Rethinking the Concept of Public Interest in Nigerian Administrative Law: Towards a Deliberative Framework

The concept of the public interest serves as a foundational legitimating principle for administrative action in Nigerian law, appearing across a broad range of statutory frameworks governing regulatory decision-making, compulsory acquisition, planning approvals, and public procurement. Yet the concept remains theoretically underdeveloped in Nigerian administrative law scholarship, applied by courts and regulatory bodies in ways that reflect unstated normative assumptions, vulnerable to elite capture, and insufficiently attentive to the interests of marginalised communities. This doctoral research undertakes an original theoretical reconstruction of the public interest concept in Nigerian administrative law, developing a Deliberative Public Interest Framework grounded in democratic theory, African communitarian philosophy, and administrative law principles. A legal theory and doctrinal methodology is employed, combining normative theoretical analysis with systematic review of Nigerian administrative decisions and judicial review cases from 2010 to 2024. Primary empirical data was gathered through deliberative focus groups conducted with community stakeholders in Abuja, Ibadan, Kano, and Owerri examining their understanding of legitimate public interest decision-making. Secondary sources include administrative law philosophy, deliberative democracy scholarship, and Nigerian public law literature. The research makes four original scholarly contributions: a systematic critique of existing public interest doctrine in Nigerian administrative law; a Deliberative Public Interest Theory adapted to African communitarian values; a proposed Deliberative Administrative Procedure Act for Nigeria; and judicial review standards for evaluating deliberative adequacy of administrative public interest determinations. Keywords: public interest, administrative law, deliberative democracy, judicial review, Nigeria.