AN OVERVIEW OF AIR POLLUTION AND ITS STATUTORY REGULATORY FRAMEWORK IN NIGERIA

Air pollution is one of the environmental challenges confronting Nigeria. Air is polluted when chemicals, particulate matter or biological material are emitted into the biosphere in a manner that affects the ecosystem. Being an environmental problem acknowledged by the Nigerian environmental policy, measures are undertaken to regulate it with a view to ameliorating the problem. Nigeria is however a federal state, with each sphere of the component unit constitutionally allowed to regulate environmental matters. This work therefore focuses on the regulatory efforts of the central federal government with the regulatory actions of components states falling outside its scope. This work principally examines the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) (CFRN), the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency Act 2007 (NESREA) and its subsidiary legislations that have the capacity to regulate various sources of air pollution. The work highlights the challenges of low regulatory enforcement of the regulations and recommends a specialized agency like the Indian model to regulate air pollution in view of its negative impact.