Corporate Investment in Developing Countries and State’s Responsibility in Sustainable Management of Natural Resources

Environmental squalor has continued to create hostile challenges for health and economic development in Nigeria. Some of these glitches include deforestation, pollution, global warming, etc. Despite environmental laws and policies targeted at eradicating these problems, the situation in Nigeria seems deteriorating due to the fact that these laws are not meritoriously enforced. In this article, we have critically evaluated some of the notable laws and regulations governing the oil and gas sector designed to protect the environment against harmful activities. The consequence that flowed from this evaluation is the realisation that despite the efforts of the government in establishing laws and regulations to protect the environment, there have been very little positive results in the area of effective implementation and enforcement of these laws. This we discovered was attributable to the lack of political will on the part of the government and the serious challenge of regulating Multi-National Corporations due to their economic strength and their transnational nature. Again, our appraisal clearly established that although there are laws regulating the oil industry of Nigeria, some of these laws are very old and of no consequence, while others do not have direct control over corporate operations and Multi-National Corporations. This has created regulation and implementation gap and the attendant negative consequences on the Nigerian environment. In this connection, we have elicited and recommended practical solutions to these problems to enable government to strikes the delicate balance between the need to encourage corporate investment and the necessity to protect the environment from the resulting hazards.