsible for executing governance accountability and engagement projects funded by the National Endowment for Democracy and Ford Foundations in the United States. He also had a brief stint with the Nigeria Economic Summit Group.
Usman received broad training in global politics and comparative political economy during his undergraduate and postgraduate education at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. His interest and dedication to understanding the political economy of African states, their fragility and the context of the conflict started at the university. He is currently a Doctoral researcher at the University of Warwick. His research focuses on the everyday political economy of counterterrorism. Exploring how counterterrorism affects everyday quotidian economy even within the context of the resistance literature. His work is situated within the context of the Lake Chad terrorism in Northeast Nigeria, which has become a sub-regional problem. He aims to explore the intersection between counterterrorism and the everyday political economy and how people respond, adapt, resist, or even become pliant in the process.
Usman Alabi is a senior fellow within the political economy cluster, he will be working on the intersection between political context and decision making as it relates to macro or micro economic development. Usman would be exploring new initiatives inclusive of everyday methodologies to understand the dynamics of local and global political economies.
