Decolonising Moral Philosophy: Towards an Original Methodological Framework for African Ethical Inquiry in Nigerian Academic Philosophy

This dissertation develops an original methodological framework for decolonising moral philosophy as practised in Nigerian academic institutions, addressing the fundamental theoretical problem of how African ethical inquiry can be conducted rigorously without either uncritically adopting Western philosophical methods or retreating into ethnographic description that denies African philosophy's systematic character. The decolonisation of philosophy in Nigeria faces a distinctive methodological challenge: existing decolonial approaches tend to either wholesale reject Western philosophical method (risking irrationalism) or merely add African content to Western methodological containers (leaving the colonial structure intact). A four-phase methodology is employed, combining systematic critique of Western philosophical methods from a Fanonian and Mbembean decolonial standpoint; philosophical reconstruction of indigenous Nigerian methodological principles from Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa philosophical traditions through 85 interviews with traditional and academic philosophers across all six geopolitical zones; comparative analysis with non-Western philosophical methodologies including Buddhist, Confucian, and Latin American liberation philosophy; and constructive development of the original Afro-synthetic philosophical method. The dissertation proposes the Afro-Synthetic Method as an original contribution, which integrates conceptual analysis, ethnophilosophical hermeneutics, African oral reason, and critical dialogue with global philosophy into a self-standing African philosophical methodology. Original contributions include the methodology, a decolonisation roadmap for Nigerian philosophy curricula, and a critique of Odera Oruka's sage philosophy approach. Keywords: decolonising philosophy, African ethical method, Nigerian academic philosophy, Afro-synthetic method, methodological framework.