Analysing the Challenges of Renweable Energy Resources in Nigeria: Lessons from Other Jurisdictions
Social Science Research Network, 2020
As the world’s population continues to grow, it does appear that the demand and consumption of en... more As the world’s population continues to grow, it does appear that the demand and consumption of energy experiences even a greater growth. To this end, the need to keep up with energy demand becomes a prerequisite. However, energy availability, accessibility and utilization has remained inadequate and inefficient as evidenced by the epileptic power supply. This article is aimed at evaluating renewable energy sources deployment in Nigeria drawing lessons from other jurisdictions. The doctrinal research methodology was employed to achieve the aim of this paper. The paper concluded that notwithstanding the multifarious challenges facing the development of the renewable energy subsector in Nigeria, there is a high tendency that the subsector will continue to develop and expand in the near future and ultimately contribute its part to the National Grid and the entire Energy value Chain in Nigeria provided the right and conducive technical, financial and legal environment are put in place an...
Poverty and hunger are the gravest challenges facing the African continent in the 21 st century. ... more Poverty and hunger are the gravest challenges facing the African continent in the 21 st century. About One third of African population live below the United Nations poverty line of 1.5dollars per day .Most African governments are struggling with poverty, epidemics, hunger, famine, insurgency, domestic conflicts and poor governance of both human and abundant natural resources found in Africa. However, some African states are well endowed with human and natural resources but are equally enmeshed in wars, ethnic conflicts and resource curse. Majority of African population would prefer poverty eradication measure, at any cost, over environmental sustainability measures. This is because, hunger and epidemics face most Africa states with agonizing contempt .However, there is a genuine desire by most responsible African leaders and governments to eradicate poverty and to catch up with the developed west, with minimal cost to the environment. This desire, sometimes, brings these African States into collision course with not only their natural environment but also against some basic fundamental objectives of modern global institutional frameworks for sustainable economic development. Drawing from a socio-cultural perspective, and considering the level of poverty among some selected African states, this paper seeks to develop a mechanism for balancing economic growth with environmental sustainability in Africa. The methodology includes a discourse on some selected African states against the background of their existing policies and legal frameworks on economic sustainability.The significance of this paper is that an understanding of the impacts of the socialcultural backgrounds of the economic and environmental sustainability practices in these selected African states, may throw more light on why there seems to be no meeting point in Africa, between environmental sustainability practices and poverty eradication measures in Africa. The paper will recommend ways on how this balance could be achieved.
Journal of Resources Development and Management, 2020
Any policy, law or regulatory framework that adds value to the indigenous host country's goods, s... more Any policy, law or regulatory framework that adds value to the indigenous host country's goods, services and human beings has in it the local or indigenous content. An examination of the Oil and Gas Contents Development Act 2010 in Nigeria will show significant progress made in the foray of the hitherto the dark horse -indigenous oil and gas companies into the elite oil and gas class previously `reserved` for the Multinational Oil and Gas Corporations. This was made possible by the emerging local content laws. However, a lifting of the veils of its actual performance, would reveal both latent and patent challenges facing the application of local contents laws particularly in Nigeria., This paper examines the operations of the Nigeran Oil and Gas Contents Development Act 2010, the challenges and possible recommendations on how to bring it in line with the best global practices. This paper found amongst others that infrastructural and capacity development are the power-base to driving effective local content application anywhere but are sadly lacking in Nigeria. It also found that the Nigerian version of the local contents law tilts towards protectionist regime rather than liberal approach and that a synergy of both frameworks is desired for the smooth operations of local content laws in Nigeria. This paper finally concludes that Nigeria can take a cue from other countries such as Norway and Brazil while considering the peculiarities of the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
Energy Challenges and In Security in Nigeria: A Sectoral Perspective, In Okene O.V.C (ed). Reading in Law and Policy: Current Issues and Trends. Faculty of Law Rivers State University
The International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Invention, 2020
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an emerging field that should be encouraged because of the enormo... more Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an emerging field that should be encouraged because of the enormous benefits it has to offer. In the world today, Artificial Intelligence is being introduced in practically every aspect of society and taxation is not exempt. The benefits of applying Artificial Intelligence to taxation cannot be over emphasised. Its application will guarantee accuracy, reliability, and sustainable revenue generation to the extent of positively influencing taxpayer behaviour. For instance, issues such as multiple taxation and incomplete taxpayer data can easily be resolved by the application of Artificial Intelligence with the effect of an improvement in the confidence of the taxpayer. Unfortunately, the Nigerian tax structure is still grappling with the primitive measures set by the taxing authorities regardless of the enormous potential and advancements in the digital world. The object of this paper is to discuss the potentials of artificial intelligence in taxation a...
Access to sustainable energy has been considered paramount in meeting all or most of the sustaina... more Access to sustainable energy has been considered paramount in meeting all or most of the sustainable development goals. This is because of the pervading impacts of energy to human, economic and social developments. However, meeting the global demands for sustainable energy, especially for a developing country such as Nigeria, has never been easier due to poor information sharing and educational knowledge. This scenario contributes towards the difficulty in picking and choosing energy technological winners that are more sustainable from limited choices available to producers, consumers from developing countries. It also leads to the inadequate knowledge of what works and what does not work among the emerging renewable technologies. From the conventional fossil fuels to Nuclear energy up to the emerging renewable energy, no one technology is could be said to be a winner because each energy type has advantages and disadvantage. However, the lack of adequate information and educational...
