Climate change, human rights and the Nigerian child

 Eghosa O Ekhator
 LLM (Hull, UK) PhD (Hull, UK)
 Associate Professor of International Environmental Law, University of Derby, United Kingdom
 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3419-2680
 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 Brown Etareri Umukoro
 LLM (Benin, Nigeria) PhD (Abraka, Nigeria)
 Senior Lecturer in Law, Faculty of Law, Delta State University, Abraka, Oleh Campus, Nigeria
 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5385-7820
 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 Edition: AJCLJ 2025
 Pages: 192 - 221
 Citation:EO Ekhator & BE Umukoro ‘Climate change, human rights and the Nigerian child ’(2025) 1 African Journal of Climate Law and Justice 192-221
 https://doi.org/10.29053/ajclj.v2i1.0009
 Download article in PDF

Abstract: Children rank among the world’s most vulnerable groups due to factors such as their young age and reliance on others. The environment in which children live is a critical factor in their physical and mental development. Though there exists a plethora of national policies (for example, the National Climate Change Policy 2021-2030) alluding to climate change issues with respect to children, issues relating to children are yet to be explicitly included in climate change measures, including legal instruments in Nigeria. This article investigates some critical and current issues surrounding the climate-changed child, which include whether children have the right to a clean environment, how this right may be realised and its implications for the potential of children and youth-led climate litigation in Nigeria. The article then focuses on how the Nigerian government can explicitly mainstream the rights of children and youths into climate change interventions and how provisions on the right to a clean and healthy environment can be used to protect children from the negative impacts of climate change and promote litigation, particularly among children and the youth in Nigeria.

Key words: children; climate change; human rights; climate litigation; Nigerian child

1 Introduction

Climate change awareness and responses have recently gained law makers’ attention in Nigeria. However, how climate factors impact children is not yet a serious concern for Nigerian policy makers. Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, with approximately 206 million people, of whom about 110 million are children.1 It is also one of the largest high-fertility countries in the Global South with a large population.2 While a high population is serving some countries as an advantage,3 the reverse is the case in Nigeria. This is because a large percentage of the population is made up of not only children but also young people (who are untrained, less productive)4 and who cannot contribute meaningfully to development, partly because of climate security concerns.5

Nigeria has recently taken steps to develop several climate change policies, strategies and adaptation plans.6 Arguably, these strategies have yet to be effectively implemented.7 What is more disturbing, however, is that children are not yet the priority of policy makers, even though they constitute the largest percentage of the statistics of those multidimensionally poor in Nigeria.8 This comes in the context of an emerging, youth-focused and youth-led climate justice movement in Nigeria, which led Egbe to observe:9

This new climate movement is majorly championed by youth and youth-led organisations, calling on leaders to enact measures to reduce the impact of climate change on vulnerable communities. Many of these activists at the frontline of climate advocacy have witnessed the climate crisis, and this experience has heightened their sense of urgency.

However, several national policies relating to climate and allied issues in Nigeria, including the National Climate Change Policy 2021-2030, allude to children in their provisions.10 Some of these national policies will be the focus of this article.11 The article also aims to examine the extent of the rights of the Nigerian child to the environment and how climate change events have impaired these rights. The article argues that existing laws in Nigeria, including the Constitution, Child’s Rights Act and environmental rights case law (especially the Centre for Oil Pollution Watch (COPW) v Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation) can be used to promote and protect the rights of children and safeguard them from the negative impacts of climate change in Nigeria. This will have positive implications for the prospect of climate litigation (including children and youth-led litigation) and enhance the integration of the perspectives of children and youth in climate change governance in Nigeria.

2 Who is a child in Nigeria?

The question as to who a child is in Nigeria has been the subject of complex legal disputation and diverse academic perspectives.12 This is because the classification varies from one legislation to another, depending on who is defining it and the purpose the definition is meant to serve.13 The law classifies children into different age ranges for various purposes, including voting, testifying in court, punishment, the ability to enter into a legally binding contract, and so forth. In Nigeria, the principal instrument codifying the rights of the child is the Child’s Rights Act (CRA).14 Nigeria signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in January 1990 and ratified it in April 1991.15 In Nigeria, several states have refused to support the domestication of CRC.16 However, it has been contended that the CRA is binding on Nigeria’s states and federal government.17 Arguably, this implies for this discourse that the only valid age is the age in the CRA, which is in line with the Convention, and other ages to the contrary in state law are unconstitutional since states should not have legislated on age for the Convention in the first place.18

The CRA has been enacted as a state law in several states in Nigeria, with some modifications to suit the peculiarity of the enacting state. Before the enactment of the CRA, the most prominent legislation relating to children was penal in nature. This is the Children and Young Persons Act, which was also replicated as law by states in the southwestern part of Nigeria.19 Other legislations such as the Evidence Act (EA),20 the Criminal Code Act (CCA)21 and the Penal Code (PC)22 contain provisions relating to some form of protection or restriction on children within a specific age bracket, but none of these statutes defines who is a child. The EA puts the age of witnesses who can give sworn evidence as 14 years and above. In addition, the child must possess sufficient intelligence and understand the obligation to speak the truth before his evidence can be received.23 From the angle of the EA, maturity is assumed to be 14 years and above. Under the CCA and the PC, specific age brackets cannot commit certain offences.24 In the same vein, children under the age of seven years have no capacity to commit a crime, no matter the act.25

