Environmental Accountability and the Locus Standi Rule in Oil-Related Environmental Litigation in Nigeria: Implications of the Supreme Court Decision in Centre for Oil Pollution Watch v. NNPC

Abstract

In cases of environmental degradation or pollution, the ability of a person or group of persons to
petition the court is however dependent on the legal rights and procedural gateways created in
law, otherwise known as locus standi which has come to play a critical role in oil-related
environmental litigation in Nigeria. The legal concept of standing or locus standi is predicated on
the assumption that no court is obliged to provide a remedy for a claim in which the applicant has
a remote, hypothetical or no interest. While the Nigerian judiciary has over the years mainly
leaned towards the strict interpretation of this rule, implying that the need to ensure environmental
accountability is often sacrificed on the altar of satisfying procedural rules. Recent developments
suggest that the courts will not stand in the way of the liberalization of this rule. It is the
implications of the Supreme Court’s decision to liberalize the locus standi rule in oil-related
environmental litigation in Nigeria that forms the basis of this paper.