Environmental Laws in Nigeria and Occurrence of Some Geohazards: A Review

Nigeria as a country is blessed with an abundance of both human and natural resources. Exploitation of natural resources in Nigeria over the years with little or no regard for the environment has increased susceptibility of parts of the country to identified geohazards. A suite of environmental laws exist in Nigeria, all these aimed at protecting both the environment and its inhabitants. The aim of this paper is to review existing environmental laws in Nigeria, and occurrence of identified geohazards as a result of absence or non-implementation of these laws. Data for this study were obtained primarily from secondary sources. They are published government reports, journal articles, books, as well as other resources on the environment of Nigeria. Results show that Nigeria as a country has suitable existing and well-meaning environmental laws. The country also has many agencies charged with the responsibilities of implementing these environmental laws and policies. However, the non-implementation and non-existence of identified environmental laws and policies has increased both exposure and vulnerability of parts of the country to geohazards. The effects of these include; loss of means of livelihood, environmental degradation leading to Badlands in parts of the country, as well as death in extreme cases. It is recommended in this paper that adherence to existing environmental laws and policies as a panacea to mitigating identified geohzards is important. It is further recommended that amendment of already existing environmental laws to capture contemporary realities be made. This paper concluded by calling for more investment in the use of remote sensing and GIS tools such as LiDAR technology in the study of geohazards.