Some other statutes touching on the legal capacity of a child on account of age in Nigeria include the Constitution,26 the Electoral Act,27 the Marriage Act,28 the Immigration Act,29 the Labour Act30 and the Infants Relief Act 1874.31 The legal age of a child is thus scattered across legislation in Nigeria, influenced by considerations of gender, religion and culture. Therefore, the general application of law to protect children is impossible in Nigeria at the moment.32 The CRA is more comprehensive and innovative. It was drafted from CRC.33 Several states, especially in Southern Nigeria, have enacted the Act as law, thereby repealing the Children and Young Persons Law in their states.34 Arguably, this assertion may apply to Lagos, but this is not true of other states in Southwestern Nigeria. Though most states in Nigeria have retained the definition in the CRA, a few states have also adopted a definition different from that in the CRA.35

It is significant to note that the CRA defines a child’s age and the age of majority without categorisation. This is mainly because the CRA’s primary focus is generally on children’s welfare. Section 277 of the CRA states that a child is a person under 18 years, while a person is said to have attained majority as of 18 years of age. These definitions are in conformity with international standards and CRC from which the CRA was drafted.36 However, it is hoped that as more states in Nigeria adopt the CRA as law and repeal the various children and young persons’ laws, the age bracket of what constitutes a child might become more uniform than it is now.37 If Adigun is correct, the child’s age is already uniform at 18 in Nigeria.38 Arguably, what remains is for the issue to come before the Supreme Court of Nigeria, which will (or may) declare some state laws unconstitutional.

There were fears, however, as most states in the northern part of Nigeria were reluctant to adopt the CRA into law. Their reluctance was based on specific practices such as underage marriages and segregation against the girl child and children born out of wedlock, which run contrary to the spirit and letters of the CRA.39 However, after intense sensitisation from the law makers and governors in this region, it was reported that 34 states had adopted the CRA as law as of 2022, excluding Kano and Zamfara states.40 Zamfara has since adopted the CRA as the child protection law.41 The last was Kano state, which passed its Child Protection Bill into law in June 2023.42 At the moment, it appears that all states in Nigeria have adopted the CRA as law, though with varying titles. Most states in the northern part adopted the Child Protection Law, but retained the age of a child under 18 years in line with the CRA.43

Having examined the law on who a child is in Nigeria, it is important to investigate why the concept is relevant to climate change dialogue and the rights of children. First, it is essential to understand that children are most vulnerable to climate change because they are tender. Children are most susceptible to the effects of extreme weather variations.44 This understanding and the idea of those in this age bracket are important to policymakers and those implementing climate change policies. Children are most vulnerable to climate change because they cannot help themselves due to their age. Second, it is essential to understand how this class of persons can benefit from climate change interventions. This second aspect recognises that children have rights to the environment and climate justice demands that these rights be protected for and on their behalf as beneficiaries of a protected and improved environment. Given that children do not have legal rights to sue directly to enforce their rights, age becomes essential for determining the capacity of a claimant who wants to maintain climate litigation. The issue of age is equally necessary for ascertaining the ne3ed for the representation of children by their parents, guardians and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in climate litigation for the benefit of children.45

3 Climate change and children as a vulnerable group

Climate change is the most significant issue confronting the international community and humanity. It has been described as a raging global problem,46 a catastrophe, and a potential threat to the entire global ecosystem and human civilisation.47 The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) defines climate change as a change that is ‘attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and an addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable periods’.48 This change is caused by increased emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHGs), which trap heat in the atmosphere, causing the warming of the Earth and other extreme weather patterns.49 Climate change affects rainfall patterns and causes extreme weather conditions such as flooding, earthquakes, landslides, droughts and rising sea levels.50 These changes have eventually led to situations such as food scarcity, displacement, illness and death.51

Children are the worst victims of climate change, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has identified climate change as a crisis of children’s rights.52 The age of children makes them most vulnerable to climate change events. They are fragile and in need of protection. Thus, children are less able to fight against the scourge of extreme weather variations than adults.53 Marginalised children bear an uneven burden of the consequences of the negative impacts of climate change in Africa.54 Climate change events have impacted children in multiple ways, each making the child more vulnerable. In various parts of Nigeria, children have no access to water, school, health care or even their families as a result of armed conflicts,55 banditry, farmer/herder clashes and floods, which have adversely impacted both the physical environment of the children and their social and economic status.56 The Children’s Climate Risk Index of 2021 (CCRI) reveals that one billion children are at risk of being severely impacted by climate change worldwide. Meanwhile, 43,6 per cent of children are already affected by extreme weather variations.57 Of this number, African children are the worst hit. Children in African countries such as Nigeria, the Central African Republic, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Chad topped the climate-change children index in Africa.58 In these countries, children from poor and rural areas top the list of vulnerability mainly because their livelihoods are predominantly founded on rain-fed agriculture.59 Thus, climate change has a greater impact on agriculture, leading to food insecurity, which directly exacerbates the bane of climate change.

4 Climate change and children’s rights in Nigeria

In many parts of the world, the rights of children have been compromised by climate change.60 It has been observed that climate change events affect children’s rights in many ways in Nigeria. This part examines three major rights of the child: the right to food and nutrition, education and health care in Nigeria.61 The part also considers how climate change in Nigeria has adversely influenced these critical aspects of a child’s life.

