Experts call for amendment of Nigeria’s environmental impact assessment laws

Environmental specialists in Nigeria are calling on the federal government to take another look at the country’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Act.

The experts, who spoke during a high level stakeholders National Dialogue on the EIA Act in Abuja on Thursday, argued that the current laws are not being enforced strongly enough and do not address modern environmental challenges such as climate change and mining among others, effectively.

The event was organised by the Global Initiative For Food Security and Ecosystem Preservation (GIFSEP) in partnership with the Center for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) among other partners.

Participants at the meeting discussion include environmental experts across relevant government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), as well as community representatives and industry practitioners.

During the dialogue, spanning over five hours of deliberations, the participants engaged in an in-depth discussion largely focused on the strengths and weaknesses of the current EIA law in Nigeria and its implementation.

According to the organisers, the aim of the dialogue was to identify the specific actions needed to create a comprehensive amendment to the country’s existing EIA law established in 1992, over three decades ago .

They argued that the law is no longer fit for purpose because it does not capture a lot of emerging issues, like climate change and mining among others which are currently having a significant impact on host communities and biodiversity.

In his remarks, David Michael, the Executive Director of GIFSEP, said Nigeria’s current EIA Act is no longer fit for purpose.

“The act is old, since 1992, that is over 32 years. A lot of emerging issues, like climate change, mining, which were not envisaged in that act have come, and so there is a need to amend the Act, and if possible repeal the Act to have a new act, that will take care of all the emerging trends and all the environmental issues that Nigeria is currently facing,” Mr Michael said.

He lamented that the compliance and compliance monitoring of the EIA Act in Nigeria is very weak to protect the environment, biodiversity and the host communities of mining and other environmentally impacted projects and for future generations.

“So we are calling on the National Assembly to amend this Act so that we can have a better act that is current, world standard and will protect environmental and human rights of Nigerians,” he said.

EIA

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a process of evaluating the likely environmental impacts of a proposed project or development, taking into account inter-related socio-economic, cultural and human-health impacts, both beneficial and adverse.

According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the EIA is a tool used to identify the environmental, social and economic impacts of a project prior to decision-making.

The ultimate objective of EIA globally is to predict environmental impacts at an early stage in project planning and design, find ways and means to reduce adverse impacts, shape projects to suit the local environment and present the predictions and options to decision-makers.

By using EIA, UNEP said both environmental and economic benefits can be achieved, such as reduced cost and time of project implementation and design, avoided treatment/clean-up costs and impacts of laws and regulations.

In 1992, the federal government enacted the EIA Act, also known as the EIA Decree No. 86, in an effort to regulate the environmental impact of certain public and private projects.

The primary goal of the Act is to make the environment a central consideration in development projects. It also prohibits projects from being undertaken or authorised without a prior environmental impact assessment.

The law mandates the Federal Ministry of Environment to champion enforcement and regulate EIA in Nigeria, with collaboration from states, local governments, and relevant ministries and agencies.

However, there are concerns that the EIA law, enacted over 30 years ago, embodies weak penalties, and does not reflect some emerging trends coupled with weak enforcement of the law by the regulatory authorities.

Why the EIA act should be repealed or reviewed

On Thursday, the environmental experts said there is an urgent need to review/repeal the EIA law. They argued that a revised legislation should reflect the current realities of environmental protection and the rights of communities impacted by projects.

“It is crucial to evaluate the effectiveness of the Act and consider necessary amendments that align with contemporary challenges and trends,” Mr Michael said.

In her submission, Grace Alawa, a lecturer at Rivers State University, said the few issues she has with the current EIA law in Nigeria is the weak implementation of the laws/policies that are within the EIA.

“I also think that the scope should also be improved/broadend to cover areas like airport shipyards because environmental issues don’t consider borders. For things like airport shipyards we are going to be talking about things like transboundary issues,” she argued.

She said the scope of the EIA Act can be increased and that penalties captured in the Act are very minimal as compared to the offences stipulated.

“I think we should work towards reviewing the present EIA and see how to work towards enforcing the laws within the EIA,” she said.

Legal insights

In his remarks, Yahya Dangana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), highlighted that upon reviewing the current EIA law, he felt there should be a clarification on some of the provisions in the act.

Mr Dangana said that the membership of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency/Council and those to be appointed in the council or review panels in the assessment to be done are often left in the hands of the minister, president or the heads of the agency.

“We want a situation whereby the criteria for the appointment of some of these members would be based on people who have vast knowledge across core environmental/biological science disciplines. The committee/panel is supposed to be multidisciplinary,” the Senior Advocate of Nigeria said.

In terms of the political will in enforcing some of the provisions of this law, he said they observed that the political will is not there other than the existence of the law.

Mr Dangana urged the government to be up and doing to see how the assessment or review of the Act and others would be done. He added that one of the areas of concern is the method of application, the default and the penalties that are stipulated are quite laughable.

“The penalties are not commensurate with the law. I feel there should be a clarification on some of the provisions in the act,” he said.

He explained that considering the time within which that law was assembled and now, a lot of time has passed, noting that just as there is no perfect law, he believes that the law is a piece of legislation which is a work in progress.

The Senior Advocate said the current EIA law centres a lot of provisions on the president and the agency—Federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Council.

“This law cannot be read in isolation with the Federal Environmental Protection Act,” he noted.

Way forward

During his presentation titled “the Good, the Bad and the Ugly” issues surrounding the EIA Act of 1992, Jude Omeje, a professor at the University of Abuja, said Nigeria EIA Act focuses mainly on projects, but other policies also impact the environment and are often ignored.

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“It’s essential to include Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) or Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment (SEIA) to evaluate these effects,” he said.

The professor explained that there is a need for the amendment of the Act because in Nigeria, the EIA is not mandatory if the community in charge thinks the impact will be small.

This rule, Mr Omeje said, can be misused and may need changes, adding that expert advice from the National Assembly should also be considered, along with input from local representatives.

“The environment changes quickly due to population growth, so past data may not be reliable and should be reassessed,” he said.