Law and Practice on Public Participation in Environmental Matters: The Nigerian Example in Transnational Comparative Perspective by Uzuazo Etemire Published by Routledge, 2016, 244 pp., £29.59, paperback.

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12260
• Published date: 01 November 2018
• Date: 01 November 2018

BOOK REVIEWS

LAW AND PRACTICE ON PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

IN ENVIRONMENTAL MATTERS: THE NIGERIAN

EXAMPLE IN TRANSNATIONAL COMPARATIVE

PERSPECTIVE by Uzuazo Etemire

Published by Routledge, 2016, 244 pp., £29.59, paperback.

Law and Practice on Public Participation in Environmental Matters: The

Nigerian Example in Transnational Comparative Perspective by Uzuazo

Etemire is a timely, relevant and authoritative book that provides an

overarching analysis of the legal and practical aspects of public

participation in environmental matters. The book focuses on public

participation in environmental governance and access to environ-

mental information. While the first three chapters set the context of

the book, Chapters 4–7 contain the comparative aspects, followed

by a concluding chapter.

In Chapter 1, Etemire traces the international law on public

access to environmental information, and argues that the 1948

Universal Declaration on Human Rights is the foundational basis for

‘generalized rights’on public access to information and decision‐mak-

ing processes (at 4). Chapter 2 provides the general historical, social

and political context of the main arguments of the book. Here, Ete-

mire analyses the status of public participation as part of the envi-

ronmental governance structures in the early traditional Nigerian

societies. He correctly argues that while transparency and public par-

ticipation were ‘integral aspects’of the governance structures in

many of the early kingdoms and ethnic societies that make up

present‐day Nigeria, colonialism had a profound effect on this ‘style’

of governance as several postcolonial (military) administrations in

Nigeria retained most of the colonial laws and made new ones which

helped sustain ‘the culture of secrecy’and ‘public exclusion’from the

decision‐making process (at 60).

In Chapter 3, the author moves on to explore the nature of ‘the

public’, the place and extent of public participation and the ‘extent of

participation’in various political traditions (including rational elitism,

liberalism, participatory democracy and pluralism) on the ‘value of

participation’. Thus, in making a case for a ‘middle‐ground’theory for

public participation, he reaches the conclusion that even though par-

ticipatory democratic norms must remain the general and fundamen-

tal disposition of the polity, it is better to ‘steer a hybrid course’

1

as a

‘plausible way’of overcoming the ‘excesses of participation and maxi-

mizing the benefits thereof’(at 98). In Chapter 4, Etemire critically

evaluates international best practice principles (and standards) that

will engender adequate access in relation to the law and practice on

public access to environmental information in Nigeria, by framing the

‘central theme’of international best practice principles within the

context of relevant provisions of the Aarhus Convention (at 104).

Specifically, he focuses on issues relating to the implementation and

impact of the Convention within European Union (EU) institutions

and some United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)

member States. What comes through strongly is the argument that

the implementation of such norms could ensure a ‘more open’and

‘transparent’form of environmental governance that could equally

bring about meaningful participation in environmental decision mak-

ing in Nigeria. Etemire concludes by suggesting that ‘those are the

norms that [Nigeria] should follow in designing its laws and guiding

its practices’on access to environmental information (at 130).

In Chapter 5, the author analyses the law and practice of Nige-

ria's Freedom of Information (FOI) Act

2

in light of the international

best practice principles on public access to environmental informa-

tion outlined in the previous chapter. In determining the scope and

value of the Nigerian regime vis-à-vis best practices, he focuses on

factors such as the meaning of environmental information, the for-

mat of the information, the beneficiary of the right of access and

the bodies obliged to provide access. Here, Etemire argues that the

comparative discussion between provisions of the FOI Act and those

relating to the Aarhus Convention reveals considerable ‘advance-

ment’from what used to be the case in Nigeria and that the Nige-

rian law on access to environmental information has made

‘considerable strides’towards achieving the standards reflected in

international best practice, which he argues is ‘vital’to enabling the

public to participate effectively in environmental decision‐making

processes (at 164). In Chapter 6, the author evaluates international

best practice principles in view of the concept of ‘good faith’, focus-

ing on public participation in activity‐specific decisions, public partici-

pation in non‐activity‐specific decisions, the latter including Strategic

Environmental Assessment (SEA) as well as issues relating to enforc-

ing the right to participate in environmental decision making.

Within the context of the international best practice principles dis-

cussed in the preceding chapter, Chapter 7 comparatively analyses the

Nigerian legal regime for public participation in environmental decision

making. In doing so, Etemire reveals that Nigerian law and practice falls

short of best standards and ought to be radically improved. He

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1

E Gauna, ‘The Environmental Justice Misfit: Public Participation and the Paradigm’(1998)

17 Stanford Environmental Law Journal 3, 52.

2

Federal Republic of Nigeria Official Gazette No. 36 Vol. 98 (2011).

DOI: 10.1111/reel.12260

348

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wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/reel RECIEL. 2018;27:348–353.