4.1 The right to food and nutrition

There is no explicit constitutional right to food in Nigeria,62 not even with the new amendment to the Constitution.63 The Constitution was recently amended, making food security a Fundamental Objective and Directive Principle of State Policy (FODPSP) by altering its former section 16 and creating a new section 16A. The new section 16A saddles the state with the obligation to direct its policy towards strategies that guarantee food availability, accessibility and affordability.64 It also provides for continuously upgrading food production, conservation and distribution systems that could protect the country from food shortages and poor food quality. The implication of section 16A is that it is a mere directive, and the state is not under an obligation to implement it at the behest of the people. FODPSPs are not ordinarily enforceable in Nigeria because of section 6(6)(c) of the same Constitution.65

Some argue that since section 16A of the Constitution falls under chapter II, which is non-justiciable, it implies that no individual can rely on that section either for himself or on behalf of any child or group of children as conferring an enforceable human right on anyone.66 However, it should be noted that FODPSP is non-justiciable until enacted into law.67 It can be contended that what might be required for the right to food to be enforceable is for food security to be passed into law. Several scholars have persuasively argued that the right to food can be enforced via the human rights provisions in chapter IV of the Nigerian Constitution.68

Also, an implied right to food exists in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter),69 which has been domesticated as a local statute in Nigeria.70 The African Charter has been interpreted by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commission)71 as providing an implicit right to food via the vehicle of article 4, which relates to the right to life, article 16, which includes the right to health and article 22, which entrenches the right to economic and social development.72 It has been argued that there is no meaningful right to life or health without an enforceable right to food.73 As rightly canvassed, all rights in the African Charter are justiciable,74 whether civil, political or socio-economic. The traditional view is that the Nigerian judiciary has always maintained that the socio-economic rights provided for in the African Charter are unenforceable in Nigeria, notwithstanding the domestication of the Charter.75 This is because section 46(1) of the Constitution restricts enforcement to the class of rights listed in chapter IV of the Constitution. This means that those classes of rights in the African Charter that fall outside chapter IV cannot be directly enforced as fundamental rights. Thus, socio-economic rights are not enforceable because they are not explicitly provided or supported in the Nigerian Constitution per se.76 Arguably, it should be noted that this traditional view is no longer tenable in light of Attorney-General Ondo v Attorney-General Federation,77 INEC v Musa78 and FRN v Anache,79 where fundamental objectives have been read in tandem with human rights’ provisions and made justiciable.

The Nigerian Supreme Court in Centre for Oil Pollution Watch (COPW) v Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation stated that the right to the environment is now justiciable and enforceable in Nigeria.80 In that case, the Nigerian Supreme Court relied on the provisions of article 24 of the African Charter, section 33(1) of the Constitution of Nigeria and section 17(4) of the Oil Pipelines Act to hold that the right to the environment can be justiciable or enforceable in Nigeria. Therefore, these legal instruments or provisions recognised the rights of Nigerians to enjoy a clean and healthy environment.81

Also, women’s right to food is recognised under the African human rights system. Article 15 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (African Women’s Protocol)82 provides women with the right to adequate food and nutrition. This is very significant for children, particularly babies and foetuses. More directly, article 14 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (African Children’s Charter)83 obliges states to ensure the provision of adequate nutrition to enable them to combat malnutrition and diseases through an effective primary healthcare system. Although Nigeria is a state party beyond a mere signatory to the African Children’s Charter and the African Women’s Protocol, the country is yet to effectively act on most of the state’s obligations arising from them.84

The most direct provision on the duty to provide adequate food for Nigerian children is found in the CRA. Section 13(3) of the CRA states that every government in Nigeria shall ensure the provision of adequate nutrition and safe drinking water and combat malnutrition. It can be argued that when this provision is read with section 16A of the Nigerian Constitution, the conclusion would be that there is a right to food for children in Nigeria. Rather than vesting the children with the right to insist on adequate food and nutrition, the CRA places the obligation on the government. Where there is a duty, there is always a right against the obligor. Thus, it can be argued that there is an explicit right to adequate food in the CRA. This article contends that, having enacted the obligation in section 16A of the Constitution via an Act of the National Assembly, the right to food created in section 16A of the Constitution becomes enforceable.85

Another instrument relating to the right to food in Nigeria is the National Policy on Food and Nutrition (NPFN) 2016.86 The goal of the NPFN is to ‘attain optimal nutritional status for all Nigerians, with particular emphasis on the most vulnerable groups such as children, adolescents, women, the elderly, and groups with special nutritional needs’.87 One of the targets of the NPFN is to reduce hunger in Nigeria by 50 per cent by the year 2025.88 One of the significant impacts of climate change on children is the inadequacy of food.89 Availability of food and good nutrition are building blocks for the health and development of any nation.90 Children need a steady intake of good food to grow well and, as such, they are more vulnerable to food insecurity.91 Malnutrition rates in Africa remain alarmingly high.92 The report on Nigeria about food and nutrition is more startling. The recent Food Security Updates of the World Bank93 estimates that approximately 49,5 million people will be affected by food insecurity in West Africa during the year’s lean season between June and August 2024. What is more worrying is that 31,7 per cent of this figure is in Nigeria.94 More than half of this number are children.95 Malnutrition has more devastating effects on children. These effects include stunted growth and increased susceptibility to infection and disease. Malnutrition has been identified as contributing up to ‘45 per cent of deaths among children under 5 years old’.96 Nigeria is the third country with the highest absolute number of children who are stunted. Forty-one per cent of Nigerian children under the age of five are stunted, 23 per cent underweight, and 14 per cent wasted.97

Food security is linked to a viable system of agriculture. The growth of the agriculture sector in Nigeria has been slow because of several factors, which include urbanisation, extreme weather variation, climate insecurity and ineffective implementation of appropriate economic and agriculture policies by the government.98 The word ‘shall’ is used in section 13(3) of the Child Rights Act. This makes it mandatory for the Nigerian government to ensure adequate food for children. However, this provision has not positively impacted the government’s behaviour towards implementing food security policies. The Global Food Security Index 2022 (GFSI) ranked Nigeria 107th out of 113 countries.99 Agriculture in Nigeria is rain-fed, making it more vulnerable to climate change. Agricultural production in Nigeria has been impaired because of irregular rainfall patterns, drought, desertification, and so forth.100 The unavoidable outcome is food shortages, food insecurity, a hike in food prices, hunger, juvenile delinquency, an increase in crime rate and death.101

