Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Nigeria: western mimicry ...

Page16of44powerful interests – the government and the oil firms. The Nigerian oilsector is dominated by MNCs. In order to make up for thegovernment’s governance failures and in order to protect theirbusiness interests in the region, these firms often engage in CSR.Arguably, the history of ‘organised’ CSR in Nigeria can be traced topractices in the oil and gas sector driven by western MNCs. Shell, forinstance, has over time described their CSR activities in various termsto match with their intended strategies at each time – sustainabledevelopment, community investment, etc. The CSR activities in thissector are mainly focussed on remedying the effects of their extractionactivities on the local communities. So, the firms operating in thissector have often provided pipe-borne waters, hospitals, schools, etc.However, these provisions have often been on an ad hoc basis andoften not sustained. Christian Aid (2004) in its report on the activitiesof Shell in this region, for example, confirmed that some of theschools, hospitals and other social amenities claimed to be provided bysome of the firms in this sector have been abandoned or did not meetthe needs of the communities they were meant to support. On theother hand, Ite (2004) argued that the government has continued torenegade on its commitment that it becomes almost impossible for theCSR investments by the oil firms to contribute positively to their hostcommunities.