Environmental Justice in Nigeria: Spotlight on Activism of Nongovernmental Organisations over Petroleum Development in the Oil-Rich Delta Region

Abstract

Environmental justice (EJ) is a progressively advancing subject, social movement and practice, which requires fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all humans, regardless of sex, age, class, income, race, colour or nationality, in the development, management, implementation and enforcement of plans, policies, laws and regulatory practices, towards the protection and management of the environment in the course of socio-economic development programmes, including projects. It also requires equitable and thus indiscriminate exposure of all to environmental good and harm. It is an advancing social movement that advocates a healthy and eco-balanced environment, towards human wellbeing, sustainable communities and all-embracing sustainable development (SD) in the overall interest of society within our Planet (Mother Earth). EJ may thus be discussed within the rubrics of the twin relationship of the environment to development, in the ongoing effort of the UN to achieve SD around the world. Hence, this socio-legal study examines efforts of EJ Nongovernmental Organisations in the oil-rich ethnic minority Niger Delta region, towards greater wellbeing of the environment, humans and society at large in the region and beyond. The study makes a case for application of international benchmarked norms, guidelines, standards and practices on EJ beyond advanced countries, particularly to underprivileged areas of the developing world, such as the marginalized and neglected oil-rich ethnic minority communities of the Niger Delta region and other such deprived resource-rich areas of other developing countries.

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“…To start with, it is significant to point out that energy and major natural resources EIOs include oil, gas (petroleum) and other mining and mineral resources EIOs. 26 EIOs occasion enormous costs, burdens or negative consequences, as well as certain benefits or advantages accruing to host states (countries) and their resource-rich communities, and these may be exemplified by Nigeria 27 and her oil-rich minority ethnic Delta region and other Nigerian oil producing areas. 28…”

“…When burnt, fossil fuels release carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere, which leads to climate change and global warming. 38 Among others, the negative effects of increased emission of greenhouse gases include deforestation and forest degradation in tropical areas, ocean acidification, rise of sea levels, increased melting of snow and ice, smog pollution, ozone layer depletion and difficulty of plants to absorb sufficient nutrients and the consequent distortion of their normal growth rate. 39 .…”

“…These pronouncements include the Ogoni Bill of Rights of 1990, the Kaiama Declaration of 1998, the Resolution of the First Urhobo Economic Summit, the Warri Accord, the Aklaka Declaration of the Egi People, the Oron Bill of Rights, the Demand of the First Niger Delta Indigenous Women's Conference for Women of Bayelsa State, the Declaration of the Ikwerre Rescue Charter, the Declaration of the Niger Delta Bill of Rights, and other related declarations, pronouncements and demands of other community-based groups of the region. 44 These pronouncements, which placed demands of the oil-rich communities of the Niger Delta region on oil and gas companies, especially MNOCs, and the Nigerian state, snowballed into the region's resource control movement (for economic sovereignty, poverty alleviation, greater, socially justifiable and equitable impact-benefits), in the course of petroleum EIOs in the communities of the region. 45 It may be remarked that concerning citizens and citizengroups of the communities of the oil-rich ethnic minority Niger Delta region making such pronouncements in reaction to adverse consequences of petroleum EIOs in their region implies that these citizens and citizen-groups of region and other oil producing communities and areas of Nigeria have internationally acknowledged and widely accepted rights to employ modern civilized measures, to secure their wellbeing and the wellbeing of their communal homelands.…”

Ancient Niger Delta Trading States, 1884/85 Negative Sovereignty Treaties, Positive International Law, British Colonization & Good Governance towards the Advancement of Civilization in Nigeria

“…Hence, following the British colonial government's grant of political independence to Nigeria, in October 1960, the FGN established the defunct Niger Delta Development Board (NDDB), in 1961, to initiate schemes to supplement normal development of the Delta region. 74 However, while its efforts were frustrated by the Federal Military Government (FMG), the NDDB became a victim of the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-1970, after which it eventually became a moribund institution. Thereafter, in 1976, based on the developmental philosophy of the NDDB, the FMG, led by General Olusegun Obasanjo, established the River Basins Development Authorities' (RBDA) system, by virtue of the River Basins Development Authorities Act (RBDAA).…”

“…Under the RBDA system, the NDBDA was undermined, as it was starved of funds, while most of the other ten RBDAs were generously funded by the Government. 76 Other partial and palliative measures embarked by the FGN include various modes of revenue allocation associated with petroleum development operations in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, creation of south-south geopolitical ethnic minority states, and delineation of south-south @ECRTD-UK: https://www.eajournals.org/ Publication of the European Centre for Research Training and Development -UK Niger Delta Trading States and Great Britain, these States and the rest of the oil-rich Niger Delta region (South-South ethnic minority zone of Nigeria) tenaciously believe that they were wrongly incorporated into independent Nigeria by the British colonial government, which justifies and strengthens their resource control movement in the country. 82 Thus, given the persisting nature of the resource control struggle of the oil-rich ethnic minority Delta region as a fall-out of the 1884/85 negative sovereignty treaties of protection between the Ancient Niger Delta Trading States and Imperialist Great Britain and ongoing agitation of other separatist groups in the realm of divergence of centrifugal forces from centripetal forces in Nigeria, there is a need for improvement of the wellbeing of the country's citizens and citizengroups, through good governance (GG).…”