In response to the recent sharp upsurge in food prices, the federal government declared a state of emergency on food insecurity in the hope of boosting food production and reducing food prices.102 This is not likely to produce a meaningful outcome due to the removal of the subsidy from the importation of premium motor spirit, leading to a tremendous rise in fuel pump prices and high cost of transportation of farm produce across Nigeria. Nigeria’s global food security scorecard may have worsened because of the high consumer price index. If the Nigerian government continues to pay lip service to the constitutional provisions regarding the right to adequate food and nutrition, food security is likely to remain elusive, and the index of malnourished children in Nigeria will continue to rise.103

4.2 Right to education

Another critical effect of climate change is the impact of extreme weather variation on children’s rights to quality education. Three major factors affect the right to quality education in Nigeria. First, there is the lack of enforcement of the right to education by the Nigerian government and its agencies. There is the child’s right to education in Nigeria, notwithstanding the traditional view by several academics that socio-economic rights are not justiciable and enforceable in Nigeria.104 Section 18(1) of the Nigerian Constitution states that the ‘government shall direct its policy towards ensuring equal and adequate educational opportunities at all levels’. However, this provision is contained in chapter II of the Constitution, which is considered a fundamental objective and a directive principle of state policy. If the non-justiciability clause on right to education in section 18 of the Nigerian Constitution is read together with the decision of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in Attorney-General Ondo v Attorney General Federation, article 17 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, section 15 of the Child Rights Act, and the provisions of the Universal Basic Education Act, it can be safely concluded that there is the right of children to education in Nigeria.105 The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Community Court of Justice held in Registered Trustees of the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) v the Federal Government & Another106 that there is a justiciable right to education in Nigeria under article 17 of the African Charter.107

The second major factor that affects the right to quality education in Nigeria is corruption and poor implementation of government policies on education. At the same time, the third is the devastating effect of climate change on the physical environment where children learn, making it inaccessible, inconducive and unsafe for learning. In all these, the right of the child to quality education is affected. Though the first two effects, as mentioned above, are unrelated to climate change, their analysis in this article is of paramount importance. This is because all three factors are connected and revolve around the rights of children to quality education. This connectivity can be demonstrated as follows. For instance, the CRA in section 15(1) states that ‘every child has the right to free, compulsory and universal basic education and it shall be the duty of the government in Nigeria to provide such education’. This suggests that there is a right to free basic education for children in Nigeria, which the government is under a duty to provide. On the other hand, climate insecurity, floods and other contemporary challenges prevent children from accessing the right to free education because of their inability to access schools. In the same vein, schools are not adequately funded because of corruption. All these connect to deprive children of their right to quality education and amount to breaches for which the government is under an obligation to account.

Several scholars suggest that the issue of the absence of an explicit and enforceable right to education in Nigeria is a significant setback to education in the twenty-first century, especially as the country has signed several international instruments placing obligations on it to respect, promote and protect the right to education.108 However, it is contended that the right to education is sufficiently explicit. The fact that it is not written in the Constitution does not make it less explicit. For example, Chenwi notes that human rights can be implemented through the constitution, statutes, policy, judicial decisions or a combination thereof.109 Arguably, apart from South Africa, with an explicit constitutional right to education,110 the right to access quality education remains a grave concern across several African countries.111 It has been reported that 18,3 million Nigerian children are out of school.112 One in every five of the world’s out-of-school children is in Nigeria.113 Many Nigerian children are on the street, homeless, hawking or begging. Others are displaced from their parents because of conflict and clashes between herders and farmers, while some others are in the custody of child traffickers.114

The number of out-of-school children is higher in the northern part of Nigeria.115 This is partly because of the Almajiri education system in Northern Nigeria.116 The Almajiri system is not a comprehensive education system, as it admits only male children and exposes the children to only religious teaching. This is against the backdrop of the Nigerian government developing several national policies and laws to tackle the scourge of the high number of out-of-school children and the Almajiri phenomenon. For example, the Nigerian government created the National Roadmap on Education 2024-2027 in 2023.117 The roadmap has several objectives, including widening prospects and ensuring that quality education is accessible to all, with particular attention to the marginalised and underserved populations, reducing disparities, and ensuring equity and inclusiveness.118 Also, the roadmap avers that the government should increase the number of children in education in Nigeria. If this roadmap is successfully implemented, it will help enhance the quality of education provided and widen the pool of children in schools in Nigeria. The National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children Education Act 2023 (NACAOSCA) was enacted in 2023.119 This law establishes ‘the National Commission for Almajiri and Out of School Children to provide a multimodal education system to tackle the menace of illiteracy, develop skill acquisition and entrepreneurship programmes, prevent youth poverty, delinquency and destitution in Nigeria’.120 According to section 7 of the NACAOSCA, some of its objectives include formulating policies and guidelines on issues relating to Almajiri and out-of-school children and providing funds for research and staff development to enhance out-of-school children in the country. Notwithstanding the success of NACAOSCA, Nigeria still has many Almajiri and out-of-school children.121

Climate change extreme events have aggravated the issue of children’s education in Nigeria. Several Nigerian children are out of school mainly because of extreme climate events and insecurity. Climate change affects school facilities, displaces children, obstructs school activities, disrupts school attendance and destabilises the learning process.122 Exposure to drought, heavy rainfall, flooding, storms, thunder strikes and heatwaves has affected access to schools, quality education and the disposition of children to education.123

4.3 Right to health

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that children may suffer more than 80 per cent of injuries, illnesses and deaths arising from climate change.124 Extreme weather variations prevent children from attending school and make them prone to diseases, sickness and death.125 Studies have shown that climate change adversely affects children’s development right from the prenatal period and continues throughout the child’s development into adulthood.126 Premature birth and low birth weight, brain disorders in children, malnutrition, infections, cardiovascular issues and respiratory diseases have been linked to changing weather patterns.127 Storms, floods and delayed or rapid heatwaves have also been associated with childhood mortality and morbidity.128 The happiness of children is centred around, among other things, their physical exercise.129 For children in the Global South, such exercises are intrinsically connected to their physical environment. Many Nigerian children live in rural areas, some of which are difficult to access.

