Problem Statement

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been a topic of debate in Nigeria and, in particular, the oil-rich communities playing host to the oil corporations for several decades. Activities of crude oil exploration and production commenced in Ogoni land in 1956 and abruptly stopped in 1993 (Mmon & Igbuku 2015). These activities carried out by Shell and other oil firms in the region for a period of over 50 years left the environment in a desolate state (Mmon & Igbuku 2015 & Bodo & David 2018). As the environment became apparently polluted, Ken Saro-Wiwa, the late environmental activist from Ogoni alerted the international community through his anti-pollution campaign (Amugo & Chinda, 2016, 276, 278 & Bodo Tombari 2019, 2). This event gave rise to a widespread violence across Ogoni land as the locals demands for Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to vacate the region; and as the massive demonstration and daily pressures intensified, it culminated into violent attacks between the Ogoni youths and security agents (Bodo 2019, 2).

In 1993, SPDC eventually shut down the oil facilities after numerous denial of access by the Ogoni people (Mmon & Igbuku 2015). Although, the facilities were shut down by SPDC in 1993, the facilities were reportedly exposed, thereby, resulting in frequent sabotage and leading to oil theft, illegal operations of refineries and fire outbreaks, which is responsible for further environmental damage across Ogoni land and environs, hence, the unceasing pollution of the land (Mmon & Igbuku 2015). As the protests intensified, the Nigerian military regime, under late General Sani Abacha in a bid to crush the protests, arrested, tried and executed Ken Saro-Wiwa along with eight other members of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) on November 10 1995, after finding them guilty of being involved in the assassination of four chiefs of Ogoni land who were against MOSOP activities (Olayode 2011, 77;

Amugo & Chinda, 2016, 280 & Amnesty International 2017, 67). Olayode (2011, 77) implied that the ethno-political movement of Ogoni land spiralled in the international domain following the execution of the Ogoni nine.

Going by Amnesty International (2017, 67), it was broadly reported at the time and Shell were aware that the trial was conspicuously unfair. The company also had sources of information on the trial and secretly followed the court proceedings through

its lawyer, yet, denied knowledge of it, claiming that Shell is not involved in the case, therefore, it was needless to follow it (Amnesty International 2017). Due to this, the Ogoni struggle continued against the Nigerian government with series of protests and agitations over alleged political alienation and environmental degradation (Amugo &

Chinda, 2016, 283 & Bodo 2019). Consequently, the Nigerian government in July 2006, under the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo, launched a process of reconciliation, which subsequently requested United Nations Environmental Programme to carry out a comprehensive evaluation of the impacts of oil pollution on public health and environment in Ogoni land, along with alternatives for corrective actions (Mmon & Igbuku 2015).

Despite the reconciliation programme, Ogoni land remains polluted, and some members of the communities are of the view that the region is currently more polluted than it was prior to UNEP’s assessment of the environment in 2011 (Bodo & David 2018). The resultant effect of this, is the increasing impoverishment, health issues and deaths in Ogoni land (Bodo 2018). Although for years prior to the Ogoni crisis, the relationship that existed between the indigenous people of the region and the oil organisations has been inimical, many surveys conducted after the crisis indicates that the undefined responsibility and roles of the organisations towards their host communities remains the major challenge (Nwosu 2017, 47-51).

Currently, the inhabitants of Ogoni land claim that the charitable donations of the oil firms are significantly lower than the environmental damage their activities has caused.

The problem of environmental degradation and pollution in the Niger Delta is a result of an ill-equipped and weak regulatory and enforcement regime (Lugard 2013, 113).

According to scholars, the numerous fundamental corporate social responsibility problems confronting the Niger Delta region is largely due to weak and poor implementation of policies, with the widening gap between the oil industry’s view of what the community ought to have and the actual needs of the community being the most significant (Nwosu 2017). The regulatory bodies sometimes depend on the oil firms for technical assessment and recommendation of remediation activities, as well as restoration of the environment which is not good enough (Lugard 2013, 113).

The firms, nevertheless, insist that they have demonstrated the attributes of good corporate citizenship, implying that it is the companies’ duty to do business and pay taxes, while development is the primary responsibility of government, thus, they cannot be charged with government’s responsibility (Nwosu 2017, 47). These events have given rise to conflicts in the Niger Delta area. There is a bidirectional connection between conflict and underdevelopment in the region (Onyekwere & Babangida 2019, 75). Onyekwere and Babangida (2019, 75) implied that majority of the Niger Delta youths remain unemployed, therefore, the alternative to engaging in conflicts are consequently very low, thus, the already deteriorated conditions are further exacerbated.

All the companies have reported the steps taken to implement CSR and the resultant projects implemented in the host communities in their various annual reports and journals. Shell Nigeria for instance, highlighted electricity, health care, education, road safety, water supply, and others, all of which are in line with the sustainable development goals as some of their development projects in the Niger Delta area.

Though, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) reported spending over $73 million on community development in 2011, the community dwellers of the oil firm still make reports of poor infrastructure and non-responsiveness of the company to the needs and aspirations of the people (Nwosu 2017, 47).

Similarly, SPDC insisted that a larger part of the Ogoni people’s demands for infrastructural development and social benefits were not their responsibility but that of the government (International Crisis Group 2008, 4). Controversies such as this resulted in the popular crisis between the Ogoni people and Shell that consequently generated the problem of environmental degradation which is yet to be rehabilitated, even though there is a provision to that effect in Nigeria’s constitution of the African Charter on human rights as a policy of intervention by the federal government aimed at resolving the crisis that affected the oil companies as well as the stakeholders.

Therefore, the rudimentary purpose of the intervention policy was to tranquil the members of the Ogoni communities and mitigate the prevalent hardship, in order to establish a benign and serene atmosphere for the oil and gas corporations to carry on with their operations in the region.

Given these events, a practical research of Shell Nigeria’s corporate social responsibility approaches and its impact on Ogoni land and its neighbouring communities is desirous, with the reconciliation policy of the government over 20 years already. In recent times, attempts have been made by a few researchers to study the dimension of the recurrent crisis rife in the region even after the policy has been introduced, but mainly resorted to the perceptions and views of Shell Nigeria’s staffs or members of the societies. Based on the knowledge of the researcher, no attempt has been made to carry out an empirical investigation on the effectiveness of CSR in the Nigerian petroleum industry, particularly, Shell Nigeria in the Niger Delta since the crisis in that region that led to the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa in the mid-90s. Therefore, this study is an effort to explore a segment of CSR that has gained less or no interest.

In this light, the following section shall beam light on the questions for this study.