Philosophical Foundations of Transitional Justice in Post-Conflict Nigeria: An Original Normative Framework for the Middle Belt and North East Regions

This dissertation develops an original normative framework for transitional justice in post-conflict Nigerian contexts, focusing on the Middle Belt (North Central) and North East geopolitical zones, by systematically engaging the global transitional justice philosophy literature with African communitarian justice philosophy and empirical evidence from affected communities. Transitional justice philosophy has developed substantial theoretical resources from Ruti Teitel, Pablo de Greiff, and Jon Elster, but these frameworks were developed from Western and Latin American transitions and inadequately address the distinctive features of African communal conflict, indigenous reconciliation traditions, and the absence of formal peace agreements in Nigerian conflict settings. A four-phase methodology is employed, combining systematic philosophical analysis of transitional justice theories; empirical investigation through 85 interviews with community leaders, survivors, justice activists, and transitional justice philosophers in Benue, Plateau, Borno, and Adamawa States; comparative analysis with successful African transitional justice experiences including South Africa and Rwanda; and constructive philosophical synthesis of the original normative framework. The dissertation proposes the African Communal Justice Framework as an original contribution, specifying truth recovery, communal acknowledgment, relational restoration, and structural transformation as the four philosophically necessary components of transitional justice in African communal conflict contexts, and demonstrating how each can be institutionally operationalised for the Nigerian Middle Belt and North East cases. Keywords: transitional justice, African communal philosophy, post-conflict Nigeria, normative framework, reconciliation.