CULTURAL VALUES AND ETHICAL CHALLENGES OF NATURAL RESOURCE EXPLOITATION IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This study examines how oil extraction in Nigeria's Niger Delta disrupted indigenous environmental values and what this means for sustainable development. While research has documented physical environmental damage, less attention has been paid to how extractive industries systematically undermined indigenous ethical frameworks and how those same values might point toward fairer resource management. The research aims to document indigenous environmental values, analyze ethical problems from extraction, and propose culturally grounded solutions. Using Environmental Racism theory (Bullard, 1990), which explains how corporations locate hazards in communities with colour, the study draws on a systematic review of academic articles, reports, and policy documents analyzed through thematic content analysis. Findings reveal that indigenous cultures possess robust environmental ethics embedded in elderly-based governance, taboos, and spiritual world views that historically ensured sustainability. These values conflict with extractive practices marked by environmental racism, corruption, community marginalization and desecration of sacred spaces. Communities resist creatively through spiritual engagements with oil and cultural performances yet remain trapped in the "resource curse" paradox. Recommendations include legal recognition of indigenous stewardship systems, mandatory cultural impact assessments, community consent protocols, corporate accountability, and educational integration of indigenous ethics. The study concludes that sustainable resource governance requires not technical fixes alone but fundamental revaluation of cultural knowledge as ethical resources for environmental justice.