Environmental Policies in Nigeria: Delta State Socioeconomic Impact

This report provides a comprehensive evaluation of Nigerian environmental policies, particularly focusing on their impact on the socioeconomic status of the indigenes in the oil-producing communities of Delta State. The study examines the effectiveness of environmental policies, including the implementation of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA), in relation to education, unemployment, and healthcare. It explores the historical context of the oil and gas sector in Nigeria, analyzes environmental impacts, and investigates the reasons behind the failures of EIA implementation. The research utilizes secondary data sources to assess the implications of policies on socioeconomic development and identifies gaps in policy implementation, community support, and cultural diversity cognizance. The report concludes with recommendations for decentralizing environmental responsibilities and maintaining timelines to achieve sustainability in environmental policies, thereby enhancing socioeconomic growth. The study emphasizes the need for improved policy regulations to reduce civil unrest and environmental exploitation.

Running Head: EVALUATION OF NIGERIAN ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES ON SOCIO-
ECONOMIC LIVES
Evaluating the Nigerian Government Environmental Policies on the socio-economic status of the
indigenes in the oil producing communities: A case study of Delta state
Student name
University name
Author notes

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I want to thank the Almighty for the unforeseen support provided to me in carrying out
this research work. I also want to thank my family, friends and near and dear ones who have
directly or indirectly encouraged me in completing this research work. I extend my sincere note
of thanks to the professors and mentors who have constantly supported and encouraged me in
completion of the report work on time.
Student name
Signature
………………………….

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The thesis paper aims at evaluating the environmental policies and strategies by the
Government in regard to socio-economic status in the Niger Delta state. The socio-economic
aspects of education, unemployment and healthcare are considered in relation to the
environmental policies of the Federal government of Nigeria. The objectives of the study include
environmental policy effectiveness investigation, current environmental policy implication on
socio-economic lives of the people and evaluation of how new policy adaptation will help
improving the environment specially in the Niger Delta state region. It also focuses on finding
justification for organizational ambiguities and conflicts related to the implementation of
Environmental Impact Assessment tool (EIA) as a part of policy reform by the Government. The
research question tries to find answer to the significant impacts of environmental policies on
socio-economic status of Niger people.
Past research papers and relevant information in this field is used for supporting the data
analysis and critical evaluation of the paper. Nigerian Maritime Oil and Gas Sector (NMOGS) is
the most developed sectors that holistically supports the economic growth in the country. As a
result of increased oil production, the environment is adversely affected and so is the lives of the
people specially in the Niger Delta state. To reduce the degree of adversities, the Government
has continuously been reforming the environmental policies. But their effectiveness is been
questioned by the people as policy reformation is creating negative impacts on their socio-
economic lives. The tool of qualitative analysis of secondary data sources is used in this paper to
have a more comprehensive discussion of the topic.
Enhanced evaluation and critical analysis on the area of discussion provides evidence to
the fact that environmental policies have direct relation to the various socio-economic progress

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indicators namely education, unemployment and healthcare. The policies are also quite
ineffective in supporting development of the nation. The untold hardships of the people have
increased as a result of ineffectiveness of the environmental policies specially the Environmental
Impact Assessment (EIA) tool was unable to meet development standards of the nation. There is
a major implementation gap in the policies and lack of community support and failure of cultural
diversity cognizance are the root cases of ineffectiveness of the polices in supporting socio-
economic growth of the nation. It is therefore, highly recommended that the Government should
decentralize environmental responsibilities and a proper timeline should be maintained to
achieve sustainability of the environmental polices.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY................................6
Introduction..................................................................................................................................6
Rationale and relevance of the thesis...........................................................................................7
Aims and objectives.....................................................................................................................9
Structure of the thesis paper.......................................................................................................10
Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................................12
Introduction................................................................................................................................12
Tools and techniques for environmental policy assessment......................................................13
Environmental impacts appraisal- role of EIA..........................................................................14
Challenges faced by Nigerian strategies on environmental policies..........................................16
Policy theories support...............................................................................................................19
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY UNDERTAKEN FOR THE RESEARCH.............................21
Introduction................................................................................................................................21
Description of the area of case study.........................................................................................21
Evaluation of secondary sources of data....................................................................................23
Limitations of the study.............................................................................................................24
Ethical considerations................................................................................................................25
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION..............................................................26
Introduction................................................................................................................................26
Historical know how of Oil and gas sector in Nigeria...............................................................27
Environmental impacts..............................................................................................................27
Comparison and evaluation of dual EIA system........................................................................29
Reasons for failure of EIA implementation...............................................................................31
An overall structure of education, unemployment and healthcare in Nigeria...........................32
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS...................................................35
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................35
Recommendations......................................................................................................................36
Future implications....................................................................................................................37
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................38

