Law, Development Policies and Climate Change: Lessons from Nigeria’s Developmental Process

Abstract

The quest for development is the major drive of every human society especially societies designated as developing or less developed with special reference to the Nigerian state given its abundant human and natural resources which have been termed its albatross. In a bid to achieve this laudable agenda, humanity have constantly interacted with and engaged the natural environment which have consequently produced its adverse effect as seen in the various manifestations from the environment. Consequently, this paper examines fundamental legal frameworks, developmental policies and climate change with lessons from Nigeria’s developmental process and outcomes. The theory of environmentalism as developed by Schumacher (1973) which contains a detailed critique of the role of modern societies and their drive towards development with overbearing effect on sustaining the good of the environment through formulation of frameworks. The paper relies on secondary sources of data such as journals, government papers and online articles and the documents were subjected to content analysis. The paper discovered amongst other things that, though there exists fundamental laws starting from constitutional provisions, human engagements with government and its agencies at the driver’s seat have contributed more to actions that have affected the environment. It recommends holistic domestication and application of extent international protocols that addresses the urgent need of environmental preservation with the actualization of comprehensive development programs for the masses