BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN NIGERIA 2025: STANDING FIRM AND LOOKING FORWARD
By Sir, Agabaidu Chukwuemeka Jidean
Executive Summary
In 2025, Nigeria’s Business and Human Rights (BHR) landscape reflects a nation at a critical juncture, struggling to achieve a critical mass of stakeholders to comply with and implement the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights, balancing economic ambitions under the National Development Plan (NDP) with persistent human rights challenges exacerbated by divestments in the oil sector, economic reforms, and global regulatory shifts.
Driven by Dr. Anthony Okechukwu Ojukwu, SAN, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian National Human Rights commission (NHRC), grounded in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), Nigeria’s National Action Plan (NAP) on BHR, approved in April 2023 and integrated into the broader NAP on Human Rights Promotion and Protection (2024–2028), marked a foundational step toward aligning business practices with human rights obligations.
However, implementation has been impacted by lack of clarity, public awareness, oil pollution legacies, judicial delays, and socioeconomic pressures from inflation and fuel price hikes.
Globally, the 14th UN Forum on BHR in November 2025 emphasized accelerating action amid crises, influencing Nigeria’s priorities.
Progress includes stakeholder dialogues and NAP rollout, but challenges like corporate divestments without remediation persist. Prospects hinge on enhanced voluntary compliance by businesses, an effort that is motivated by Dr. Anthony Okechukwu Ojukwu, SAN and is being championed by the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry and NACCIMA as the leadership of the Organized Private Sector in Nigeria; as well as enforcement, international partnerships, increased involvement of stakeholders, and the integration of the BHR into the Nigeria’s Open Government Partnership (OGP) NAP 4 Commitments -being spearheaded by Agabaidu C. Jideani, Director General of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
This review analyzes key activities, progress, challenges, and forward-looking strategies, drawing on UN reports, national dashboards, and regional forums to advocate for a “smart mix” of measures under the NAPBHR and the UNGPs.
Introduction: Framing BHR in Nigeria’s 2025 Context
Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and most populous nation, derives over 80% of export revenue from oil, making BHR intrinsically linked to resource extraction, labour rights, and environmental justice. The UNGPs, comprising the state’s duty to protect (Pillar I), corporate responsibility to respect (Pillar II), and access to remedy (Pillar III), provide the normative framework.
Nigeria’s NAP operationalizes these, prioritizing sectors like oil, mining, and agriculture, with actionable items on employment nondiscrimination and environmental impact assessments.
In 2025, amid global volatility, escalating conflicts, AI governance, and delayed EU directives like the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), Nigeria’s BHR efforts intersect with domestic reforms. Early economic shocks, including rising inflation and petrol price surges, market uncertainties amplified vulnerabilities, exacerbated human rights violations with the NHRC dashboard showing a 15% rise in violation complaints, have given way to some form of market stability though poverty and unemployment have continued to increase and the NHRC dashboards continues to elicit concerns about human rights violations. This review evaluates 2025’s trajectory, emphasizing resilience (“standing firm”) and innovation (“looking forward”).
Key Nigerian Activities on BHR in 2025
Nigeria’s BHR agenda in 2025 centered on NAP implementation, stakeholder engagement, and sector-specific interventions.
NAP Rollout and Institutionalization.
The NAP, a chapter in the 2024–2028 Human Rights NAP, advanced through the National Working Group on BHR (NWAGBHR), co-led by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). Key activities included:
Establishment of the African Continental Centre on Business and Human Rights (ACCBHR): The NHRC and the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry established the Centre as a hub to galvanize the Organized Private Sector in Nigeria to integrate human rights into business activities and business decision making.
Multi-Stakeholder Dialogues: The May 2025 National Dialogue on BHR in Abuja, hosted by NHRC with UNDP and EU support, mapped implementation roadmaps, focusing on UNGPs integration into AfCFTA compliance. Over 200 participants from government, business, and civil society endorsed priority actions like judicial sensitization on BHR cases.
State-Level Frameworks: Engagements are continuing to facilitate subnational BHR plans, addressing land acquisition and employment rights and conflict resolution in the key sectors of Oil and Gas, Mining, Agriculture and livestock development.
Thematic Focus: NHRC’s March and June 2025 Human Rights Dashboards highlighted BHR violations, including 12% rise in employment-related complaints, prompting Advisory Opinions on freedom of expression in business contexts.
Practitioners’ Certification Course on Business and Human Rights: The NHRC in conjunction with the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the African Continental Centre on Business and Human Rights held a two-day intensive program (December 2 and 3, 2025). The course equipped practitioners with proficiencies and skills to become champions and advocates for the integration of respect for human rights into business and commercial activities and forms the foundation of the establishment of a Register of BHR practitioners in Nigeria.
Sectoral Initiatives
Oil and Gas: Post-divestment scrutiny dominated, with UN letters to Shell, Eni, ExxonMobil, and TotalEnergies (July 2025) demanding remediation for Niger Delta spills. The Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021’s host community provisions saw initial implementation, with $12 billion estimated cleanup costs allocated via the Host Community Development Trusts.
Labour and Gender: The Women in Leadership Coalition advocated for the Reserved Seats for Women Bill, linking BHR to gender quotas in corporate boards. ILO-aligned training reached 1,200 police on human rights in labour disputes.
Digital and Emerging Risks: NHRC addressed AI’s BHR implications, aligning with global consultations on technology due diligence.
Remedy Platform: The Registrar General of the Nigerian Chamber of Commerce Dispute Resolution Centre (NCCDRC) Mrs Hauwa Kaka Usman offered the platform for the independent resolution of Human Rights Violation Complaints, offering victims easy access to effective, speedy and cost friendly platform for the resolution of human rights disputes.
These activities underscore Nigeria’s proactive NAP domestication, though funding gaps persisted.
Global Activities Influencing Nigeria
Global BHR dynamics in 2025 shaped Nigeria’s priorities, emphasizing crisis-responsive implementation.
UN Forum and Working Group Engagements
The 14th UN Forum on BHR (November 24–26, Geneva) themed “Accelerating Action Amid Crises” drew 4,000+ participants, urging a “smart mix” of regulations. Nigeria’s NHRC and UN Global Compact Network participated, aligning NAP with Forum outcomes on conflict zones and Indigenous rights, relevant to Niger Delta disputes.
Regional and Bilateral Developments
Africa BHR Forum (October 7–9, Lusaka): The 4th edition, building on the 2024 Nairobi Declaration, tracked NAP progress across Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Liberia, and Ghana, focusing on child rights mainstreaming, where Nigeria’s provisions remain minimal. It called for common reporting frameworks, influencing Nigeria’s AfCFTA BHR clause negotiations.
Conclusion
2025 tested Nigeria’s BHR resolve, with NAP progress and the organized private sector buy in amid economic hardship, environmental pollution in the oil and gas and solid minerals sector, insecurity and conflicts within the agriculture subsector. Standing firm on our NAPBHR and the UNGPs foundations, while looking forward to integrated reforms, offers a pathway to increased progress in the coming years.
Agabaidu Chukwuemeka Jideani is a Business and Human Rights, Compliance, Risk, and Governance Expert. He Serves as the Director General of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a Director of the African Continental Centre for Business and Human Rights.