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LIST OF ACRONYMS
ACF Advocacy Coalition Framework
ACM Ambiguity Conflict Model
AI Administrative Implementation
DPR Department of Petroleum Resources
EI Experimental Implementation
EIA Environmental Impact Assessment
EIS Environmental Impact Statement
ERA Environmental Rights Action
FEPA Federal Environmental Protection Agency
FERC Federal Energy Regulation Commission
FGN Federal Government of Nigeria
FMENV Federal Ministry of Environment
FMPR Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources
GIAs Government Implementing-Agencies
IAIA International Association for Impact Assessment
IEA International Energy Agency
IMO International Maritime Organization
NGOs Non-Governmental Organizations
NES Nigerian Environmental Society
NESREA National Environmental Standards Regulations and Enforcement Agency
NIMASA Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency
NNPC Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
NMOGS Nigerian Maritime Oil and Gas Sector
NOSCP Nation Oil Spill Contingency Plan
NOSDRA National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency
NPA Nigerian Port Authority
NPE National Policy on Environment
PPPs Policies, plans and programmes

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SEA Strategic Environmental Assessment
SERAC Social and Environmental Rights Action
SI Symbolic Implementation
SIA Social Impact Assessment
WAGP West African Gas Pipeline
WB World Bank
WMSN Waste Management Society of Nigeria

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Introduction
The paper is a critique on the Nigerian Environmental policies and their effectiveness on
socio-economic status of the Niger Delta state peoples. It is quite unfortunate that only in recent
times environmental concerns has gained momentum in Nigeria whereas other developed nations
across the world have already moved ahead (Kadafa 2012). Until the Federal Government’s
decrees there was no sound legal framework for sustainable environmental protection in the
country. The adversities of toxic waste disposal increased awareness for environmental
protection and the Federal Environmental Protection Agency, (FEPA) was enacted (Mohammed
2013). A number of environmental policy changes and new policy implementation has been
prominent in Nigeria by the Government till date, but the paper will focus on the evaluation and
review of EIA implementation in relation to Oil and Gas industries specially in the Delta state
region. EIA institutionalization has been done in 1990s with the aim of mitigating environmental
adversities by the help of a legal procedural implementation (Ite and Ibok 2013). The thesis
paper explores the effects of environmental policies in context of socio-economic development
of the nation with procedural problems in implementation of EIA. It also highlights the public
ambiguities and organizational conflicts resulting from policy implementation of EIA.
The study of the fundamental principles of the Nigerian environmental policy is highly
significant as it ensures a sustainable socioeconomic advancement based on effective
management of resources (Lompo and Trani 2013). In broader aspects, the paper addresses the
challenges on socio-economic development resulting from environmental policy implementation
by the Government. The government highly believes that the environmental contingencies can be
easily mitigated by the method of policy implementation and reformation but the regulatory

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system was given insufficient attention and as a result the desired effectiveness was not achieved
(Elenwo and Akankali 2014). And for developing country setting like Nigeria the
implementation procedure is embryonic and full of contradictions (Ihuah and Fortune 2013). The
next part of this chapter includes the research rationale, aims and objectives and structure of the
overall thesis paper.
Rationale and relevance of the thesis
The paper will mainly focus on EIA and its impacts on socio-economic status of the
people of the Niger Delta state region. The primary goal of EIA implementation is to address the
adversities caused by resource exploitation and extraction (Kadafa 2012). But in many cases EIA
also promotes sustainable development and acts as a management planning tool. However, EIA
is also criticized on the grounds of its mechanistic approach rather than humanitarian approach.
It fails to synchronize with everyday working policies because of its insufficient robust analytical
framework and most social science researchers claim this as the factor that decides upon its
success and failure at large (Obeng-Odoom 2014). Past studies were mainly based on
quantitative data analysis where end results were quite difficult to interpret because of statistical
complexities. Therefore, the research aims to focus on empirical evidences only collected from
secondary data sources. Evidences specific to oil and gas sector were evaluated and end results
were completely based on qualitative data analysis.
The high level of environmental pollution in regard to domestic lives in the Niger Delta
has given rise to civil unrest all over Nigeria (Onoja et al. 2013). It is quite significant that
maximum portion of the wealth of Nigeria comes from the oil activities in the Niger Delta and as
a result the people in the region are in conflict with the Federal Government on the issue of
petroleum resource control and also for their endangered life conditions as a result of oil

