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?
