¹ I wish to acknowledge the kind assistance of Francois du Bois, under whose tutelage this research was done, and the Association of Commonwealth Universities for funding my studies at the London School of Economics where it was undertaken.

² Cap. 120, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 1958.

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¹¹ Ajomo, op. cit., 86.

¹² Atsegbua, op. cit., 9.

¹³ The Nigerian government owns 58% of six joint ventures with multinational operators that produce nearly all of Nigeria's oil from proven reserves of 20 billion barrels (see Financial Times, 26 May, 1995, 8). Government participation in Shell is 80% following the nationalization of the shares held by British Petroleum in 1979 (see Omorogbe, op. cit., 278).

¹⁴ See Decree No. 33 of 1977 which repealed the NNOC Act, No. 18 of 1971.

¹⁵ Ajomo, op. cit., 87.

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²⁶ Emphasis added.

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³⁰ Federal Environmental Protection Agency Decree No. 58 of 1988.

³¹ Ibid. s. 4.

³² S. 15(1).

³³ S. 16(1).

³⁴ S. 17.

³⁵ S. 18.

³⁶ S. 19.

³⁷ S. 20.

³⁸ See s. 20.

³⁹ S. 4(1) of the Oil In Navigable Waters Act, 1968, provides that it shall be a defence for the offender to prove that oil was discharged for die purpose of saving life or to prevent damage or destruction to the vessel or cargo, while ss. 4(2) and (5) provide for the defence of accident and discharge of refining effluents which was not reasonably practicable to discharge other than into prohibited waters, respectively. S. 5(6)(a) of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1962, provides for a defence for discharge of oil into the river for the purpose of preventing an obstruction.

⁴⁰ Emphasis added.

⁴¹ See the Harmful Wastes (Special Criminal Provisions etc.) Decree No. 42, 1988.

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⁵⁵ As amended in 1977, and under the Comprehensive Response Compensation and Liability Act, 1989, as well as the Oil Pollution Act, 1990, all of which make liability strict whether or not the defendant was negligent.

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⁶¹ Notwithstanding this finding, the rule was held not to apply because the acts of the defendants fell under the exception of statutory authority as they had a licence to lay the oil pipelines.

⁶² Above, n. 50, at 71.

⁶³ Cap. 77, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 1990.

⁶⁴ Ss. 234 and 247. See also s. 20 of FEPA Decree of 1988, which imposes a fine of N100,000 or imprisonment for ten years or both on any person convicted of discharging hazardous substances into the air, water or land. If it is a body corporate, the fine is N500,000. S. 21 imposes additional liability on oil spillers for the cost of removal of such substances by the Government or any of its agencies as well as for the cost of restoration or replacement of natural resources damaged or destroyed as a result of the discharge.

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⁷⁰ One major procedural impediment is the erroneous belief in the subsistence of the doctrine of state immunity which prevents the sovereign from being impleaded for tortious acts. This doctrine was derived from the feudal principles that the Crown could do no wrong, nor could he be sued in his own courts (see De Smith, S. and Brazier, R., Constitutional and Administrative Law, 7th ed., London 1994, 680). Although this doctrine was changed by the Crown Proceedings Act, 1947, in England making it possible to impose tortious liability on die Crown and its servants, state immunity continued to be pleaded in Nigeria as a relic of the colonial laws which applied direcdy to Nigeria by virtue of s. 45(1) of the Supreme Court Ordinance, 1893. The fact that Nigeria adopted a Presidential Constitution in 1979, s. 42 of which whittled down the strict rules of standing to sue, did not prevent the doctrine of state immunity from being successfully invoked in the case of Ransome-Kuti v. Attorney General of the Federation (1986) 2 NWLR 78, where the court upheld the plea on the ground that alleged tort was committed before the 1979 Constitution came into force. See generallyGoogle ScholarTunde, Ogowewo, “The problem with standing to sue in Nigeria”, (1995) 39 J.A.L. 1.Google Scholar

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⁷⁵ Art. 3

⁷⁶ Art. 4

⁷⁷ Art. 2(1)

⁷⁸ Art. 4(1)

⁷⁹ Art. 4

⁸⁰ Even though the right to life is non-derogable, the only three circumstances in which life may be taken are (a) for the defence of any person from unlawful violence or for the defence of property; (b) in order to effect a lawful arrest or to prevent the escape of a person lawfully detained; or (c) for die purpose of suppressing a riot, insurrection or mutiny (see s. 30(2)).

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⁸⁹ For a full discussion of the enforceability of this chapter see the final part of this article.

⁹⁰ Art. 16.

⁹¹ Ksentini, op. cit., 46.

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