John Sunday Ojo
Postdoc
- Name
- Dr. J.S. Ojo Ph.D.
- Telephone
- 070 8009500
- j.s.ojo@fgga.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0002-9861-3539

John Sunday Ojo is a postdoctoral research fellow within the Intelligence in the Global South (GLOBALINT) research group of the Institute of Security and Global Affairs. His research focuses on the political economy of armed conflict, concentrating on non-state armed groups, including both jihadist and non-jihadist armed groups operating in the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin region. His work also addresses the intelligence culture of state and non-state armed groups, foreign military bases, climate change, resource competition, and terrorism nexus, and African Security Governance.
More information about John Sunday Ojo
John Sunday Ojo is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA).
He earned his PhD in Politics and Area Studies from the University of Portsmouth and an MA in Global Development from the University of Leeds. He also obtained an MSc in Urban Management and Development focusing on environment, climate change and sustainability from Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and a BSc in Local Government Studies from Obafemi Awolowo University. His research primarily focuses on the political economy of armed conflict, encompassing Jihadist and non-jihadist terror groups operating in the Sahelian belt and Lake Chad Basin region. Additionally, his work addresses climate change, resource competition, and terrorism nexus. Counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations, the geopolitics of foreign military bases, state-centric intelligence agencies and non-state armed groups’ intelligence culture, and how such engagements impact African security are critical components of his research. He is a research fellow at the NATO Veterans Initiatives (NAVI) based in Washington DC. He has been featured in several media outlets, including the BBC and Firstpost TV.
Postdoc
- Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs
- Institute of Security and Global Affairs
- Intelligence
- Ojo J.S. & Aina F. (2025), (De)Weaponizing climate-induced recruitment: prospects of climate change adaptation as a non-kinetic counter-terrorism strategy in the lake Chad Basin region, Global Society : .
- Myrttinen H., Lewis C., Schulz P., Touquet H., Yousaf F., Laruni E., Abeytia A., Brito E., Ojo J.S. & Okoi O. (2025), Masculinities in conflict and peacebuilding. In: Myrttinen H., Lewis C., Schulz P., Touquet H., Yousaf F. & Laruni E. (Eds.), Routledge handbook of masculinities, conflict, and peacebuilding. London: Routledge. 32-46.
- Ojo J.S. (2024), Transforming Pacifists into warmongers? : Separatist movement, state repression, and the politics of framing terrorism in Nigeria: evidence from IPOB and Yoruba nation's freedom frontiers, JOURNAL OF APPLIED SECURITY RESEARCH 19(3): 377-412.
- Ojo J.S., Aina F., Oyewole S., Ojewale O., Osasona T., Shamsudeen Y., Utibe T., Ogundiya I.S., Okoli A.I., Ngwu E.C., Ekpo C., Ajiboye B.M., Adefisoye T.O., Bamidele S., Iwara M., Ayandele O., Lamidi K.O., Okoli C.R., Adenuga G.A. & Olatunji A.O. (2024), Armed banditry in Nigeria: evolution, dynamics, and trajectories. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan .
- Ojo J.S., Aina F. & Oyewole S. (2024), Unmasking armed banditry in Nigeria. In: Ojo J.S., Aina F. & Oyewole S. (Eds.), Unmasking armed banditry in Nigeria: evolution, dynamics, and trajectories. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. 3-13.
- Aina F. & Ojo J.S. (2024), Displaced and forgotten: unveiling northwest Nigeria’s armed banditry induced humanitarian crisis. In: Ojo J.S., Aina F. & Oyewole S. (Eds.), Armed banditry in Nigeria: evolution, dynamics, and trajectories. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. 77-99.
- Ojo J.S., Aina F. & Oyewole S. (2024), Conclusion: making credible governance the epicentre of counter-banditry. In: Ojo J.S., Aina F. & Oyewole S. (Eds.), Armed banditry in Nigeria: evolution, dynamics, and trajectories. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. 303-307.
- Ojo J.S. (2024), Franchising terrorism and insurgencies. In: Romaniuk S.N., Roul A., Pamela Fabe A. & Besenyo J. (Eds.), Handbook of terrorist and insurgent groups: a global survey of threats, tactics, and characteristics. Boca Raton: CRC Press. 179-190.
- Ojo J.S. (2024), Serving the perpetrators, starving the persecuted?: the contradictions of ‘operation safe corridor’ and their implications for security governance. In: Okoli A.I. & Aina F. (Eds.), Contemporary security governance in Nigeria: themes and perspectives: Lexington books.
