Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development in a Changing World Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Conflict Management in the Niger Delta Oil Producing Communities

Abstract

Relationship between Niger Delta communities and the companies that participate in oil exploration can best be described as restive. The host communities accuse both the government and the oil companies of unmindful degradation of the ecosystem and, therefore, ask for a deliberate and sustained system of rectifying the anomaly. Government and the oil companies on the other hand seem to perceive the host communities as making too much demands. In the cases where such varying views are unresolved, the natural i outcome is tension and more often than not conflicts. Alabi & Ntukekpo (2012) observe that tension has become heightened in spite of various strategies government claims to have adopted in resolving the issue, leading to conflicts of various kinds. In the face of the unresolved conflicts, the observable evidence of damage to aquatic life and buildings, destruction of crops, farmlands and soil has continued to be a regular feature of the affected environment (Adekola & Uzoagu, 2012; Alab i& Ntukekpo, 2012; Wosu, 2013). This has made the host communities to persistently accuse the government of connivance with the oil companies to impoverish the region as a result of oil exploration. For the host communities, there has to be an investment in improving the people's lives and their environment in the areas of infrastructure, education, employment, health, welfare, to mention a few. This request amounts to the demand for good corporate citizenship from the oil companies. In defence, government claims to have put in place policies aimed at ensuring that the oil companies invest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the area. The oil companies also claim to be investing enough to bring about development in the area where their operations yield profits for them and the Nigerian government. This variance between the claims of both parties the host communities on the one hand and the oil companies on the other- is in itself a source of conflict which brings to question the adequacy or otherwise of the CSR programmes'/projects which the oil companies are adopting. The heightened tension has resulted into vandalisation of oil installations, kidnapping and killing of expatriates. and secession threat, all having negative impacts on the country's economy and collective existences.