An Original Philosophical Theory of Structural Violence in the Nigerian State: From Galtung to an African Critical Theory

This dissertation develops an original African critical theory of structural violence in the Nigerian state, extending Johan Galtung's foundational structural violence concept through systematic philosophical engagement with African critical philosophy, postcolonial theory, and empirical evidence from the South South, North East, and North Central geopolitical zones. Structural violence, defined as harm caused by social structures rather than individual agency, has been widely applied in peace studies but inadequately theorised through African philosophical frameworks, constituting the theoretical gap this dissertation addresses. A three-phase methodology is employed, combining critical philosophical reconstruction of Galtung's structural violence theory and its African critics, including Frantz Fanon and Achille Mbembe; a systematic empirical investigation of structural violence manifestations in Niger Delta ecological harm, North East conflict displacement, and Middle Belt land dispossession through 80 qualitative interviews and documentary analysis; and constructive development of an original philosophical theory through dialectical synthesis. The dissertation proposes the African Structural Violence Theory as an original contribution, which identifies colonial institutional residue, ethnic resource competition, and epistemic marginalisation as the three constitutive mechanisms of structural violence in the Nigerian state, and specifies that addressing structural violence requires philosophical transformation of the state's underlying normative architecture, not merely redistributive policy reform. Keywords: structural violence, African critical theory, Nigerian state, Galtung, post-colonial philosophy.