By ABDULKABIR MUHAMMED

The Foundation for Environmental Rights Advocacy and Development (FENRAD) has expressed concern over a proposed bill aimed at improving waste management in Abia State. The legislation, currently under debate at the Abia State House of Assembly, is titled ‘Polluter Pays Principle and Extended Producer Responsibility Bill’.

However, in a statement signed by its Executive Chairman, Comrade Nelson Nnanna Nwafor, dated 28 July 2025, FENRAD expressed its ‘unequivocal opposition to the proposed legislation’, arguing that it was ‘regressive, ambiguous, and contrary to the principles of environmental justice and public interest it purports to uphold.’

The environmental rights and advocacy group cited issues of ambiguity, lack of transparency and limited community participation, arguing that the bill, if passed into law, would impact the average Abia indigenes (the victims) rather than the ‘perpetrators’ of environmental degradation. The statement reads in part:

‘While we recognise the importance of environmental accountability and the global shift towards extended producer responsibility (EPR) and polluter-pays mechanisms as frameworks for sustainable waste management, the current bill — in both its design and intent — lacks transparency, public participation, and clarity.

‘More disturbingly, it appears tailored to transfer the economic burden of environmental remediation and waste management from major industrial polluters to ordinary citizens and vulnerable populations who are often victims, not perpetrators, of environmental degradation.’

FENRAD seeks a withdrawal and redraft of the proposed legislation to be achieved by convening public hearings and stakeholder consultations. Its demands:

FENRAD calls on the Abia State House of Assembly to immediately withdraw the bill in its current form. We urge the lawmakers to adopt a people-centred, participatory approach to environmental legislation by:

Convening public hearings and multi-stakeholder consultations involving environmental groups, local communities, informal sector representatives, and legal experts.

Rewriting the bill to reflect clear, just, and enforceable guidelines in line with national and international environmental standards.

Ensuring that any policy on environmental accountability targets actual corporate polluters and not those at the margins of society.

Environmental justice must be anchored in equity, fairness, and sustainability. Laws that fail to reflect these principles risk becoming instruments of oppression rather than tools for environmental protection.