Environmental risks associated with developing oil sands in southwestern Nigeria

Nigeria is in the advanced development stages of extracting its oil sands resources to boost national revenue and economic prosperity, like other countries in Sub‐Saharan Africa including the Republic of Congo and Madagascar. Compared to resource‐rich developed countries like Canada and America, the consequences of oil sands extraction is likely to be disastrous in countries like Nigeria that have a poor reputation for managing resources (as is the case with the petroleum sector). Using a mixed‐method approach—focus group discussions, interviews and observations—this paper addresses environmental concerns about oil sands extraction in Nigeria. Overall, the communities perceived oil sands development negatively, because of fears of loss of communal lands, biodiversity, water availability and quality, and pollution. They were angry with the previous administrations over the lack of communication, and were deprived of socio‐economic opportunities and pollution from prolonged delays in oil sands extraction. The way forward is to form sustainable partnerships between the government, communities, industry and other stakeholders to achieve responsible oil sands development—environmentally friendly development that meets climate obligations, addresses cumulative impacts, and acts in the best interest of host communities and Nigerians.