The work is very sensitive to the forms of domination exercised in the transport sector, as opposed to literature that values informality. It exposes the daily interactions between drivers, police officers and members of the dominant union in Lagos, the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW). Corruption is the central object around which much of the book revolves, which [Agbiboa] is careful not to essentialize.
Daniel E. Agbiboa is Assistant Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. He earned 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 nonstate actors in contemporary Africa. He is the recipient of the Harry Frank Guggenheim Distinguished Scholar Award, and is a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. His books include Transport, Transgression and Politics in African Cities: The Rhythm of Chaos (Routledge, 2018), and People, Predicaments and Potentials in Africa (Langaa RPCIG, 2021). He has authored articles in leading journals such as Public Culture, Current History, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, African Studies Review, African Affairs, and Journal of Modern African Studies.