GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE 2011 UNITED NATIONS REPORT ON OGONILAND

Abstract

Nigeria is signatory to and has actively ratified numerous United Nations agreements, including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Amongst the specific targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is to sustain global effort towards environmental sustainability around the world. While Nigeria’s robust international diplomacy is not in doubt, the domestication of these multilateral policies has cast negativity over this robust engagement recently. This negativity has continued to manifest itself in federal government’s failure towards the implementation of the United Nations environmental assessment report on Ogoniland. This study focused on Global Environmental Sustainability and the implementation of the United Nations Report on Ogoniland and was guided by the question of what is the challenge confronting the Federal government of Nigeria in the implementation of the recommendations of UNEP report? Documentary method of data collection and content were used for analysis while relying on the rentier theory as a theoretical guide. The paper argued that so long as oil remains a competitive commodity in the international market, the prospects of Ogoniland clean-up is in not attainable. Thus, the Nigerian State perception of the region as a satellite resource for the inflow of oil rents and for the consolidation of the economic interest of the ruling elites is making the implementation of the report problematic. We recommended that addressing fundamental problems of unemployment among the Ogoni people, flagrant violation of environmental regulations by the multi-national oil companies are critical to the sustenance of peace and development in the region hence, the implementation of the recommendations of 2011 UNEP report.