Abstract
AbstractThis article examines the framework of Nigeria's local content laws and policy, and the implications for sustainable development. The legislation is geared towards safeguarding local productivity and aiding the progressive aspirations of Nigeria's citizens. While commendable in principle, there have been questions about policy articulation, implementation and enforcement mechanisms, especially with regard to the Sustainable Development Goals. The article examines the local content legislation in Nigeria, and how policies have shaped the community-corporate nexus. This exposes the challenges facing extractive resource governance in a jurisdiction such as Nigeria and the discourses that have permeated legal scholarship on the practical deference to local content by non-state actors. It considers that well designed and implemented local content requirements are catalysts for structural development. To achieve sustainable development of its extractive sector, Nigeria requires state-led determination to stimulate economic growth and development. The article argues for continuous consultation as a bedrock for meaningful engagement.
Highlights
This article aims to inform debates seeking to understand how local content requirements (LCRs) can create some form of social exclusion if not implemented effectively
This article adds to the body of existing literature in further investigating local content, on the one hand as a conversational and policy intervention that is constructive for communities that are hosts to extractive projects, and on the other as an intervention that initiates discourse on the “new modalities of neoliberal governance” of resource projects in African societies.[5]
The state and investors must comply with LCRs, providing the public and private sectors with adequate investment in skills training and development.[127]
Summary
This article aims to inform debates seeking to understand how local content requirements (LCRs) can create some form of social exclusion if not implemented effectively. This article adds to the body of existing literature in further investigating local content, on the one hand as a conversational and policy intervention that is constructive for communities that are hosts to extractive projects, and on the other as an intervention that initiates discourse on the “new modalities of neoliberal governance” of resource projects in African societies.[5] The article argues that enumerative LCRs are one of the most efficient ways to leverage natural resources for sustainable development It examines the challenges and prospects of local content legislation implemented by Nigeria, and contrasts this with policy articulations in the extractive sector. Consultation has become a nuanced legal topic that implicates indigenous rights under constitutional law principles and the often-nuanced relationship between state versus federal powers.[7] This article uses “indigenous people” generically to include local communities that are hosts to extractive projects In most circumstances, these communities are homogenous, with a unique demand that policy objectives are articulated to include them in consultation and participation paradigms.
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