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exploitation (Onoja et al. 2013). The problems have doubled in the delta region due to lack of
social amenities and infrastructural support.
The environmental problems still persist and the reason is due to the fact that
environmental issues cannot be mitigated separately or in isolation from other socio-economic
issues (Oyedepo 2014). For sustainable development is not an individualistic approach rather it is
an integrative approach. Based on the current situations three major areas are considered here
which are also included as the main objectives of the paper. First, the EIA implementation
success in regard to NMOGS is evaluated. That is, to find the coherence of the key
implementation stages (mitigation, compliance monitoring and public participation) in lieu with
environmental impact assessment on socio-economic status of people (Onyechi et al. 2016).
Previous researches have only explored the extent to which EIA has been translated into reality
and practice but success of implementation in regard to socio-economic status remained
unexplored. Secondly, past research has only focused on two EIA and their overlapping issues,
where the reason for it has been less emphasized. As opined by Chindo (2015) requirement to
scrutinize the ad hoc state intervention in resolving EIA implementation challenges is necessary
along with exploration of various stakeholder’s viewpoints on the double EIA system operations.
Therefore, here the dynamic context of EIA implementation will be demonstrated and the
iterative relationship between National setting and practice of process implementation will be
evaluated. Third and the most important of all the impact of EIA on its own implementation
components are to be studied to have a better understanding of present environmental
management procedures in Government Implementing Agencies (GIA). Chuks-Ezike (2018) also
opined that this analysis will help in deciding upon policy success and failure. According to Idris
et al. (2013) the GIAs and the stakeholders will be more active in their approach and will work

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jointly so that environmental policies became more effective in supporting sustainable
development and improving socio-economic state of the Niger Delta.
In this regard, it is assumed that if the strictness in policy regulation is increased then
civil unrest may become less significant and environmental exploitation will also be reduced
considerably. Recommendations thus includes enhancement and refinement of the existing EIA
policy that will in turn enhance socio-economic growth of the nation. Nwofe (2013) rightly
opined that the outcomes will be greatly significant to various Governmental institutions and
learned societal classes in Nigeria.
Aims and objectives
Highlighting the above areas, the main aim of the research is to evaluate the policies and
strategies on the environmental policies in the Niger Delta state by the Nigerian Government.
The objectives of the paper are
1. To investigate the current environmental policies implemented in the Niger Delta through
their practice, compliance, monitoring and public participation steps, including their
effectiveness through political and socio-economic factors.
2. To identify the implication of the environmental policies on the socio-economic status
and the development of the environmental regulation within the oil and gas sector.
3. To examine, the reasons for and components of the organizational ambiguities and
conflicts associated with the implementation of NMOGS’s EIA systems, within an inter
and intra agency context.

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Structure of the thesis paper
In this paper the key research objectives mentioned in the previous section are addressed
holistically. The research thus carried out is segregated into five main chapters mentioned below.
Chapter 2, outlines the literature review on various environmental impacts of oil and gas
activities in the Delta state and the role of EIA as the policy tool has been reviewed along with
its other component part of Social Impact Assessment (SIA). The various constituting elements
of a good environmental management system are examined and EIA is evaluated based on them.
Challenges in policy implementation are also focused in this chapter. At the end of the chapter
critical analysis of the previous frameworks applied in EIA evaluation is discussed. It also
outlines the literature review on the need for various policy theories specially the areas of
ambiguity and conflict theorization. It will help in better understanding of EIA implementation
from national policy contexts (Matemilola and Elegbede 2017). Here mainly, the relationship
between theories of policy implementation and research evaluation are elucidated.
Chapter 3, emphasizes on the methodology undertaken for the research. Data collection
methods are presented and their analysis methods are also mentioned. A clear description of the
study area, challenges faced, limitations of the study, reliability and validity and techniques
adopted for increasing effectiveness of the study are mentioned.
Chapter 4, outlines the discussion on National context and National system of EIA in
Nigeria. Historical development of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria is discussed along with
socio-economic impact assessment. The legal framework of EIA in NMOGS focused on DPR
and Federal Ministry of Environment system is also discussed. The role of GIA in EIA
implementation is also analyzed here. It uncovers the successes or failures of the EIA
implementation in terms of achievements recorded since the operational activeness of EIA. It