Towards a Theory of Environmental Justice in Nigerian Environmental Engineering Practice: Equity, Vulnerability, and Marginalised Communities

This dissertation develops an original theory of environmental justice specifically situated within Nigerian environmental engineering practice, examining the structural mechanisms through which environmental burdens are inequitably distributed to marginalised communities and constructing a normative framework for equity-centred environmental engineering that challenges the dominant technical rationality of current practice. Environmental justice as a theoretical and activist framework emerged from the United States civil rights movement and has been applied in various global contexts, but its articulation in terms directly relevant to Nigerian environmental engineering practice, where different axes of marginalisation including ethnicity, economic status, political influence, and geographic peripherality interact with environmental burden distribution, represents an original theoretical contribution. The dissertation proceeds through four interconnected analytical phases: a critical review of Nigerian environmental engineering practice through an environmental justice lens, examining case evidence from the Niger Delta, urban informal settlements, IDP camps, and peri-urban mining communities to document the empirical patterns of environmental burden distribution; theoretical construction of the Nigerian Environmental Justice Framework drawing on political ecology, capabilities approach ethics, procedural justice theory, and distributive justice principles; empirical testing of the framework's diagnostic and predictive dimensions through structured analysis of fifteen environmental engineering decision processes across project types and locations; and the development of an equity-centred environmental engineering methodology that operationalises environmental justice principles in technical practice, including revised environmental impact assessment scope requirements, equity impact indicators, and community co-design protocols. The dissertation makes original contributions to both environmental justice theory and environmental engineering professional ethics. Keywords: environmental justice, equity, marginalised communities, environmental engineering, Nigeria.