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The telecommunications sector is a significant contributor to the global economy and is vital to the competitiveness of the economy. Market liberalization’s goal and objective encompasses both general economic growth and the advantages to consumers of lower pricing, more service options, higher service quality, and a wider selection of products. As a means of enacting regulatory changes in the telecommunications sector, telecommunications regulation is of the utmost importance. In the telecommunications sector, regulatory reform has become a crucial area. For regulatory reforms to be successful, regulatory regimes must be transparent, consistent, and all-encompassing, encompassing everything from setting up the right institutional framework to liberalizing network industries, promoting and enforcing competition law and policy, and opening both internal and external markets to trade. This article examines the historical background of telecommunications in Nigeria is traced. It examines several developments that have taken place in the Nigerian telecommunications industry. It further examines several regulatory regimes in the Nigerian telecommunications industry prior to Nigeria’s independence in 1960 and post-independence till 2003.

Environmental problem in Nigeria is a phenomenon that needs urgent attention from the relevant stakeholders and concerned individuals. Environmental problem in Nigeria comes in diverse ways and forms and they lead to various forms of hazards both on the citizens and the environment at large. It has been discovered that the laws put in place for regulating the environment is grossly inadequate and thus, there is a need to amend some of these laws and ensure adequate enforcement of the ones already enacted as it has been identified that there is a lack of enforcement mechanism by the bodies saddled with the responsibility of enforcing these laws already put in place. This paper examined some of the environmental problems in Nigeria and focuses mainly on pollution as a significant problem affecting the Nigeria environment. Various forms of pollution were identified, causes and effects of pollution were adequately addressed in this paper. The paper was not concluded without proffering solutions to the identified problems.

This paper examines various laws governing telecommunication installations in Nigeria with a view to addressing the perceived shortcomings in the laws. While the National Environmental Standards Regulatory and Enforcement Agency Act (NESREA Act) and the National Communications Commission (NCC Act) have been enacted to solve the problems associated with the effects of telecommunication mast installation in public places, the outcome of these laws seem inadequate for failure to provide effective means of enforcing same. The study considered the provisions of NESREA Act which is the principal Law enacted for ensuring that environ- mental standards are maintained and protected in Nigeria and the provisions of NCC Act which is the law that establishes the principal body which regulates telecommunication installations in Nigeria as well as other legislations. While NESREA in its Regulation provided for a setback of 10 metres, the NCC Act provided for a setback of 5 metres, which often conflicts and put victims at disadvantage and also conflict between the two regulatory bodies. It was observed that serious environmental hazards are linked to installation of tele- communication masts within/close to residential premises. Among these are leukemia, cancer, cracks on the buildings, pollution, such as water, land and air. The problems also include telecommunication masts falling on buildings and sometimes death due to sub- standard materials used in the installation as against the stated standard by the controlling regulatory bodies.

The role of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in the management of cases and disputes in Nigeria and across the globe cannot be overemphasized. The judicial arm of the government is the arm responsible for interpretation of laws in Nigeria and the judiciary’s role in preserving the rights of citizens across Nigeria also cannot be overemphasized. It ensures that the society is stable in the face of insta-bility and ensures that lawlessness is not maintained. The judiciary ensures that laws made by the legislature are obeyed by ensuring that those who violate the provisions of any established laws are punished. In doing all these, it has been established that the system of administering justice in our courts in Nigeria is extremely slow. Considering the foregoing, alternative dispute resolution as a means of settling disputes has been of tremendous help in easing the hardship of getting cases resolved through the court system. This paper examines ways through which alternative dispute resolution has assisted the Nigerian judicial system and the need to use alternative dispute resolution the more in order to ensure that number of cases handled by courts are drastically reduced. Recommendations are made at the end of the research.