PROPERTY, PROVIDENCE, AND THE NIGER DELTA: A COMPARATIVE REFLECTION ON PSALM 24:1–2 AND THE ETHICS OF INTEGRAL ECOLOGY IN NIGERIAN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

Abstract

This article undertook a sustained exegetical and doctrinal exposition of Psalm 24:1–2 as a scriptural foundation for African environmental ethics and professional formation, and placed that exposition in critical dialogue with Nigeria's constitutional and statutory environmental law architecture. The article contended that the bipartite theological argument of Psalm 24:1–2- that the earth belongs to God because God created it- generated a doctrine of stewardship whose normative logic was both anticipated by, and imperfectly realised within, Nigerian environmental law. Drawing upon close philological exegesis of the Hebrew text, including the psalm's liturgical setting and its Ancient Near Eastern background, the lexical distinction between ʾāreș and tēbēl in verse 1, and the verbal aspect of verse 2, and upon a critical analysis of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, the Land Use Act, the Environmental Impact Assessment Act, the NOSDRA Act, and the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, the article traced the structural convergences and the persistent gaps between prophetic theology and positive law. It argued, further, that the professional formation of the African jurist, cleric, physician, and engineer must be grounded in an integrated framework that reads Scripture, indigenous ethical traditions, and national law as complementary resources for a stewardship ethic adequate to the scale of Africa's ecological crisis.