SOBRE EL ACCIONAR DIDÁCTICO COMO PRÁCTICA EDUCATIVA

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Act to accord with its clear intents.⁵⁴⁸ The main limitation of this Act to the present study is that it does not apply to the oil and gas industry which is the environment of this study.

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(f) Provide a programme of activities, training and drill exercises to ensure readiness to oil pollution preparedness and response and the management of operational personnel;⁵⁵⁶

(g) Co-operate and provide advisory services, technical support and equipment for purposes of responding to major oil pollution incident in the West African sub-region upon request by any neighbouring country, particularly where a part of the Nigerian territory may be threatened;⁵⁵⁷

(h) Provide support for research and development in the local development of methods, materials and equipment for oil spill detection and response;⁵⁵⁸

(i) Co-operate with the International Maritime Organization and other national, regional and international organizations in the promotion and exchange of results of research and development programmes relating to the enhancement of the state-of-the-art of the oil pollution preparedness and response, including technologies, techniques for surveillance, containment, recovery, disposal and clean up to the best practical extent, among other objectives.⁵⁵⁹

In order to realize the objectives stated above, the Agency is empowered to undertake surveillance and ensure compliance with all existing environmental legislation and the detection of oil spills in the petroleum sector;⁵⁶⁰ to receive reports of oil spill spillages and co-ordinate oil spill response activities throughout Nigeria; ⁵⁶¹ to co-ordinate the implementation of the National Contingency Plan [NCP] as may be formulated from time to time by the Federal Government, among other functions.⁵⁶²

556Ibid, s 5(f).

557Ibid, s 5(g).

558NOSDRA Act 2006, s 5(h).

559Ibid, s 5(i).

560Ibid, s 6(1)(a).

561 NOSDRA Act 2006, s 6(1)(b).

562Ibid, s 6(1)(c).

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The NOSDRA Act lays down the procedure for reporting of oil spill and requires that the oil spiller report an oil spill to NOSDRA in writing within 24 hours after the occurrence of an oil spill.⁵⁶³ Where an oil spiller defaults in making the report within the period aforesaid, it shall be liable to pay a penalty of N500, 000.00 for each day of default.⁵⁶⁴ Another salient provision of the Act is the obligation to clean up an impacted site to all practical extent, including remediation which is imposed on an oil spiller. Failure to clean up the impacted site by the oil spiller attracts a penalty of N1 million.⁵⁶⁵ An oil spiller is deemed to have given the report of spill referred to in Section 6(2) where the notice is delivered at the nearest zonal office of the Agency.⁵⁶⁶

The special functions of the Agency are enumerated in Section 7 of the NOSDRA Act. The Agency shall ensure the co-ordination and implementation of the NCP within Nigeria, including within 200 nautical miles from the baseline from which the breadth of the territorial waters of Nigeria is measured;⁵⁶⁷ undertake surveillance, reporting, alerting and other response activities relating to oil spillages,⁵⁶⁸ encourage regional co-operation among member States of West African sub-region and the Gulf of Guinea for combating oil spillage and pollution in Nigeria’s contiguous rivers;⁵⁶⁹ strengthen national capacity and regional action to prevent, control, combat and mitigate marine pollution;⁵⁷⁰ promote technical co-operation between Nigeria and member States of the West African sub-region.⁵⁷¹

The Act confers on the Ministry of Environment through the Minister of Environment power to issue the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan [NOSCP] to ensure a timely, effective and

563Ibid, s 6(2).

564Ibid.

565NOSDRA Act 2006, s 6(3).

566Ibid, s 6(4).

567Ibid, s 7(a).

568Ibid, s 7(b).

569Ibid, s 7(c).

570Ibid,NOSDRA Act 2006, s 7(d).

571Ibid, s 7(e).

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appropriate response to major or disastrous oil spill incidents in Nigeria.⁵⁷² The plan defines the role of government in respect of its responsibility regarding oil spillages, whether deliberate or accidental, from whatever source and irrespective of size, which threaten the country.⁵⁷³ In order to mitigate the adverse effect of oil pollution arising from any spillages on the environment and the health of the people, the plan recognizes three levels of oil spill contingency planning for the oil industry. These include: Tier one (company plans); Tier two (co-operative plans) and Tier three (Government plan for major or disastrous oil spills).

While tier one is compulsory for each oil producing and marketing company, tier two is formed by the oil producing companies to assist member companies in handling oil spillage cases that an individual company is unable to combat. The Government Plan/Tier three provides for a response capability to major or disastrous oil pollution which is beyond the response capabilities of individual companies or their co-operative.⁵⁷⁴

From the foregoing discussion, it seems clear that NOSDRA was established to address the issue of oil spill which is associated with every stage of oil production, from the exploratory stage to the marketing stage. The Agency was designed to respond swiftly to oil spill occurrences which could threaten the nation, considering its impact on the fragile ecosystem of the country, particularly the Niger Delta where oil and gas are produced. Judging from the functions and powers of NOSDRA, effective performance of its mandates can go a long way in addressing environmental pollution in the oil industry.

Its limitations are that the Act does not empower NOSDRA to enforce preventive measures.

In other words, the act is more reactionary than preventative as it focuses on the capability to respond to a spill after it has occurred. Thus, its process begins with the notification of a spill

572National Oil Spill Contingency Plan [NOSCP] for Nigeria (Revised) 2010<https://www.giwacaf.net/wp-content/uploads/pdf/plan_ng_en.pdf> accessed 4 October 2017.

573Ibid, 2.

574National Oil Spill Contingency Plan [NOSCP] for Nigeria (Revised) 2010<https://www.giwacaf.net/wp-content/uploads/pdf/plan_ng_en.pdf> accessed 4 October 2017.

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incident by the polluter to the Agency. The penalty of N500, 000.00 for each day of default in reporting oil spill appears not deterrent enough as the MNOCs operating in the Niger Delta can easily afford to pay the penalty instead of reporting and incurring huge remediation cost.

In addition, the penalty for failure to clean up is the payment by the polluter of a paltry sum of N1 million by a polluter MNOC that rakes in billions of dollars in profits annually. It is fair to assume that with this watery penalty, all an MNOC will do is to pay N1 million which is paid to the Agency to boost government revenue and not to the indigenous peoples directly who exposed to the hazards associated with oil spill. It is submitted that the revocation of the operating licence of a polluter for failure to clean up an impacted site would serve as sufficient deterrence and accords with global best practices in the oil and gas industry. It is further submitted that Section 6(2) of the NOSDRA Act encourages indirectly the pollution of the Niger Delta environment and ought to be amended.

However, the Act empowers NOSDRA to mobilize resources and personnel to contain oil spill. Through the NOSCP, MNOCs are mandatorily required to develop a plan for the containment of oil spill in the event that one occurs in the course of their operations. To that extent, NOSDRA Act at least represents a modest effort on the part of government to secure the safety of the environment and health of the people of Nigeria. The NOSCP also provides for collaboration among the various stakeholders who have one contribution or the other to make in the task of responding to oil spill incidents.