The Philosophy of Economic Justice and Petroleum Resource Governance in Nigeria: An Original Critical Theory

This dissertation develops an original critical theory of economic justice applied to petroleum resource governance in Nigeria, engaging oil-producing communities in the South South geopolitical zone and federal-level governance institutions in the North Central zone to produce a philosophically rigorous account of the injustice embedded in Nigeria's petroleum political economy. Existing analyses of the Nigerian resource curse are predominantly economic and political, and the philosophical dimensions of petroleum governance injustice have not been systematically theorised, constituting a major gap in the global resource justice literature. A four-phase methodology is employed, combining systematic philosophical analysis of economic justice theory from Rawls, Sen, and Pogge alongside African economic philosophy; empirical investigation through 90 interviews with oil community leaders, environmental activists, petroleum governance officials, and political philosophers across Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Akwa Ibom, and Abuja; discourse analysis of petroleum legislation, revenue allocation decisions, and judicial oil cases from 2019 to 2024; and constructive development of the original Resource Justice Theory. The dissertation proposes the Resource Justice Theory as an original contribution, which specifies that just petroleum governance requires satisfaction of three philosophical conditions: ecological dignity (respecting the intrinsic rights of affected ecosystems and communities), generational equity (preserving resource benefits for future generations), and political voice (granting oil communities constitutionally protected deliberative authority over extraction decisions). Original contributions include the theory, a philosophical critique of Nigeria's Petroleum Industry Act, and constitutional reform proposals grounded in resource justice principles. Keywords: economic justice, petroleum governance, resource curse, South South Nigeria, critical theory.