Dr. Oluwagbenga (Michael) Akinlabi is a multi-award-winning scholar, criminologist, consultant, minister of the gospel and a motivational speaker who travels around the world teaching God's inspired wisdom to government leaders, policymakers, businessmen and women, students, and church congregations.
I’m currently available for consulting engagements.
I’m based in Newcastle upon Tyne, where I teach and research on policing, legitimacy, procedural justice, violence and corruption.
Dr Akinlabi is a trained guidance counsellor, clinical psychologist, and criminologist with PhD in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Griffith University Australia, MPhil in Criminological Research from Cambridge University UK, MSc in Clinical Psychology, and B.Ed. in Guidance and Counselling with options in Geography (both from the University of Ibadan Nigeria).
Background
Dr Akinlabi is an example of possibility and determination, having succeeded from a below average background to a celebrated global leader human capital development and in academia. Through the grace of God and sheer determination, he worked his way from being a motor-boy (i.e., bus conductor) in the streets of Lagos Nigeria to a multi-award-winning scholar of repute with full international scholarships to study at prestigious institutions of higher learning such as the Cambridge University in the United Kingdom and Griffith University in Australia.
Academia
Within the past fourteen years, Dr Akinlabi has provided lectures, coordinated, and convened large undergraduate and postgraduate modules in intelligence and security studies, criminology, and psychology. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northumbria University in the United Kingdom.
Research
Oluwagbenga is a comparative and interdisciplinary researcher who has successfully published in high impact criminology journals and in edited books on policing and substance abuse. As a researcher with strong background in understanding human behaviour, he has been particularly interested in exploring how social norms, perceptions of justice and fairness, corruption, emotions and motivations, feelings of trust, and predatory policing can go a long way to influence cynicism towards the law as well as the levels of resistance and defiance among individuals or groups in the community.
Today, I teach in one of the top UK Universities and I am a frequent speaker at conferences, seminars, and continuing education programs. I have authored peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on policing, corruption, stress in the police, and interpersonal violence. I am currently writing a book on police-citizen relations in Nigeria, to be published next year.
Dr. Akinlabi has successfully attracted more than 17 scholarships, grants, recognitions and awards in Nigeria, United Kingdom and Australia: including the prestigious British Commonwealth Scholarships, Australian Postgraduate Awards and Australian Endeavour Executive Fellowship.
He is the convenor of Inspire the Future Africa; a multifaceted leadership hub designed to build and inspire change among young people in Africa.