Environmental Remediation Management in Nigeria: A Legal Review of Oil Spills Remediation in The Niger Delta Region

Environmental quality and its sustainability of resources are vital to the general well-being and advancement of the people of the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. This is credited to the fact that over 70 percent of the people of the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria rely on the natural environment for survival. The environment serves as a source for agriculture, forest products and fishing. The rivers and creeks are used for washing, bathing and it is a main source for drinking. The paper revealed that since the discovery of oil in 1956 by the Shell British Petroleum (now Royal Dutch Shell) at Oloibiri, a village in the present day Bayelsa State of Niger Delta Region, the Region has persistently suffered the destructive environmental effects of unsustainable oil production. Between 1976 and 1996 a cumulative of 4647 oil spills occurrences caused the oil spills of about 2,369,470 barrels of crude oil into the environment. Additionally, between 1997 and 2001, Nigeria witnessed an aggregate quantity of 2,097 oil spills occurrences. Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) of Nigeria has recorded oil spills of almost 3.038 billion barrels of crude oil between 2003 and 2012 from their pipelines alone. This has impacted negatively on the Niger Delta Region environment and their source of livelihood. Several environmental remediation management policies have been initiated to lessen the danger of oil spills occurrences in the country. Yet, the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria is currently today, a classic international example of an adversely degraded environment occasioned by unsustainable oil operations in the region. The paper adopts analytical and qualitative approach and builds its argument on existing literatures which is achieved by synthesizing of ideas. It concludes that environmental remediation management in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria with particular focus on oil spills remediation is capable of addressing the environmental and developmental issues currently facing the people of the Niger-Delta region. The paper amongst others, recommends that oil companies operating in the Niger Delta Region should in collaboration with the Nigerian Federal Government embark on immediate comprehensive environmental clean-up and remediation of polluted areas in the Niger Delta Region.