Abstract
Although Nigeria is among the leading nations which has ratified various international conventions for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, more emphasis is on civil and political rights entrenched in the Constitution than on the ‘third generation rights’ which include the right to a clean and healthy environment. The activities of some oil multinational companies, especially the Shell Petroleum Development Company, had started in Nigeria in 1958. However, the present unbearable level of environmental degradation in the major oil producing areas of Nigeria, especially the Ogoniland of Rivers State, has seriously sensitised the people to embark on protests to defend their rights even in the face of government stiff opposition. It was in the course of the people's struggle in Ogoniland that Ken-Saro Wiwa and eight other Ogoni human rights activists were arrested, tried, condemned to death and executed. It is true that the Nigerian Government cannot afford to toil with the production of crude oil since it is the major source of revenue for the country, our contention is that total neglect of the right of the people to a clean and pollution-free environment will be more disastrous to all economic gains which exploitation of crude oil can consolidate.