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Policy Alert, a Niger Delta-based civil society organisation, has warned that Nigeria’s drive to attract petroleum investment could expose public finances to costly legal disputes and complicate future environmental regulation.
The organisation called on the federal government to strengthen investment safeguards, improve transparency and protect the rights of oil-producing communities.
The executive director, Tijah Bolton-Akpan, gave the warning mid-week in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state, during the launch of a report titled “Investment Protection and Nigeria’s Energy Transition: Implications for Environmental Accountability and Regulatory Space.”
The report said Nigeria was expanding potentially treaty-protected petroleum investments without adequately assessing their long-term implications for public finances, environmental accountability and the government’s regulatory powers.
It warned that long-term investment commitments could make future policy changes more costly, while fiscal incentives and gas projects were proceeding without sufficient evidence of their long-term public benefits.
Policy Alert also highlighted an imbalance between foreign investors, who may access international arbitration, and communities affected by extractive activities, which generally depend on domestic institutions for environmental enforcement and compensation.
The report examined bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), mechanisms through which qualifying foreign investors can challenge government actions before international arbitration tribunals.
It cited Shell-related arbitration proceedings initiated under the Netherlands-Nigeria BIT in 2007 and 2021, both of which were discontinued without findings of liability.
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