Theorising the State-Society Relation in Public Law: Social Contract Theory and Its Adequacy for Nigerian Governance

Social contract theory, in its Lockean, Rousseauian, and Rawlsian formulations, posits a foundational agreement between the state and citizens as the normative basis for legitimate public law authority. The adequacy of these social contract frameworks for theorising state-society relations in Nigeria, where colonially imposed state boundaries, ethnic plurality, and persistent governance failure challenge Eurocentric social contract assumptions, has not been critically examined from an original theoretical perspective. This study theorises the adequacy and limits of social contract theory for Nigerian public law, developing an original African Social Contract Theory that accounts for ethnic plurality, communal rather than individual contractual subjects, and post-colonial state legitimacy challenges. The theoretical development is grounded in a comparative doctrinal analysis of social contract theory references in Nigerian judicial reasoning, a systematic analysis of Nigerian constitutional convention and constituent assembly records from 1950 to 2014, and qualitative interviews with 30 Nigerian constitutional law scholars and political theorists from six geopolitical zones. Rawlsian Theory of Justice, Ubuntu Political Philosophy, and Critical African Political Theory collectively inform the original framework construction. The study's theoretical contribution is an African Social Contract Theory for Public Law applicable to other multi-ethnic post-colonial federal states. Findings generate implications for constitutional design, ethnic representation guarantees, and the normative basis of constitutional obligation in Nigeria. Keywords: social contract theory, African political philosophy, Nigerian governance, constitutional theory, public law.