- Ojo J.S., Ojewale O. & Lamidi K.O. (2024), Nigeria and the transnationalisation of kidnapping in the Lake Chad region and the Gulf of Guinea. In: Omotola J.S. & Oyewole S. (Eds.), The political economy of kidnapping and insecurity in Nigeria: beyond news and rumours. Advances in African Economic, Social and Political Development. Cham: Springer . 227-244.
- Ojo J.S. & Ezenwa O. (2024), Russia has tightened its hold over the Sahel region – and now it’s looking to Africa’s west coast. The Conversation. [other].
- Ojo J.S. & Olumba E. (2024), Nigeria’s terror group Lakurawa is nothing new: it exists because of government’s failure: analysts. The Conversation. [other].
- Ojo J.S. (2024), NATO at 75: Unus Pro Omnibus, Omnes Pro Uno. Washington: NATO veteran initiatives. [other].
- Ojo J.S. (2024), The North African regional nexus: a history of VEOs and online recruitment. London: Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET). [other].
- Ojo J.S. (2023), Climate-related armed conflict and communities' resistance to rural grazing area settlement policy in Nigeria's middlebelt, Conflict Resolution Quarterly 41(2): 121-141.
- Abeytia A., Ruiz E.B., Ojo J.S. & Alloosh T. (2023), Do no harm: the role of humanitarian aid and neutrality in protracting civil wars, Civil Wars 25(2-3): 341-366.
- Ojo J.S., Oyewole S. & Aina F. (2023), Forces of terror: armed banditry and insecurity in north-west Nigeria, Democracy and Security 19(4): 319-346.
- Aina F., Ojo J.S. & Oyewole S. (2023), Shock and awe: military response to armed banditry and the prospects of internal security operations in Northwest Nigeria, AFRICAN SECURITY REVIEW 32(4): 440-457.
- Oyewole S., Aina F. & Ojo J.S. (2023), Wings over flies: air campaigns against armed banditry in north-west Nigeria, The RUSI Journal 167(4-5): 92-103.
- Aina F. & Ojo J.S. (2023), The “webification” of Jihadism: trends in the use of online platforms before and after attacks by violent extremists in Nigeria. London: Global Network on Extremism and Technology (GNET).
- Abeytia A., Brito E. & Ojo J.S. (2023), Migration policies in the OSCE region. In: Mihr A. & Pierobon C. (Eds.), Polarization, shifting borders and liquid governance: studies on transformation and development in the OSCE region. Cham: Springer. 3-19.
- Ojo J.S. & Ojewale O. (2023), Gold mining and instability in the central Sahel. In: Oki O. & Nalule V.R. (Eds.), Governing natural resources for sustainable peace in Africa: environmental justice and conflict resolution. London: Routledge. 38-59.
- Ojo J.S. (2021), Africa's new megacities: sustainable urbanism, climate urbanism or megalopolises of exclusionary enclaves. In: Onyango G. (Ed.), Routledge handbook of public policy in Africa. London: Routledge. 612-622.
- Ojo J.S. & Clarke J. (2021), Multiculturalism and policymaking in Africa. In: Onyango G. (Ed.), Routledge handbook of public policy in Africa. London: Routledge. 247-258.
- Ojo J.S., Lamidi K.O., Odewale A.D., Shiyanbade B. & Ihemeje G. (2020), Enemy within the state: the pathology of Boko Haram insurgency, military corruption, and fallacy of arms procurement in Nigeria, International Journal of Public Administration 43(12): 1068-1082.
- Ojo J.S. (2020), Governing "ungoverned spaces" in the foliage of conspiracy: toward (re)ordering terrorism, from Boko Haram insurgency, Fulani militancy to banditry in Northern Nigeria, African Security 13(1): 77-110.
- Ojo J.S., Lamidi K.O., Odewale A.D., Shiyanbade B. & Ihemeje G. (2020), Boko Haram insurgency and defense corruption. In: Farazmand A. (Ed.), Global encyclopedia of public administration, public policy, and governance. Cham: Springer. 1-14.
- Ojo J.S. (2018), Weep for the one who descends?: African democracies, politics of stomach infrastructure, and homology of corruption, International Journal of Public Administration 42(3): 240-258.
- Ojo J.S. (2018), Anti-corruption war and the ambivalence of legalism in Nigeria. In: , Global encyclopedia of public administration, public policy, and governance. Cham: Springer. 1-17.
- Ojo J.S. (2018), Politics of corruption in Africa. In: , Global encyclopedia of public administration, public policy, and governance. Cham: Springer. 1-13.
- Clarke J. & Ojo J.S. (2017), Sport policy in Cameroon, International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics 9(1): 189-200.
- Ojo J.S. & Lamidi K.O. (2017), Biafra’s secessionist movement. In: , Global encyclopedia of public administration, public policy, and governance. Cham: Springer. 1-10.