Mainstreaming Distributive Justice into Resources Management in Nigeria: The Extent of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021

Abstract

The distribution of petroleum resources has always been an issue
of serious controversy in the Nigerian state under the previous
petroleum regime. Thus, this paper examined the extent to which
the newly enacted Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 has
engrained distributive justice with respect to petroleum
resources management. It concludes that the PIA has made giant
strides towards this end, in view of the creation of the Host
Communities Development Trust Fund, Frontier Basin
Exploration Fund and improved environment protection
measures. However, this study identified certain factors which
will limit the full realisation of the distributive justice
intendment of the Act. It is, therefore, submitted that until these
issues are addressed, distributive justice would continue to
remain elusive for petroleum resources management.