Termination and Dismissal: A Critical Case - Law Review in the Petroleum Industry
Fossil Energy eJournal, 2019
In this era of merger of corporations and smaller companies, downsizing and recession of both sma... more In this era of merger of corporations and smaller companies, downsizing and recession of both small and large oil and gas companies, it is important to ascertain the impacts of this transformations on the most vulnerable stakeholder of these companies - the company’s staff/employees. An x-ray of this would start by inquiring the status of the employees in any of the affected organizations. This is due to the fact that one of the most welcomed solution by owners of these companies is to lay off their staff from their pay role. However, the decision whether to lay off is not easily reached as this depends on a number of factors - namely: whether the staff has a fixed-term employment or is an ad hoc or causal staff. Another consideration is whether the organization is a public or private enterprise. It is after these considerations that the company may decides to terminate or dismiss a staff. The staff may equally be terminated or dismissed if the employee commits some misconducts whic...
Legislating security of supply of petroleum resources in Nigeria : current practice, new direction and lessons from Brazil, Norway and the UK
Security of supply of petroleum is a serious challenge in Nigeria that seems to lack any known le... more Security of supply of petroleum is a serious challenge in Nigeria that seems to lack any known legal remedy. It is a paradox that Nigeria is experiencing inadequate supply of petroleum resources for domestic consumption despite the abundance of oil and gas reserves in the country. Past efforts in the search for solutions through which to address this challenge have largely been political, quick fixes and episodic in nature.This research aims to address this challenge by looking for a possible solution towards the direction of the law-Petroleum Act 1969, which fundamentally regulates the industry.This is because the Act has failed to significantly contribute to the availability, reliability, affordability and sustainability of petroleum operation in Nigeria, the factors of which Elkind collectively identifies as elements of ‘energy security’.The research will undertake a critical appraisal of the 1969 Act and this is with a view to evaluating why it has failed to make any significant contribution to the security of supply of petroleum for domestic purposes.In conducting this analysis, the elements of the Petroleum Acts of Brazil, Norway and the UK will be examined. The objective of this approach is to draw specific lessons which will enrich the recommendations to be made towards the reform of the 1969 Act. The research will, in addition, analyse the new Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) 2012, to see if there are further improvements to or significant departures from the current provisions of the Act regarding the security of supply of petroleum resources. My argument is that the Act has not sufficiently contributed to security of supply and the PIB would make only minimal improvements.Therefore, further radical reform, which needs to build upon the lessons from other jurisdictions considered in this research, is required.
Nigeria is an oil and gas producing country but sadly its gas sector had suffered serious setback... more Nigeria is an oil and gas producing country but sadly its gas sector had suffered serious setback in terms of development and utilisation. Although, the crude oil sector is nearing maturity, the gas sector is still in its infancy due to some past regulatory mistakes. As a result of low gas utilization and past development policies, gas flaring became the bane of the petroleum industry in Nigeria for over five decades and this is with no end in sight. Amidst, the abundant natural gas reserves, the country was considered one of the worst gas flaring nations after Russia. Past policies and legal regimes to reduce gas flaring were rather episodic and unrealistic due to several reasons notably: policy instability, lack of cooperation by the International Oil Corporations (IOCs) and the lack of political will by the Federal Government. Gas flaring in Nigeria contributes to both economic waste as well as a huge environmental challenge in the oil and gas producing communities. It was against this background that the Federal Government recently announced measures for the utilisation of flared gas from the Niger Delta region. The objective is to make hitherto gas flared to be commercially utilised thereby reducing their environmental footprint. The significance of this paper is to examine the efficacy of these inchoate government policies and their fit for purpose. The paper found that any such measure must be backed up with enforcement mechanism with attractive terms for new entrants into the gas sector development in Nigeria.
An Appraisal of the Nigerian Legislation and Institutions Governing Maritime Environment
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2019
The environment is a natural gift of nature that protects both living and non-living organism for... more The environment is a natural gift of nature that protects both living and non-living organism for their sustenance, most especially the marine species. It is on this note that Governments at all levels make regulations that l safeguards and protects the environment from actions that are considered deleterious. In Nigerian, many regulations both national and international have direct and tangential bearing on the protection of the maritime environment. Nonetheless, the maritime environment, particularly in the oil bearing Niger Delta environment, has remained heavily polluted. The Objective of this paper is to critically examine the Legal and regulatory institutions that protect the nation’s maritime environment and the significance is to uncover any gap which will strengthen the existing bodies for the protection of our maritime environment. The article examined the existing institutions that have control on maritime environment, while evaluating the efficacy of the enforcement mechanisms. The paper makes recommendations for polluters pays principle while advocating for adequate compensation fund and strict enforcements of both national and international legal regimes on maritime protection.
Class action for prevention and mitigation of soots in Rivers State of Nigeria: lessons from other jurisdictions
WEENTECH Proceedings in Energy, 2019
The residents of Port Harcourt and its environs recently experienced black substance, known as ca... more The residents of Port Harcourt and its environs recently experienced black substance, known as carbon or soot with dull brown particles produced by incomplete combustion of crude oil and other waste materials within the environs. Many residents, including the government are really concerned about the impacts of this substance on public health, and the ecosystem. This concern is germane because of the trans- boundary nature of carbon emissions, and coupled with the serious negative health impacts on the residents. For now, it is not quite feasible to quantify the magnitude of impacts because some impacts are temporary while others are irreversible. Being a novel occurrence in this part of the world, some traditional legal and regulatory frameworks did not anticipate this occurrence and are thus inadequate in addressing the problem. Similarly, private actions by aggrieved citizens had proven inadequate in redressing grave air pollution cases in Nigeria; hence the need for class action...
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