RIGHT TO A PROTECTED MARINE ENVIRONMENT IN NIGERIA: A LEGAL APPRAISAL

Abstract

The guarantee of a safe marine environment is enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) as well as other national and international instruments that have a direct and tangential bearing on the protection of the marine environment. The continued depredation of the marine eco-space has raised both international and national concerns, particularly as it affects human life and well-being. The direct response to the menace of marine degradation and its impact on humans warranted the incorporation of environmental rights in the African Charter and the 1999 Constitution. Furthermore, the United Nations in its Sustainable Development Goal Programme laid credence to environmental issues as integral to its goals as expressed in Goal 14 (which is “life below water”). A robust marine environment and its protection is a personal right of individual citizens of Nigeria. The distortion of these rights arising from the constant pollution trend and its hazardous impact on human health in the face of the avalanche of laws both national and international was the reason the researcher settled on the topic to appraise the citizens’ right to a protected marine environment in Nigeria. The methodology used in this research was the doctrinal research method which entailed the analysis of both primary and secondary sources of data collection. The research found that despite the deluged of the national and international laws enacted and ratified, the spate of marine pollution impacted on humans remained unabated. This article recommended that the protection of the marine environment in Nigeria should not be accessed through the directive principle of state policy under section 20 of the Constitution, but should be transposed into Chapter IV of the Constitution to give a full-blown right to the clean marine environment to be enjoyed by the citizens of Nigeria.