Environmental Protection and the Role of National Policies and Guidelines in Nigeria

National policies generally are meant to guide the government in decision making towards the achievement of a specific result. In desiring to improve on the environment, the Nigerian government has put in place a number of legislation and formulated policies and guidelines on the environment. However, whether there is a corresponding result is a subject matter of concern for all advocates of the right to protected environment in Nigeria. The article seeks to explore the contribution of the National Policy on the Environment (NPE) and other guidelines for the protection of the environment in Nigeria especially considering that they are mere action plans and policy statements. The article observes that the NPE and the guidelines are very comprehensive, all-embracing and ambitious. However, there is a significant gap between the guidelines, the legislation and their implementation in Nigeria. The article observes that the implementation of the NPE and the relevant guidelines presents enormous challenges as a result of the weak constitutional source from which the guidelines and policies were derived. Besides, the article finds that the objectives of the guidelines and the NPE have not been satisfactorily achieved as a result of a number of other factors which include corruption, lack of partnership with non-governmental stakeholders, the challenge of overlap among the administrative bodies and failure of the government to provide an effective medium for involving the public in the negotiation of policies and strategies for the protection of the environment.