In some traditional African communities, children assemble in moonlight in the open air around their homes for storytelling, song and dance rehearsals, folk tales, riddles, and so forth.130 These traditional tales are also a medium of interaction or communication between the children and the elders, and form an important part of their lives.131 They help to preserve the history and traditions of the people from generation to generation.132 These exercises also help in the behavioural moulding of the children.133 Climate change has altered these natural settings in a number of places. Homes have been washed away by floods in Nigeria, forcing people, mostly women and children, into camps and foreign lands far away from their homes, while the remnants are displaced by climate insecurity.134 This is a recurring situation in Nigeria which impairs the mental health of children.

There are several national policies with implications for the protection of the health of children in Nigeria. Some of these policies include the National Child Health Policy 2022; the National Child Policy 2007 (currently under revision); the National Climate Change and Gender Action Plan 2020; the National Gender Policy 2021-2026; the National Climate Change Policy for Nigeria 2021-2030; and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions. The National Child Health Policy (NCHP) 2022 guides the growth and development of every child in Nigeria in accordance with global and national goals and targets.135 One of the reasons why the NCHP was revised in 2022 was to respond to contemporary issues, including climate change.136 Even though explicit climate considerations, such as its impacts on children, are not directly enshrined in the NCHP, the tenor of the NCHP demonstrates that the Nigerian government understood the necessity of ensuring that national policies reflect contemporary challenges, including climate change.

The Nigerian National Child Policy 2007 is another policy that has implications for the health of children in Nigeria. However, the policy is currently under review because it no longer reflects the reality of the contemporary challenges faced by children and the youth in Nigeria.137 Several national policies in Nigeria recognise women and children as some of the most vulnerable social groups bearing the brunt of the negative impacts of climate change. For example, the goal or aim of the National Climate Change and Gender Action Plan 2020 ‘is to ensure that national climate change efforts in Nigeria mainstream gender considerations so that women, men, youth and other vulnerable groups can have access to, participate in, contribute to and hence optimally benefit from climate change initiatives, programmes, policies and funds’.138 This Action Plan alludes to mainstreaming children and youths in climate interventions or initiatives, but this arguably is yet to be achieved in Nigeria.

The National Climate Change Policy for Nigeria 2021-2030 recognises the nexus between climate change and gender disparity.139 Also, one of the strategic objectives of the National Climate Change Policy for Nigeria is mainstreaming vulnerable groups (including children and the youth) into climate change initiatives or interventions in the country.140 This is integral to the success of this policy. Similarly, the National Gender Policy 2021-2026 alludes to gender and children regarding the impacts of climate change in Nigeria.141 Also, sections 3.3 and 3.4 of the Gender Policy allude to child health and development. This exemplifies that the government is taking action to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change on the health of Nigerian children. Whether the government is doing enough in this regard is debatable.

The water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector is also an essential aspect of interventions to tackle the negative impacts of climate change in different parts of the world. For example, many households in Nigeria lack access to clean water, and improved sanitation is a Herculean task in several parts of Nigeria.142 Thus, the government has developed several policies and initiatives to enhance WASH in Nigeria. For example, in 2018 the Nigerian government declared a state of emergency. It launched the National Action Plan, a 13-year strategy to revitalise the WASH sector in Nigeria to ensure the ‘universal access to sustainable and safely managed WASH services by 2030’ by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).143 However, several stakeholders have argued that climate change is missing from the 13-year strategy developed by the Nigerian government to enhance the WASH services in the country.144 Hence, issues relating to children and youth are not explicitly mainstreamed in governmental interventions regarding WASH in Nigeria.

4.4 Prospects of youth-led climate litigation in Nigeria

Children, especially in rural areas, are closer to their physical environment than other age groups.145 Article 24 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act is not limited to adults. It applies to all persons. The Fundamental Rights Enforcement Rules 2009 (FREP Rules) can be deployed to enforce the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act.146 In addition, the FREP Rule allows NGOs to file an action on behalf of individuals.147 Since individuals include children, it follows that NGOs can enforce the right to a healthy environment under the African Children’s Charter. Again, the decision of the Nigerian Supreme Court in Centre for Oil Pollution Watch (COPW) v Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation148 tends to favour the right of children to a healthy environment. In COPW the Nigerian Supreme Court relaxed the legal standing (locus standi) in environmental matters. It explicitly relied on the provisions of article 24 of the African Charter, section 33(1) of the Nigerian Constitution and section 17(4) of the Oil Pipelines Act to hold that the right to the environment can be justiciable and enforceable in Nigeria.149 Thus, these legal instruments recognised the rights of Nigerians to a clean and healthy environment. This will positively affect access to justice for environmental injustice victims in Nigeria, including children. Also, in the COPW, the Court stated that no specific individual or person owns the environment, and in Nigeria, the environment is a public good.150 Thus, based on COPW, every Nigerian (including children) is seen as one of the relevant stakeholders in environmental rights or governance in the country.

