Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage in Nigeria: Establishment of an Administrative Institution with Arbitrative Power to the Rescue?

The incessant restiveness in Nigeria`s oil-producing communities over the lack of fair, adequate and prompt compensation for oil pollution damage puts a big question mark on the effectiveness of the country`s current legal arrangement for compensation for oil pollution damage. Nigeria has no legal system for compensation for oil pollution damage, as there is no single law that is specifically enacted for it. No policy is formulated for its implementation, and no regulatory institution is established to enforce it. This study adopts a multi-method research design, incorporating both traditional legal analysis (doctrinal method) and socio-legal research techniques (non-doctrinal method) to investigate the effectiveness of compensation for oil pollution damage in Nigeria. For the doctrinal aspect, the study relies on relevant international laws, conventions and treaties, local legislation, past and extant Nigeria`s Constitution, case law, textbooks, academic publications, law reports, encyclopedias, law dictionaries, and newspaper publications. For the non-doctrinal method of legal research, the study uses questionnaire survey as a versatile tool to gather useful and appropriate data/information on the effectiveness of energy industry compensation in some selected oil-producing communities of Bayelsa and Rivers States. The paper, therefore, suggests the development of a legal system of compensation for oil pollution damage that is based on the enactment of comprehensive law for compensation for oil pollution damage and the establishment of an independent regulatory institution with powers of arbitration, and its own rules of procedure, that will facilitate prompt, adequate and fair resolution of matters of compensation for oil pollution damage.