Nigeria: Environmental Law

When oil pollution devastates a community, determining legal responsibility involves more than identifying the company connected to the spill. The answer requires examining statutory provisions like the Oil Pipelines Act, common law tort principles, third-party interference claims, and government obligations under Nigeria's Constitution, with liability turning on specific questions of negligence, maintenance standards, and causation.

Can the constitutional right to life be meaningfully protected while ignoring environmental conditions that make life unsafe? This article examines the evolving Nigerian legal framework connecting environmental degradation in oil-producing communities to fundamental constitutional rights, analyzing key court decisions that have shaped—and continue to contest—the relationship between pollution and the right to life.

Nigeria's environmental rights litigation has evolved through landmark cases that tested constitutional boundaries and expanded access to justice. From the groundbreaking Gbemre decision recognizing environmental protection as a fundamental right, through judicial restraint in Opara, to the Supreme Court's standing expansion in Centre for Oil Pollution Watch...

Across Nigeria, air pollution, contaminated water and degraded land raise critical legal questions about regulatory responsibility, corporate accountability and remedies for environmental harm. This article examines how environmental justice provides a framework for fair protection under environmental laws, meaningful community participation and effective access to justice when environmental obligations are breached. It explores the legal challenges of balancing economic development with environmental prote

Nigeria's power sector sees significant regulatory developments as NERC issues new guidelines for technical audits of transmission infrastructure, publishes a directory of State Electricity Regulatory Commissions to support the transition to state-level regulation, and the Minister of Power establishes an inter-agency committee to facilitate electricity market decentralisation under the Electricity Act 2023.

The Federal High Court's recent decision in HRM King Bubaraye Dakolo v. Shell Petroleum Development Company has reignited debate over whether limitation statutes should bar environmental claims arising from oil spills. This case examines two critical unresolved questions: whether federal or state limitation laws govern petroleum litigation, and whether ongoing oil pollution constitutes a continuing tort that suspends statutory time limits.

This update highlights recent regulatory and market developments in Nigeria's power sector, including the proposed establishment of the Grid Asset Management Company Limited...

The measure of a company's success is beyond the traditional balance sheet to include its broader impact on the world. This shift is defined by Environmental, Social, and Governance (‘ESG') principles...

For years, “greenwashing” (the practice of misrepresenting or exaggerating a company’s environmental, social, or governance (ESG) practices to appear more sustainable or responsible...