The Nigerian Climate Change Act contains some provisions that can be interpreted as conferring certain group rights, including children’s rights to the environment. Based on section 21 of the Climate Change Act, the Director-General of the National Council on Climate Change (NCCC) is required to submit a report to the National Assembly Committees on Climate Change every five years on the state of the nation regarding climate change. This report is expected to include, among other things, the identification of the differential impacts of climate change on men, women and children. This is the only provision of the Climate Change Act with direct reference to children. This provision not only saddles the Director-General with the duty to report but, by extension, it also confers indirectly on advocates of children’s rights and NGOs representing the interest of children the right to engage the Director-General, the NCCC and even the National Assembly in the event of failure to report. Arguably, the Climate Change Act does not confer the right to a healthy environment on children. It is most probably limited to reporting on the part of the Director-General. On the other hand, this provision can be used as a tool by relevant stakeholders to pressurise the NCCC to explicitly integrate issues relating to children in their activities and policies.

Also, a court of law hearing a climate change suit or environmental case in Nigeria equally has the power ‘to prevent, stop or discontinue the performance of any act that is harmful to the environment’.151 Thus, the Climate Change Act provides for both compensatory right and environmental right – the latter relating to the right to a protected environment by stopping activities capable of causing harm to the environment.152 Apart from these compensatory and environmental rights, which can be deduced from section 21 of the Climate Change Act, several other provisions in several existing legislation suggest the existence of a right to the environment in favour of Nigerian children.153 These rights are implicitly entrenched in the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (Establishment) Act 2007 (NESREA Act), the Environmental Impact Assessment Act (EIA), the Harmful Waste (Special Criminal Provisions, etc) Act, the Petroleum Industry Act 2021(PIA) and the Nigerian Constitution.154

It has been canvassed that there is a right to the environment to the extent that Nigerian laws ‘provide a platform on which to call on the government, corporate bodies, and individuals to respect the life and health of people in the handling of the environment and account for the damage to the ecosystem’,155 whether or not there is explicit environmental right in Nigeria. Arguably, there is indeed an explicit environmental right in Nigeria.156 As correctly observed, ‘many of the highest-profile climate change litigation cases (across the world) have been based on pre-existing legal duties’.157 Some duties are created under human rights law,158 while others are spread across other environmental legislation.159 Right-based climate litigation has been described as offering ‘a fertile litigating ground precisely due to the rights’ universal acceptance’. 160 The fact that states are under an obligation in international law to observe the standards created in the treaties to which they are signatories, and the fact that the human rights approach is a more promising approach to the realisation of climate rights and remedies.161

The Nigerian National Policy on Environment (Revised 2016) (NEP) was first developed in 1991 and later updated in 1999. Its current iteration is the 2016 version, which was adopted by the Federal Executive Council of Nigeria in 2017.162 One of the goals of the policy is to ‘ensure environmental protection and the conservation of natural resources for sustainable development’.163 One of the primary guiding principles of the policy is that every Nigerian has the right to a clean and healthy environment.164 The legal basis of the NEP is premised on section 20 of the Nigerian Constitution, which provides that ‘the state shall protect and improve the environment and safeguard the water, air, land, forest and wildlife of Nigeria’.165 The current Nigerian Constitution is the first to have placed a commitment on the government to protect the environment.166 Notwithstanding the academic and stakeholder criticism of the lack of success of the NPE in protecting the Nigerian environment, it serves as a policy framework for safeguarding the environment in the country. Also, in Centre for Oil Pollution Watch v NNPC, the Supreme Court set aside the age-long principle of locus standi in environmental cases. The Court also stated that the right to the environment is justiciable and enforceable in Nigeria.167

The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act is not limited to adults. It applies to all persons. Since the Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) (FREP) Rules 2009 can be deployed to enforce the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, it follows that the FREP Rules can be deployed to enforce the right to a healthy environment under the African Charter for children.168 The CRA adopts the human rights provisions of the Nigerian Constitution 1999. This implies that the FREP Rules 2009 can be deployed to enforce the rights of the child concerning human rights, including human rights to the environment under article 24 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act. The decision of the Nigerian Supreme Court in COPW tends to favour the right of everyone in Nigeria (including children) to a healthy environment by dispensing with locus standi.

The CRA, the principal legislation on children’s rights in Nigeria, has no direct or explicit provision addressing the rights of Nigerian children to their environment. This may be viewed as a setback to the emergence of youth climate activism in Nigeria. The reason for this apparent omission of environmental concerns from the CRA is not clear, especially as the CRA was enacted in the era of intense negotiation of climate change adaptation policies at the global level. CRC,169 from which the CRA was formulated, contains substantial and relevant provisions on the right of children to a healthy environment.170 The CRC Committee recognises that applying a child rights-based approach to the environment necessitates the full consideration of all children’s rights under CRC.171 It is argued that the omission of explicit references to the right of children to a healthy environment in the CRA is somewhat deliberate and appears to have been motivated by Nigeria’s weak constitutional environmental rights framework. The omission shortchanges Nigerian children and requires an urgent review in this era of the awakening of young people to their right to take their future into their own hands from the hands of climate policy makers who are unrepresentative of children.

The lack of explicit provisions on environmental protection of children in Nigeria is not a barrier to relying on the CRA in a possible children and youth-led climate litigation in the country.172 As Etemire argues, due to the health issues negatively impacting children and pregnant women, which have been traced to the adverse consequences of the activities and operations of companies in the Nigerian oil and gas sector, recourse can be made to section 17 of the CRA.173 Section 17 of the CRA, which focuses on ‘right of the unborn child to protection against harm’ stipulates that ‘[a] child may bring an action for damages against a person for harm or injury caused to the child wilfully, recklessly, negligently or through neglect before, during or after the birth of that child’. Arguably, a combined reading of sections 4 (survival and development right), 11 (dignity), 13 (health), 16 (in need of special protection) and 17 (unborn child) of the CRA, 2003, enhances the prospects for climate litigation regarding issues relating to the Nigerian child. Thus, litigation based on these provisions can underpin children and youth-focused or youth-led climate litigation in Nigeria. Hence, lawyers and relevant stakeholders must be creative and rely on these provisions in potential youth-led climate litigation in Nigeria.

