SOURCE:

Faculty: Law
Department: Law

CONTRIBUTORS:

Francis, T. A.
Ibe, C. E.

ABSTRACT:

The concept of environmental impacts of development projects is a global phenomenon which has re-awakened the consciousness of many nations to incorporate same into their municipal laws. More particularly, the Nigerian legislature has among several other laws enacted the Environmental Impact Assessment Act; National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency Act, and National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency Act in order to establish institutional frameworks to regulate development activities or projects capable of impacting the environment adversely. These institutions are however ill-equipped to adequately function and the enabling laws are replete with lacunae that allow for overlap of their various functions thereby causing institutional disharmony and clashes, the consequence of which culminates in weak institution, weak enforcement and perpetual non-compliance with the requirements of the law. This research analysed the core laws and institutions regulating environmental impacts in Nigeria. In discussing the contentious issues relating to environmental impacts assessment, several regulations on environmental impacts were considered comparatively with what obtains in some selected foreign jurisdictions.The methodology adopted was the doctrinal approach and the research materials used include: primary sources such as: enabling statutes/legislation and case laws;secondary sources, namely: textbooks, journals, dictionaries, and various internet generated materials. The findings indicate that both the government and the citizens are culpable or responsible for the problem of non-enforcement and non-compliance to the requirements of environmental impact law and assessment. While the regulatory laws are in existence, the enforcement mechanisms or measures adopted are very minimal to achieve any meaningful compliance. It is recommended, inter alia that the Constitution should be amended to extend the jurisdiction conferred on the Federal High Court over environmental impacts cases to the High Court and other special tribunals to be established for that purpose. The enabling laws establishing the agencies should also be amended to streamline their specialised functions in order to avoid the apparent conflict or clash of interests and to secure compliance to the laws.