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

Page30of44infrastructure development and healthcare provision), as well as theawareness that companies cannot truly claim to be successful andoutstanding performers if the economy and people in which they claimto have attained this success are below par – as the case of Nigeria.Some also argued that many of the firms in Nigeria make huge profitsand they need to give back to assuage the sometimes overt or covertdeleterious effect of their activities. This view is well reflected in one ofthe comments of the interviewees:…it is necessary mainly to remind the companies whichmake huge profits from Nigeria that their customers arenot only economic clients but social beings with socialneeds which can be enhanced by the corporate socialresponsibility activities (Academic/Consultant)While this comes across as a reasonable expectation, it will beworthwhile to situate it within the context offered by the Nigeriancorporate governance framework for such social orientations.Unfortunately, this will be hard to achieve as long as the institutionalframework places more emphasis on firms as private actors, withprivate rights mainly embedded in contracts (license of operation), andless emphasis on firms as fabrics of the society with the purpose ofproviding some social benefits (i.e. employment, productivity,economic growth, sustainability, etc) (Fannon, 2003). By its emphasis