CORPORATE CIVIL LIABILITY AND COMPENSATION REGIME FOR ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION IN THE NIGER DELTA

Petroleum activity has been highly instrumental in yielding economic rewards for resource producingcountries and supplying a vital energy source, but it also has the potential to cause profoundenvironmental impacts. Oil pollution forms part of the general malaise of environmental pollution.The disastrous effect of oil pollution is now beyond question. The restive situation in the Niger Deltacan be blamed on heinous environmental crimes and breach of good environmental management bymultinational oil companies. Over the past decades, the Niger Delta terrain has been overrun throughdeliberate over-exploitation carried out in total disregard of the basic principles of sustainableenvironmental management. The impact of the oil spill includes habitat degradation, pollution fromgas flaring and these are cumulative and have acted synergistically with other environmental stressesto impair ecosystems and severely compromise human livelihoods and health. These unfortunateincidents make the victims individuals and host community, landowners, pond owners and otherproperty owners to demand compensation and has progressively pushed the Niger Delta to the brink ofecological disaster. Despite international treaties, declarations, industry best practices and therecognition of their application in the absence of adequate environmental laws and enforcement indeveloping countries such as Nigeria, environmental pollution from oil and gas activities continueunabated. This paper sets out to examine the corporate civil liability and compensation regime forenvironmental pollution in the Niger Delta. It will focus on legislation covering pollution in the NigerDelta Region occasioned by oil and gas activities particularly, the basis of environmental policy andlegislation in Nigeria and including the concept of corporate social responsibility, its role in the NigerDelta particularly considering the host communities’ needs, and more significantly, whether itsapplication erodes conformity with legal requirements and standards.