The Legal Status of Sustainable Development in the Nigerian Environmental Law
ABSTRACT: One of the main objectives or achievements of sustainable development is the maintenance of a healthy environment as part of the natural resource development dynamic. To achieve this objective, mechanisms will be put in place to ensure that the environment is adequately protected from the consequences of invasive use before and during the resource development process. Therefore, it is important for States to adopt laws and regulations that guarantee the achievement of sustainable development in the field of natural resources in their economies. Bitumen is one of the natural resourcesNigeria has begun to develop commercially to diversify its economy from an economy largely dependent on oil. Studies have shown that bitumen, if not carefully monitored, has a potentially more devastating ecological footprint than oil. This paper therefore examines two environmental laws in Nigeria, namely the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Act and the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) Act, to determine whether their provisions are comprehensive enough to meet bitumen processing requirements before and during development. The document notes that these laws have serious shortcomings in bitumen development that could jeopardize the achievement of sustainable development in Nigeria`s bitumen sector. Although governance is widely recognized as one of the most important factors for effective environmental management, sustainable environmental management remains an abstraction in Nigeria. In this context, this conceptual review and synthesis article attempts to provide policy recommendations through a broader review of the existing literature on existing institutional, legal and policy frameworks of Nigeria`s environmental policy. The study finds that the environmental system in Nigeria is characterized by inefficiency, lack of public participation, unenforceable and unenforceable laws and policies, and a weak and uncoordinated institutional framework. It therefore concludes that Nigeria`s environmental policy frameworks are woefully inadequate to address the scale of the country`s environmental challenges. The study highlights that sustainable environmental management requires governance systems in which the legal, political and institutional requirements of environmental management are seen as a shared responsibility not only of shareholders, but also of different stakeholders.
Based on the set of environmental governance issues examined, this paper concludes that Nigerian environmental management will be effective and sustainable if good governance is promoted. It recommends the adoption of comprehensive, accountable and enforceable environmental decrees and the strengthening of the institutional framework for environmental policy in Nigeria. Sustainable development underpins environmental policy in all jurisdictions, but its legal status is still controversial. The main problem that Nigerian courts and policymakers will face in implementing and applying sustainable development in environmental policy is whether it is a moral or legal concept and, if so, whether it has become a legal principle or whether the rule of law has normative value. This article argues that the legal status of sustainable development in Nigeria depends on the legal instrument it has included and whether it is expressed in a general or specific mandatory language. Its legal status also depends on the decisions of Nigerian courts. Methodologically, qualitative content analysis is used to determine the legal status of sustainable development in the laws and jurisprudence reviewed. In order to improve the implementation and enforcement of sustainable development in Nigerian environmental law, the conclusion of this article included the last part of its argument that sustainable development should be an integral part of the right to life in the form of recommendations, the relevant constitutional provisions on the environment should be amended accordingly, and section 20 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 in chapter IV of the Constitution, which deals with fundamental human rights. This essay attempts to assess the impact of existing environmental laws and policies on achieving environmental sustainability in Nigeria. It examines the purpose for which the various environmental laws and policies were created and analyses whether the expectations of these laws regarding the current state of the Nigerian environment have been met, and if not, why? This essay examines the concept of sustainable development in relation to international environmental law and focuses on environmental sustainability as a pillar of sustainable development. It also compares Nigeria`s current environmental legal framework with that of other jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom and South Africa and examines how these states have integrated international environmental standards to promote environmental sustainability within their jurisdictions. This essay performs a textual analysis of Nigerian environmental laws, international environmental laws, and scholarly writings on environmental sustainability.
It identifies constitutional and extra-legal factors that constitute obstacles to the achievement of a sustainable environment in Nigeria.