Although new, children’s right to litigate climate change is no longer a strange idea in several jurisdictions.174 However, there is a paucity of children and youth-led climate litigation in Africa.175 Recently, some developments have appeared regarding the possibility of child and youth-led climate litigation in Africa. For example, cases have been instituted in Uganda and South Africa. The children and youth-led climate case instituted in Uganda is Mbabazi v The Attorney General and National Environmental Management Authority. In South Africa, Africa Climate Alliance & Others v Minister of Mineral Resources & Energy & Others176 was the first children and youth-led climate case to be filed. In December 2024, the Court reached a judgment in Africa Climate Alliance & Others v Minister of Mineral Resources & Energy & Others. This was the ‘first time a South African court has examined a climate-related decision and the impact of coal-fired power on the constitutional rights of the nation, its children, and future generations, particularly about the right to a healthy environment and the best interests of children’.177 Some have argued that the recently enacted South African Climate Change Act 2024 ‘marks a victory for young voices who have been engaged in campaigning for the rights of children in South Africa to a clean environment’.178 Arguably, this law will have positive implications for the potential of children and youth-led climate litigation in South Africa.

Young people worldwide are beginning to realise the need to lead the campaign to address climate injustice.179 For example, Tafon and Saunders state that ‘the involvement of youth in climate actions is increasingly recognised as critical to a more just and sustainable future’.180 It was reported that numerous youth-led climate law suits were filed in the US recently, challenging state and federal policies that promote fossil fuels as a violation of young people’s rights.181 This is a new and growing movement. Youth-led climate activism has equally suffered several losses, particularly in the US, as US courts are battling with how a court of law, instead of congress, can be involved in enforcing broad policies such as those on climate change.182 The absence may have informed the disposition of the US courts to climate litigation of a direct constitutional environmental right. The courts in China, however, have a different attitude towards climate litigation. The judiciary in China has upheld climate change claims in the absence of an explicit and enforceable right to the environment.183 It has been observed that since China signed the Paris Agreement, the judiciary in China has been said to have heard ‘1,12 million first instance carbon-related cases’ even though the Paris Agreement is not a binding instrument in China.184 The youths in Hawaii in the US have also moved the court to compel the state of Hawaii to implement a comprehensive plan to achieve zero emissions in its transportation sector by 2045, even though that was akin to enforcing a broad policy decision.185

5 Recommendations

The Nigerian child and young people are among the most vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. This is against the backdrop of the fact that there is no explicit climate litigation case in Nigeria.186 This part focuses on various strategies that can be used to promote the rights of Nigerian children and youth against the negative impacts arising from climate change in the country. The recommendations include political will by the Nigerian government and relevant agencies to enforce laws and national policies relating to children and climate change (including environmental rights frameworks), utility of COPW for the prospect of climate litigation (including children and youth-focused law suits) in Nigeria and continuous climate justice activism by Nigerian youths and relevant stakeholders, thereby enhancing the explicit integration of the views of children and youths in national policies on climate change and allied issues.

5.1 Political will

This article analysed several laws, national policies, and relevant environmental rights litigation (COPW) related to the Nigerian child and climate change. The paucity of laws and policies is not a significant impediment to the protection and promotion of the rights of climate-impacted children in Nigeria. Still, the ineffectiveness of the government and its agencies in enforcing the legal frameworks has negative implications for climate change governance in the country. The COPW case should be fully implemented by the government, for it to have the required impact on the lives of the relevant stakeholders, including children and young people in Nigeria. Hence, the Nigerian government must tackle the adverse effects of climate change on children and youth and ensure that private companies (including multinational corporations) and public entities live up to their climate change obligations.187

As mentioned earlier, national policies in Nigeria are not legally binding. For example, the Nigerian National Environmental Policy is said to be ‘advisory rather than regulatory in the context of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry’.188 Arguably, on this premise, national policies or measures on climate change relating to children are not legally binding. Thus, companies and the government (and other actors) cannot be held accountable for obligations arising from the policies.189 It is debatable if children and youths can rely on litigation to enforce commitments arising from national policies on climate change. Thus, the apparent lack of enforceability of national policies on climate and allied issues will have detrimental impacts on the ability of children and youths to be relevant stakeholders that are expected to play an integral role in the quest to tackle the scourge of climate change in Nigeria.

Accordingly, for the fight against the negative impacts of climate change on children and youths to be successful in Nigeria, the Nigerian government must ensure that the interests of children and youths (and other relevant stakeholders) are enshrined in the legal frameworks, including national policies. Furthermore, national policies on climate change relating to children and allied issues should overtly mainstream the rights of children and the meaningful participation or engagement of children in their provisions.190 This will enhance the ability of children and youths to play an integral role in climate change governance in Nigeria.

5.2 Learning from the COPW case

Several scholars have argued that the COPW case has positive implications for the prospect of climate litigation in Nigeria.191 This article argues that lessons from COPW can be used to enhance the prospects of children and youth-focused climate litigation in Nigeria.

