Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
locations if specifi c conditions are not met by affected governments
and communities (Beck 2005). We turn next to sketch an ideal model
of the democratic accountabilities at play as the Niger Delta peoples
have struggled to address the distributive confl icts unleashed by their oil
resources.
Charting the Stakeholders and Accountabilities at Play: An Ideal Model
Five widely shared tenets of democratic governance appear to demand
specifi c behaviors of the various stakeholders engaged in international
environmental confl icts. First, democracy requires free and fair elections.
Second, democracy demands politically accountable decision processes
that are open to public scrutiny and debate. Third, democracy requires
transparent decision making and resource allocation. Fourth, democracy
must ensure ways and means for aggrieved citizens to secure an impartial
hearing of their concerns. Last, democracy requires that elected govern-
ments make all reasonable efforts to secure the health and well-being of
those citizens whose interests they are pledged to represent while in offi ce
(Held 2006). In context, these stipulations suggest that elected Nigerian
governments at all levels (national, state, and local) owe it to their citi-
zenry to engage in ongoing efforts to ensure effectiveness, transparency,
and accountability in their decision processes and fi nances. The national
government owes all the nation's citizens its best efforts to secure both
improved conditions in their lives and development of economic and
social possibilities for those of rising generations.
To claim the mantle of democracy, the federal government owes states
and localities that share governance responsibilities for the nation such
resources as its leaders determine to be reasonable and appropriate to
serve their citizens' needs. Such choices should follow a period of open
public debate and consideration. Because attaining this balance of com-
peting claims over time will require a distribution of resources that will
differentially affect a variety of constituencies, these resources should be
shared via formulas or criteria that are themselves openly debated and
justifi ed with citizen involvement. As far as the environment is con-
cerned, the central government owes all of its citizens its best professional
efforts to ensure effective and equitable use of the nation's natural
resources so these may be sustained across generations or, if the resources
are not renewable (as with petroleum), so they can be exploited and the
proceeds invested in such a way as to benefi t the citizenry across a similar
future time frame.
