Governance and Piracy in Nigeria and Somalia
This chapter first describes geographic and temporal trends in the frequency of attacks in Nigeria and Somalia. It then reviews the development of piracy in both countries, paying particular attention to local governance capacity. Similarly to the analyses of Indonesia in Chapter 6, this chapter notes a clear curvilinear association between nighttime light emissions and sophisticated pirate attacks against steaming ships on the open water. The findings are stronger in Nigeria than in Somalia, but this is to be expected given low variance in local capacity across the Somali state. Significantly, the empirical evidence presented on Nigeria and Somalia supports the findings from Chapter 6. Pirates locate in spaces characterized by intermediate state capacity, places with some infrastructural development and elites who can be bribed to look the other way. The evidence presented in this chapter shows considerably less piracy in areas with very weak or very strong governance.