In the COPW case, the Nigerian Supreme Court stated that ‘[w]here there is a dearth of precedents in Nigerian jurisprudence on a particular issue, it is permissible to look to other climes where similar issues have arisen for guidance’.192 Thus, in COPW, references were made by the Nigerian Supreme Court to relevant decisions of English and Indian courts. Hence, in developing the jurisprudence on climate litigation (including children and youth-focused litigation), Nigerian courts can look to the other countries where climate litigation has taken root. Relevant climate litigation case law/jurisprudence from South Africa, India, the UK, Pakistan and The Netherlands can serve as templates to be relied upon by Nigerian judges in climate-related cases in Nigeria.

Also, Nigerian lawyers in legal proceedings can cite or rely on relevant foreign case law (especially on children and youth-led climate litigation) and thus bring it to the notice of the judges. For example, in the COPW case, one of the amici curiae (friends of the court), Adegboyega Awomolo, referred to a 2008 judgment of the Supreme Court of the Philippines which focused on the clean-up, restoration and protection of the Manila Bay.193 This evidences the view that foreign climate litigation cases can positively influence Nigerian judges if brought to their notice by lawyers or amici curiae. Thus, the recent South African case of Africa Climate Alliance & Others v Minister of Mineral Resources & Energy & Others should be brought to the attention of Nigerian judges by lawyers who intend to institute climate-related litigation in Nigeria.

5.3 Sustained climate justice activism

Nigeria has an emergent children and youth-focused climate justice movement. This is symptomatic of the worldwide trend of social movements focusing on climate issues affecting children and young people. However, several stakeholders (including youths involved in climate change advocacy) have averred that the government must ‘prioritise youth engagement by providing them with platforms to influence decision making and by working alongside them on projects and initiatives’.194 Thus, the voice of the Nigerian youth must not just be heard but should be part of the initiatives or strategies the government is developing relating to climate and children and youth in the country.

Nigerian children and youths can be involved in the climate change agenda in several ways – through involvement as key participants in climate policy negotiation and decision-making process, climate litigation and the promotion of youth engagement on climate proper advocacy or by raising young voices on the climate crisis. Several countries with high vulnerability to climate change have fulfilled these criteria in principle. UNICEF reported that Nigeria has the highest percentage of child-sensitive commitments in its nationally determined contributions (NDCs).195 This is commendable and welcoming. However, no meaningful programmes have been developed to move these commitments into tangible actions. Nigeria’s climate policies and plans may appear highly child-sensitive in the global index, but they are still a subject of poor implementation.196

In several parts of the world, it is no longer in doubt that children and youths (or their representatives) can litigate climate wrongs.197 The involvement of children and youths in climate change programmes is important for Africa. Responses from jurisdictions in the Global North and a few countries in Africa (especially South Africa) have shown that youth-led climate litigation is not only possible but also essential. Thus, youths and activists in Nigeria can take inspiration from South Africa and endeavour to institute climate cases in courts in the country based on the Nigerian Constitution, the Nigerian Climate Change Act, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, the FREP 2009, CRA and the COPW case. This article has analysed several provisions in Nigerian law that can be used to ground climate litigation in the country. For example, a combined reading of sections 4 (survival and development right), 11 (dignity), 13 (health), 16 (in need of special protection) and 17 (unborn child) of the CRA 2003 enhances the prospects for climate litigation regarding issues relating to the Nigerian child. Thus, litigation premised on provisions can be the basis of children and youth-focused climate litigation in Nigeria.

Children and youth-focused climate justice organisations and movements in Nigeria should take a cue from Niger Delta activists who have relied on local and foreign case law as part of their campaign strategy. Thus, children and youth-focused climate justice organisations should continually undertake awareness and capacity-building initiatives. For example, the children and youth-focused climate justice organisations can engage in training exercises for Nigerian government officials and businesses on how to ensure that the impact of climate change on children and youths is mitigated, and climate change victims (including children and youth) can have improved access to justice in the country. This will also help to bring the voices of children and youths to the table in climate change governance architecture in Nigeria, thereby facilitating the promotion of the explicit integration of views of children and youths in national policies on climate change and allied issues.

6 Conclusion

Children and young people in Nigeria bear some of the most uneven impacts of climate change in the country. Climate change has debilitating impacts on children, thereby negatively impacting their quality of life and enjoyment of several rights, including the right to food and nutrition, the right to education and the right to health.

The Nigerian government has developed several national policies alluding to the impacts of climate change on children and young people in Nigeria, and to mainstream children and youth into climate change interventions or initiatives in the country. However, several stakeholders have argued that the legal frameworks on climate change do not explicitly integrate the perspectives of Nigerian children and youth into their provisions. For example, the protection and promotion of the rights of children are absent from national policies and legal frameworks on climate change in the country. This article contends that a combined reading of sections 4 (survival and development right), 11 (dignity), 13 (health), 16 (in need of special protection) and 17 (unborn child) of the CRA 2003 enhance the prospects for climate litigation regarding issues relating to the Nigerian child. The Nigerian Constitution, the Nigerian Climate Change Act, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, the FREP Rules 2009, the CRA and the COPW case can be used to protect and promote the rights of climate change victims in Nigeria (including children and the youth) in the country.

Therefore, to ensure the protection and promotion of the rights of children and young people in Nigeria in climate change governance and enhance the explicit integration of their views, this article makes several recommendations. The recommendations include the requisite political will by the Nigerian government and relevant agencies to enforce laws and national policies relating to children and climate change (including environmental rights frameworks), leveraging on the lessons of the COPW case by lawyers and the judiciary to enhance the prospect of climate litigation (including children and youth-focused lawsuits) in Nigeria and continuous climate justice activism by Nigerian youths and relevant stakeholders. Arguably, if adopted, these recommendations will have positive impacts on promoting the explicit integration of the views of children and youths, and promotion and protection of their rights in national policies on climate change and allied issues.