Wealth Dickson Ominabo

Wealth Dickson Ominabo is a doctoral researcher in the Department of Development Studies at SOAS University of London. His thesis centres on farmer-herder conflict as the primary site where climate change, transhumance and governance converge to shape security and contest political authority across Nigeria and West Africa. 

Drawing on political ecology and institutional ethnography, his research traces how shifting pastoral mobility, environmental stress and weakening state institutions interact to drive violence, erode sovereignty and reshape governance in fragile settings. His work contributes to critical debates on the climate-security nexus, land governance, state fragility and conflict-sensitive policy across the Sahel. 

His research interests span the contested politics of transhumance, climate governance, statecraft, democratic governance and institutional resilience, and the dynamics of political transition across West Africa. Wealth brings over a decade of experience in strategic communications. He works as a Media Assistant to former Nigerian President Dr Goodluck Jonathan and as a Communications Officer for the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, engaging senior political, diplomatic, and civil society stakeholders across the continent. 

In that capacity, he serves as the lead communicator for the West African Elders Forum (WAEF), an initiative of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, established in 2020, that deploys soft power to mitigate election-related violence and facilitate peaceful democratic transitions across the region. He has participated in international election observation missions with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) during the Cape Verde parliamentary elections in 2021, with WAEF during the Sierra Leone general election in 2023 and with the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA) during the South Africa general election in 2024. 

He holds an MA in Conflict, Security and Development from the Nigerian Defence Academy and a BA in English and Literary Studies from the University of Abuja. He is a regular public commentator on politics,  sovereignty, security and democratic governance  with analysis appearing in African Arguments and major Nigerian platforms.

• Political ecology
• Climate security
• Sovereignty
• Statecraft
• Democracy