Environmental Legal Protection and Environmental Justice for Host Communities of Electricity Projects in Nigeria

Nigeria’s expansion of electricity generation and transmission has produced a parallel legal and policy question concerning the environmental and social effects borne by communities that host dams, thermal plants, and transmission corridors. This study examined the environmental-law dimensions of that question while distinguishing them from related property, compensation, and expropriation claims. It therefore does not treat every grievance arising from displacement or unequal distribution as an environmental justice claim. Rather, it asks whether the legal rules governing environmental assessment, participation, environmental protection, and host-community benefits adequately address the environmental dimensions of electricity infrastructure projects. The study examines the constitutional foundation, the Environmental Impact Assessment Act, the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency Act, and the Electricity Act 2023, alongside judicial and regional human rights authority, including Gbemre v. Shell and the Social and Economic Rights Action Center decision. Using a doctrinal method supplemented by documentary analysis of the Zungeru and Mambilla hydroelectric projects, the study finds that Nigeria has a substantial normative framework but that important gaps remain both in implementation and in legal design. In particular, the framework does not consistently connect environmental assessment with meaningful participation, and the Electricity Act 2023 provides host-community funding without establishing equally clear statutory mechanisms for community participation, independent oversight, or accountability in the administration of those funds. The study concludes that environmental justice, in the limited sense relevant to this study, requires enforceable environmental safeguards, meaningful participation, and more accountable benefit-sharing, while recognising that property and compensation disputes remain governed by distinct legal rules.