LAW OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
.
INTRODUCTION
Environmental Law as a course of study is new
on the Law Faculty's curriculum in Nigeria's tertiary institutions. The book "LAW OF ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION -- Materials and Texts"
therefore, is pathbreaking.
The "Environment" was described as “the issue of the year”
internationally in 1970. It was not
until 1988 that the "Environment" gained prominence as a prime issue
in Nigeria, when institutional, legal, and policy aspects of the environment
began to receive serious attention. One of the reasons for this delay is the
primary concern at the early stage of our national development for the
exploitation of our natural resources to secure the quantitative aspects of
human needs -- more food, more water, more energy, etc. while little or no attention was paid to the
qualitative aspect of the conservation of our natural resources and overall
protection of the environment. Although, traditional society in its own unique
way established certain norms of social behavior to secure human survival and
protection against a hostile environment, today, rapid social and technological
developments have generated a need for additional and scientifically
articulated protection against new environmental risks caused partly or wholly
by human action or interaction with nature and those naturally occurring within the ecosystem.
The widely publicized 1988 “Koko Toxic Waste
Dump” issue provided the impetus which sparked national focus on the
environment and environmental protection as a national policy. Prior to 1988,
legal and administrative measures covered mainly protective and preventive
measures relating to environmental sanitation and public health; warning and
emergency measures to reduce potential harm in case of natural disasters and context of Nigerian
Law which whilst paying due regard to global movements and ideas as well as the
increasing interest of the international community on the problems pertaining
to the environment. The author observed that "until the adoption of the
National Policy on the Environment in 1989, Nigeria had no defined and clearly
articulated national policy goals for the nations
environment." The country enacted the Federal Environmental Protection
/gene Decree 1988 No. 58 which came into force at the end of 1988 when it
became what the author rightly described as "the statutory threshold of a
national policyon environmental protection in Nigeria.' I would without hesitation recommend this
work to anylawyer (be he a specialist or a generalpractitioner) who wishes to
have a clear understanding of Environmental Law in Nigeria. It has been
impressively well researched, well written and very readable. It is a reliable source of information for
any practicing lawyer or legal scholar interested in the Law of Environment in
Nigeria today. Every good library ought
to have a copy