ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS IN NIGERIA: PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES

Abstract

The role of laws in inducing responsible behavior towards the environment cannot be neglected. Laws serve as an effective tool for environmental protection, planning, pollution, prevention and control. Nigeria’s Constitution 1999 (as amended) as the grundnorm makes a clear cut provision for protection of wildlife, environment, air, water and forest. Other similar environmental laws that made wonderful provisions on use of environment and environmental pollution are enacted and in use. However, the implementation of these laws by way of enforcement is a bit of a challenge because Government cannot be held responsible for any damage done to any of these resources (water, air, wild life etc.).In addition to this limitation, provisions of some of these environmental laws are obsolete or too lenient and hence are out of tune with present day realities.  This paper takes an overview of some of the environmental laws, their challenges, relevance and the way forward.