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International efforts, such as the Paris Agreement, aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But experts say countries aren’t doing enough to limit dangerous global warming.
About the Expert
Expert Bio
Ebenezer Obadare is Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow for Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Before joining CFR, he was professor of sociology at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. He is also a senior fellow at the New York University School of Professional Studies Center for Global Affairs, as well as a fellow at the University of South Africa’s Institute of Theology.
Obadare was Ralf Dahrendorf Scholar and Ford Foundation International Scholar at the London School of Economics and Political Science where he completed his PhD in social policy in 2005. He holds a BA in history and an MSc in international relations from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
Obadare was a political reporter for The News and TEMPO magazines from 1993 to 1995, and a lecturer in international relations at the Obafemi Awolowo University from 1995 to 2001. His primary areas of interest are civil society and the state, and religion and politics in Africa.
He is the author and editor of numerous books, including Christianity, Sexuality and Citizenship in Africa (2019), Pentecostal Republic: Religion and the Struggle for State Power in Nigeria (2018), Governance and the Crisis of Rule in Contemporary Africa: Leadership in Transformation (2016), Humor, Silence, and Civil Society in Nigeria (2016), The Handbook of Civil Society in Africa (2014), Civic Agency in Africa: Arts of Resistance in the 21st Century (2014), Democracy and Prebendalism in Nigeria: Critical Interpretations (2013), and Nigeria at Fifty: The Nation in Narration (2011).
Obadare’s essays have appeared in the leading Africanist and disciplinary journals, including the Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE), African Affairs, Politique Africaine, Journal of Civil Society, Democratization, Patterns of Prejudice, Africa Development, Africa, Critical African Studies, Development in Practice, Journal of Modern African Studies, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, Interkulturelle Theologie, and Journal of Church and State.
His forthcoming book, from the University of Notre Dame Press, is titled Pastoral Power, Clerical State: Pentecostalism, Gender, and Sexuality in Nigeria. He is the editor of Journal of Modern African Studies and contributing editor of Current History.
Affiliations:
- Center for Democracy and Development, (Abuja, Nigeria), Journal of West African Affairs, Democracy and Development, editor
- Journal of Modern African Studies, Cambridge University Press, UK, editor
- New York University, Center for Global Affairs, fellow
- Nigerian Tribune Newspapers (Ibadan, Nigeria), editor at large
- University of South Africa, Research Institute for Theology and Religion, fellow
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Support for immigration in the West must be balanced with concern about governance in African countries.
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Presidential candidate faces a dilemma as religious factor threatens to undo campaign.
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Nigeria’s two major political parties have now picked their presidential candidates, but commotion across the country casts a shadow over the politics.
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The outcome of party presidential primaries appears to signal the end of post-military elite political consensus.
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Horrendous killing of college sophomore highlights the country’s ethnoreligious fault line, but interdenominational rivalry in the south is of no less moment.
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The brutal murder of college sophomore evokes conflicting visions of citizenship and political identity in Nigeria.
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As the race for the Nigerian presidency takes shape, the fate of Nigeria itself hangs in the balance.
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African countries’ justifiable disaffection with the West should not override their commitment to Ukraine and liberal values.
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Nigeria’s pardon for former corrupt governors damages the country's anticorruption campaign and undermines democratic institutions.
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The recent U.S. State Department human rights report on Nigeria highlights violence, corruption, and violations of freedom of speech.
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Governor El-Rufai’s threat to import mercenaries to help with Nigeria’s security crisis reveals cracks in the security sector and waning state power.
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Compaore’s conviction is good news for the rule of law and democratic consolidation in Africa.
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The recent attack on a Nigerian railway is the latest chapter in the country’s worsening security crisis and tottering democracy.
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The West needs to pay close attention to how they react to African countries' silence on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and avoid seeming patronizing and dismissive to neutral African nations.
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Despite the mockery she receives, Pastor Mummy G.O. is an exception to the Nigerian Pentecostal norm as her strict theological model contrasts sharply with Pentecostalism’s current adhesion to the Prosperity Gospel.
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Women’s activism in Nigeria has forced the government to take a second look at proposals that would grant women greater freedoms.
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African countries' reservations on condemning Russia's invasion to Ukraine can be explored through growing Russian ties with African leaders. Those who did condemn also called out Western double standards on international law.
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The latest university professors' strike in Nigeria is just the tip of the iceberg of the education sector's crisis, which reflects neglect and insufficient funding from the government.
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Nigeria's endemic corruption is the country's greatest challenge to its stability despite antigraft efforts from the government, which raises questions about the Nigerian institutions' ability to tackle corruption.
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The rising incidence of ritual killings in Nigeria reflects a weakening state control and Nigerians' desperate attempts to achieve economic stability.
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The recent wave of coups in West Africa reflects both a generational divide and a history of military involvement in African politics.
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Across West Africa, Pentecostal pastors hold huge public sway. Their influence is a reflection of deepening distrust of the secular state and its ability to fulfill citizens' demands.
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A Liberian court ruling against former Liberian Defense Minister Brownie Jeffrey Samukai Jr. is a rare recent piece of good news for democracy in West Africa.
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Putschists in West Africa should not interpret initial popular support for coups as an indication that citizens no longer desire responsive, accountable governance.