CSR, Nigerian youths, nation building
Over the years, Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) in Nigeria has been a contemporary and contextual issue to all followers of event including the government, brand handlers and the larger society.
Analysts are of the view that the payment of taxes and the fulfillment of other civic rights are enough grounds to have the liberty to take back from the society in terms of CSR undertaken by other stakeholders.
Before now, the Nigerian society was characterised by children who were seeing on the street due to bad governance or poor parental control.
While children of those at the corridor of power attend schools overseas, children of the underprivileged are more often than not seeing hawking on the streets..
To this end, checks by Daily Times showed that most corporate organizations that are supposed to bridge the gap between government and the youths are often concerned about what they can take out of the society, and de-emphasized the need to give back to the society (their host Communities).
This attitude often renders the entire community uninhabitable. For example, the Boko Haram insurgency in the North and militancy in the South south part of Nigeria have translated to negative integrity and reputation on the part of corporate identity , as people perceived this as exploitation and greed for profitability and wealth maximization within a decaying economy.
Nonetheless, the general belief is that both business and society gain when firms actively strive to be socially responsible; that is, the business organizations gain in enhanced reputation, while society gains from the social projects executed by the business organization.
Though, it is believed in some quarters that if only the government can make an enabling environment for business to strive, the corporate organisations on their part will ensure they give back to the society which will have a positive effect on the children.
Therefore, many companies are occupying responsibilities in Nigerian schools through CSR, because the country’s government has not improved upon the lapses in the country’s education.
Speaking on this issue, Toyin Olakanpo, a lawyer and a passionate child rights advocate, who also and sits on the Board of the Foundation for CSR & Children’s Rights as its President and Chief Executive Officer said; “the Convention on the Rights of the Child launched in 1989 was supposed to change the way children in the world were viewed and treated.
“It sets out a pioneering set of principles that placed children as human beings with a distinct set of rights. It is important to take a close look at the Child Rights Act (Nigeria) passed into law at the Federal level in 2003, which encapsulated the Convention and its principles and see if life for the Nigerian child had indeed changed for the better.
The advocate pointed out that, “the Nigerian child’s right to survival and protection was clearly violated on November 10, 2014 when a suicide bomber, suspected to have been spurred on by the terrorist group Boko Haram, murdered 47 children as they gathered for the morning assembly at their school – the Federal Government Science School in Potiskum, Yobe State.
“This was not a singular incident. On the 6th of July, 2013, Boko Haram attacked a secondary school in Mamudo, Yobe State, killing 42 children. On September 29, 2013 gun-men from Boko Haram entered the male dormitory of the Federal Government College of Agriculture in Gujba, Yobe State, killing 44 boys.
“On February 25,2014 members of Boko Haram attacked the Federal Government College in Buni Yadi, Yobe State where they massacred 59 boys in their sleep.
“The Nigerian child has been subject to murderous attacks in schools as far back as July 2013; and no visible remedial action had been taken by the Nigerian government to provide adequate security to make schools safe in the North Eastern part of Nigeria where insurgency has reached a climatic stage of terrifying proportion.”
Daily Times learnt that, in other climes, where children are treated with dignity, corporate organisation through the activities of some none governmental organisation ensure that children are remembered after death. For example, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012 where 26 children were killed by a deranged madman in Newton, Conneticut, USA. On the CNN website there was a picture of each of the children who were killed and a short biography for each of them including personal details such as “her favorite stuffed animal was a lamb; pink and purple were her favorite colors.”
On this note, the questions analysts are asking is that, where is the memorial wall for all the children killed by the insurgents?
Meanwhile, in recognition of the Nigeria child’s right to dignity, the Bring Back Our Girls Movement, led by Oby Ezekwesili, insisted in giving a name to each of the 276 girls abducted by terrorists in Chibok, Nigeria on April 2014, because every human being has a name and every life matters.
The BBOG Movement refused to view the abductions as just another episode of: “some girls were abducted”, but a case of someone’s daughter or sister or friend. These were human beings whose lives mattered with a name, a face and an identity. This right of dignity is even more important in death.
Nigerians are, however, of the view that companies in the country engage in the CSR projects owing to a lack of qualitative education in the country.
This is given as the basis of national problems in the recent times that range from corruption to insecurity, from official crime to street crime and so forth.
These companies had perhaps seen that investing in the foundation of education in the country would necessitate how the behaviours of Nigerians would be in a long run.
Pundits like Professor Adewale Okunuga, who was an old student of The Apostolic Church Grammar School, Lagos, as guest lecturer at the school’s 50th anniversary lecture sometime in the first quarter of this year, believed that the putrefaction in the country’s education system could be traced to the 1980s and 1990s.
Stories by Godwin Anyebe
