Towards an Ethical-ecological Assessment of Companies in Nigeria

Multilateral evidence has continued to show that the conspicuous absence of reputable ethical-ecological criteria for evaluating companies and businesses in Nigeria is not only a lamentable disservice to the Nigerian people; but does not augur well for the Nigerian economy in particular and society at large. The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) concept and practice has been notoriously inadequate in meeting this challenge. The CSR, which came to Nigeria via the pressures and ire drawn by the rogue activities of multi-national oil concerns in the Nigeria Delta, quickly dissipated its reputational capital and fossilized on its pretensions by assuming a paternalistic character of a philanthropic nature in the policy philosophies of many companies in Nigeria. The results of this absence have been catastrophic. The Niger Delta became an ecological wasteland thanks to unethical and unsupervised rapacity convoked there by the oil companies. Many Nigerian families have been chaperoned into poverty thanks to the perennial failure of many Nigerian banks and financial institutions, which is predicated on massive fraud and other sharp practices of bank officials. Need we talk about the costs in lives and limbs of the unethical practices of many companies in almost all sectors of the Nigerian economy, whose activities have been destroying the ecological integrity of our environment; constantly degrading the dignity and human rights of their employees, and endangering the lives and wellbeing of consumers across the country?

Emmanuel Franklyne Onyemaechi Ogbunwezeh, born in Nigeria, is a philosopher and Social and Economic Ethicist. He studied law in Nigeria and also holds a bachelor of Philosophy degree of the Pontifical Urban University Rome. He won a Scholarship for Gifted Students of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung for his Graduate and Doctoral studies. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree (PhD) in Social and Economic Ethics of the Frankfurt Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, of University of Frankfurt am Main. The author is an avid reader, writer and human rights activist. He has authored a series of articles in journals and magazines. He remains one of the young optimistic voices for development and cultural integrity coming out of the African continent.