Revisiting Aquinas’s Natural Law Ethics as a Framework for Moral Responsibility in Nigeria’s Corrupt Political Culture

Abstract

Nigeria’s persistent political corruption remains a major moral and developmental crisis, undermining justice, accountability, and the common good. Despite numerous anti-corruption policies and religious appeals, moral decadence within the political class continues to thrive, suggesting the need for a deeper ethical framework rooted in rational and universal moral principles. This study revisits Thomas Aquinas’s Natural Law Ethics as a philosophical and theological framework for addressing moral responsibility in Nigeria’s corrupt political culture. The study identifies a gap in existing anti-corruption discourses, which often emphasize legal and institutional reforms but neglect the moral foundations of political conduct. Guided by Aquinas’s conception of the natural law as participation in divine reason, the study aims to explore how intrinsic moral order and virtue ethics can foster integrity and public accountability among leaders. Using a qualitative, analytical, and hermeneutical methodology, the research examines primary Thomistic texts alongside contemporary Nigerian socio-political realities. The findings reveal that Aquinas’s emphasis on reason, virtue, and the common good offers a viable moral paradigm for reforming political behaviour and reawakening moral conscience in governance. The study concludes that effective anti-corruption reform must integrate moral education grounded in natural law ethics. It recommends the reorientation of political leadership training, civic education, and public policy towards moral responsibility, justice, and the pursuit of the common good as articulated in Thomistic ethical thought.