This thesis proposes a new constitutional framework for ownership and control of natural resources in the federation of Nigeria. It identifies exclusive federal ownership of natural resources as a tool of ethnic domination by Nigeria’s three dominant ethnic groups of Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo against the oil-producing minorities of the Niger Delta region. It is argued that the inextricable link between federal ownership of natural resources and the economic and political interests of the major ethnic groups denotes that the current system of natural resource ownership has become a divisive and destabilizing feature of Nigerian federalism. Considering that Nigerian multi-ethnic federalism is designed primarily to prevent the domination of one ethnic group by another and also encourage each constituent unit of the federation to develop at its own pace, it is arguable that exclusive federal ownership of natural resources negates these underlying principles of Nigerian federalism by entrenching the domination of the Niger delta oil-producing minorities and depriving the oil-producing states of the right to develop at their own pace. These circumstances have triggered waves of ethnic nationalism and armed insurgency in the Niger delta region with grave implications for national stability. The thesis argues therefore that only a new system of natural resource ownership which recognizes both national and regional interests in natural resource ownership and development can conduce to peace in the troubled Niger delta region of the federation. It proposes constitutional devolution of ownership rights over onshore natural resources from the federal government to the constituent units of the federation under an arrangement whereby the federal government retains its legislative and regulatory powers. It is argued that this framework, among other benefits, will preserve the underlying principles of Nigerian federalism and halt the drift toward instability in Nigeria’s Niger delta region.