The Courts and the Challenges of Adjudicating on Environmental Rights Actions in Nigeria

International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume VI, Issue IX, September 2019 | ISSN 2321–2705

The Courts and the Challenges of Adjudicating on Environmental Rights Actions in Nigeria

Abdulwasi MUSAH

Centre for Petroleum, Energy Economics and Law, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract:-Since the discovery of oil in commercial quantities in Oloibiri in 1957, the Niger Delta region of Nigeria has been facing serious environmental challenges which range from air and soil pollution. This state of environmental mishaps has grossly affected the people to the extent that the eco-system has largely become unfriendly and harsh to the people. The people have lost their hitherto traditional occupations of fishing and farming to the toxic nature of their waterways and soil. The people of the region lament their haplessness and agony to lack of infrastructural developments and placed the blames on both the government and the Multi-National Oil Companies who according to them have not done enough to ameliorate their worsening conditions. In the face of the ineffectiveness of the environmental laws, the people of the Niger-Delta see the courts as the last hope they can beckon at but their experiences with the courts are yet to meet their aspirations. Often times, they are challenged by jurisdictional choices in filing their environmental rights actions and the long period it takes in adjudicating some of their cases discourages their decision of approaching the courts, hence, sometimes resulting to self-help with far-fetched effects on oil exploration and production activities and revenue drives of the federal government. This paper therefore seeks to proffer a way out of these shambles in a way that streamline the best way out through which the courts can seamlessly serve to the optimum,the cause of oil exploration and production as well as the government revenue drive.

Keywords: Environmental rights actions, Multi-National Oil Companies, Oil Exploration and Production

I. INTRODUCTION

Oil was discovered in a commercial quantity in Oloibiri in 1957 and its production therefrom finally stopped in 1978 and the field was abandoned the same year after 20years of successful exploration. The oil discovery quickly changed the economic fortune of Nigeria and in the 1980s, its foreign earnings from oil earnings accounted to 90% , and according to NNPC 1984, its estimated reserves extending beyond 20-30 years. This record still maintains its relevance till date, despite several efforts and promising measures over the years by successive administration to diversify the Nigerian economy, even in spite of the recent falls in the international pricing of crude oil.

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