The Philosophy of Technology and Digital Exclusion: Analysing the Ethics of the Digital Divide in Nigeria’s North East

This study examines the philosophy of technology and analyses the ethical dimensions of digital exclusion in Nigeria's North East geopolitical zone, encompassing Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Gombe, Bauchi, and Taraba States. The digital divide constitutes a philosophically identifiable injustice when it deprives individuals of the capabilities necessary for full social, economic, and political participation in an increasingly digital society, but this argument has not been systematically developed in the Nigerian North East context. A mixed-methods philosophical design is employed, combining systematic philosophical analysis of technology ethics from Albert Borgmann, Don Ihde, and Luciano Floridi with a quantitative survey of 350 residents across the six North East states measuring digital access and its relationship to social participation capabilities, supplemented by 35 qualitative interviews with technology policy officials and philosophy academics. Findings reveal that digital exclusion in the North East is philosophically distinguishable from ordinary resource scarcity because it results from identifiable policy decisions about infrastructure investment and technology governance that constitute moral failures attributable to specific institutions. The study establishes that the digital divide in this zone satisfies the philosophical criteria for structural injustice from Iris Marion Young's framework, because it arises from institutional processes rather than individual misfortune. The study contributes an original philosophical framework for analysing digital injustice in African conflict-affected zones. Keywords: philosophy of technology, digital divide, digital exclusion, North East Nigeria, structural injustice.