Fashola: a website of scandal
Former Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN, Wednesday described Corporate Social Responsibility in its purest sense as business and entrepreneurship with a conscience.
According to him, seen from this perspective no attempt by any government in the country should be made to compel by law acts of corporate social responsibility because such compulsion would erase the line of distinction between Governmental responsibility for social services and the voluntary intervention of companies who act as a matter of conscience and conviction for the common good.
Fashola, who spoke in Lagos at the 10th Anniversary of MTN Foundation, said for corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities to retain its concept as a voluntary contribution to better society, it must be allowed to flow from the conscience and conviction of such corporate organizations.
The former Governor, who spoke on the topic, “The Role of CSR in Nigeria’s Sustainable Development”, however, advocated some form of regulation and standards, but which, according to him, “should be a matter for the corporate community, using platforms like the established Chambers of Commerce or Associations of Manufactures who can draw up a charter of ethics.”
Such regulations, he said, “must be competitive and scored for public consumption and information so that companies are ranked, evaluated and penalized according to their compliance but there must be no discrimination or penalty for the companies that do not do CSR because it is voluntary.”
Arguing against the use of CSR to cover up wrongdoings or unethical practices in a host community, Fashola, who insisted that “corporations must be just before they can be generous,” declared: “If your operations pollute the environment, harm citizens, dis-empower your employees or their families, no amount of profit devoted to CSR from such unjust, unethical or harmful operations can assuage the …Read More
Source:: PM Newspaper
