The Environmental Perspective in the 1999 Nigerian Constitution

Abstract

Environmental degradation is bound to increase as long as human population increases and new technologies are invented. In order to arrest the problems of environmental degradation, a number of approaches have been adopted. Among such approaches are the integration of environmental protection policies into development programmes, enactment of comprehensive legislation on all segments of environment and the inclusion of environmental provisions in the constitutions of most countries. Unfortunately, while some countries make their constitutional provisions on environment enforceable, others do not. In Nigeria, indirect environmental provisions were first made part of the constitution in the 1979 Constitution. In 1999, direct environmental provision was entrenched in the 1999 Constitution. Unfortunately, Chapter II of the 1999 Constitution, which contains the environmental provisions, is unenforceable. While the Nigerian courts have done nothing tangible to enforce the provisions of the constitution on environment, on the other hand, the Indian courts have taken positive steps to enforce provisions of the Indian Constitution on environment. In conclusion, apart from other suggestions made, it is strongly recommended that Nigerian courts should emulate the efforts made by Indian courts to enforce provisions of the Indian Constitution on environment.

The world has moved far away from the era when it was believed that the only rights which a government is called upon to guarantee and protect are the natural rights of man. By living in nation-states and in organised communities, man has acquired new rights, which are now regarded by many civilised countries as just as inalienable as those rights with which nature endows him at birth. The right to education and work are among such rights. Increasingly important in some countries is the addition of the right to a decent and healthy environment to these newly acquired rights.¹