Mohammed Haruna Yusuf
9 November 2008
Majority of the members saddled with the responsibility for lawmaking are either naive or lack the technical capacity to enact any meaningful legislation to protect the environment, U. D Ikoni, has said.
Ikoni, a lecturer in the Faculty of Law, Benue State University, Makurdi, said this in Abuja while presenting a paper on "Combating Deforestation and Desertification IN Nigeria".
"The lukewarm attitude of government to the question of the right to a clean environment may be attributed to the lack of awareness among ordinary people of this specific right which they possess.
He continued, "the inadequacy of existing legal mechanisms to protect man and the environment from incursions of modern technology necessitated the clamour for recognition of environmental rights as a separate and distinct right"
The lecturer said that the executive and the judiciary usually hide under the provisions of section 6(6) (c) of the constitution which renders the provisions of the chapter II of the same constitution non- justiceable.
According to him, the right to a clean and healthy environment is the right of everyone to the conservation of the environment, free from the degrading effects of pollution and other human activities.
He stated further that the requirement of a healthy and balanced environment and of the environmentally sound management of natural resources is a condition for the implementation of other fundamental rights.
"It is our belief that environmental rights will grant the public a right to a healthy, environment and introduce a series of reforms to increase the powers of the private citizens to protect themselves and their environment from the negative effects of pollution," he said. Also, such right would increase the powers to sue in civil courts for damage caused by pollution and to initiate private suits or claims for pollution where government or its agency has refused or neglected to act. In addition, it will grant increased access to information on pollution and rights to participate in standard settings and other processes relating to environmental protection.
He added that the description of environment as a state of affairs which is based upon the activities of man in his natural habitat and the relationships he has with his immediate environment in terms of water, air, animals, and so on.
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