Chris O. Ikporukpo’s research while affiliated with University of Ibadan and other places

In spite of the fact that the environment had attracted attention in varying degrees, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1972, marked the formalization of environmental concern. Following this conference and subsequent Earth Summits, various jurisdictions, in varying degrees and in varying inceptions, have attempted to operationalize this concern. The approaches adopted have resulted in various degrees of success and have in many cases resulted in paradigm shift. The emergence of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is one such example. This work analyzes the potentials of PPP as an environmental management strategy. As a conceptual basis, the concepts of PPP and environmental security are discussed. Based on formal PPP waste management examples from India, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Ghana and Nigeria, and national park management in Zambia, it is shown that PPP results in better operational efficiency and financial returns. This is largely because of more effective management, the injection of capital and improved technology. Examples of Environmental NGOs in India, Kenya and Nigeria also indicate that informal PPP also has considerable impact. However; for PPP to be much more effective in the developing countries challenges, such as weak laws, lack of political will and corruption, must be addressed.

The Vision 2010 Committee was inaugurated in 1996, with a mandate to develop a blueprint of measures to ensure the realization of Nigeria's potential as an independent country by the year 2010. The Committee submitted its report in 1997. This paper analyses the basic policy objectives—to seek a safe and healthy environment that secures the economic and social well-being of present and future generations—and the strategies used for their achievement. Despite this policy thrust, an in-depth assessment based on facts and figures shows that environmental protection/conservation is very low on the nation's agenda. Indeed, the depletion of the forest has continued unabated, such that there is a high rate of deforestation and forest resource loss without a corresponding afforestation programme. The problem of erosion has received little or no attention, given inadequate funding and poor management practices. Very little effort is being made to combat the twin problems of desertification and drought. Pollution from mining and industrial activities is on the increase. Pollution from petroleum (oil spills), particularly from sabotage and blockage, is also on the increase. However, the incidence of gas flaring may be eliminated by the year 2005, given the current trend. Apart from these, Nigeria has developed only about 40 per cent of its water resources. Municipal solid waste is a common feature in most urban centres without corresponding management practices, while environmental planning, and especially Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs), have received little or no attention. Thus, most of the policy objectives are unlikely to be achieved within the stipulated time given the current trends and the general lack of public enlightenment/awareness on the issues of environmental problems and the mitigating measures. A more pragmatic approach is necessary if the policy objective is to be achieved.

This paper analyses the issue of fiscal federalism in Nigeria from an environmental justice perspective, using the case of the oil-producing Niger Delta region. Within Nigeria, this is the region most affected by oil--certainly in terms of its environmental impact. In spite of this, areas of the country that do not produce petroleum--the majority--derive increasing benefits from financial flows and development consequent on oil production and refining. This situation raises issues of environmental justice. Two conflicting schools of thought have emerged. One, championed by governments and people in the oil-producing area, with the active support of environmental NGOs, argues that considerably more financial resources from oil revenue should be allocated to the area in order to compensate for environmental risk and damage. The cliche´ 'resource control' is commonly associated with this school. The opposing school, made up mainly of the central government and the governments and people of the northern states, asserts that the current level of compensation is adequate. The establishment of environmental justice is impeded by several factors, chief of which is the command nature of federalism in the country.

There is hardly any natural resource that has generated so much political and economic conflict as petroleum. One form of conflict which has received very little attention is the struggle for control between the producing regions on the one hand and the state and the nonproducing areas on the other in multiethnic federations. This paper is an examination of this conflict in Nigeria. In order to provide a framework for the analysis, theoretical issues on the state and the experiences of other federations are examined. The setting for the conflict in Nigeria is the situation where the resource, which is the mainstay of the economy, is available only in areas whose ethnic groups have little or no access to or control of political power. Unlike in other federations such as the USA and Australia, Nigeria's petroleum resources are much more accessible to the central government and the nonproducing regions than the producing areas. A controversy has thus emerged. One school argues that the producing areas should have exclusive right to the resources whereas another assigns this exclusive right to the federal government. A third view is that the producing areas should have more, though nonexciusive, rights and a fourth argues that the federal government should have more rights. The current pattern of access has generated a lot of dissent in the producing areas whose inhabitants assert that the pattern is a reflection of the majority ethnic groups' bid to oppress the minority groups. Such protests include advocacy-based protest, civil disobedience, sabotage and armed struggle.