Rights-Based Legal Framework for Renewable Energy Integration in Nigeria's National Grid

Abstract

Nigeria’s energy landscape epitomizes a paradox of resource abundance juxtaposed with systemic energy poverty, undermining its economic potential and violating fundamental socioeconomic rights. Despite possessing 213 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves and 427,000 MW of renewable energy potential, over 45% of Nigerians lack electricity access, while gas flaring and deforestation exacerbate environmental degradation. This study interrogates Nigeria’s fragmented legal-institutional frameworks through a comparative analysis of rights-based energy governance models in Kenya, Germany, China, and the United States. Employing doctrinal and comparative methodologies, it identifies critical gaps in Nigeria’s energy laws, including non-binding renewable targets, infrastructural decay, and constitutional non-justiciability of energy access. The findings reveal that integrating renewable energy into the national grid requires enforceable legal mandates, decentralized governance, and constitutional recognition of energy access as a justiciable right. The study proposes a rights-based legal framework aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7) and the Paris Agreement, advocating for grid modernization, public-private partnerships, and institutional reforms to dismantle Nigeria’s “energy apartheid” and achieve equitable, low-carbon growth.