APPRAISAL OF THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE CONTROL OF OCEAN AND COASTAL MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The need to develop a coordinated and integrated approach for the governance of coastal and ocean resources and the protection of the marine environment from further degradation caused by natural and anthropogenic activities, particularly climate change, pollution from oil exploration and exploitation, sand mining, agricultural and industrial development has become imperative in Nigeria. Nigeria has a land area of 923,768.64 square kilometres, with a coastline of over 823 kilometres and navigable inland waterways of about 4,000 kilometres. These confer on Nigeria great potentials. To what extent these potentials have been tapped for productivity and nation building would be appraised considering the attendant issues and challenges faced by the co-ordinating and regulating bodies. The research discusses the development of maritime industry in Nigeria with focus towards development, structural formation, legal framework, capacity building and cabotage. The aim of this paper is to examine the legal framework for the protection and control of the ocean and coastal management in Nigeria. The paper adopted the doctrinal research method as previous studies of other scholars will be examined. The paper finds that the laws governing the ocean and coastal management in Nigeria is quite adequate only that some of the sections needs amendment as they are archaic and doesn’t cover the current challenges bedevilling the oceans. The paper recommended that there is need for an over-haul of the legislative framework due to its inadequacies in meeting up to the challenges confronting the safety of the nation’s ocean and coastal areas.