How Oil & Gas Companies Can Run More Effective Corporate Social Responsibilities in Nigeria

By Jola-Michael Samson

Social responsibility is an assistance or help rendered by an individual or firm to the people directly or indirectly in the locality of the individual or firm.

To perform social responsibility is not mandatory but it is necessary and strategic especially for a firm within its locality to achieve a specific organizational goal.

A good numbers of firms in the country have embarked on performing social responsibilities; many had constructed tiled road, many had given scholarships to the children of the indigenes of their localities to study abroad, many had also built good hospitals for the community where they are located. All these were done to maintain good relationship with the residents of their immediate localities in order to allow smooth running of their businesses.

Nonetheless, all the above mentioned social responsibilities provided have failed to achieve the goals for which they were created when reviewed. Some organizations especially in the oil and gas sector are still being faced with issues of vandalization of pipes and kidnappings to get ransom.

Therefore, I deduced that social responsibilities performed without influence on the intellectuals and emotions of the indigenes have an expiring date; and once it lapses, it naturally calls for more help.

Oil and gas business is perceived as a lucrative sector, its downstream sector is unavoidably peculiar with pollution problems on water, land and air that usually torment mostly the indigenes in their localities.

Technology can help to improve the ecosystems of these domains by doing the right things.

Recently, I read about Bioremediation which was described as a process used to treat contaminated media such as water, soil and subsurface materials by altering environmental conditions to stimulate the growth of microorganism and degrade the target pollutants (Wikipedia). The process involves planting of some species of plants to control pollution.

Therefore, my suggestion is that oil and gas firms should establish a “Bioremediation Technical School” around the community where they are located. The school should be tuition free for indigenes, sponsored by the firms. It should be boarding school with specialized equipment that will enable achievement of Bioremediation with experts (practical-oriented) as teachers. The duration of the program taken in the school will be determined by the extent of what are to be learnt.

The admission to the school should be 80% indigenes and 20% outsiders. The major requirement for admission into the school should be at least primary school certificate. Since there will be several responsibilities required to achieve a system of Bioremediation; all the students will be grouped based on their levels of intelligence and certification to study various aspects of the procedures.

The major reason for establishing Bioremediation Technical School is for the graduates of the school to become employees of the oil and gas firms taking care of the polluted environments where the firms are located and being paid accordingly.

At the end of the thorough training from the school, the graduates should be segmented and deployed to begin implementation and application of knowledge gained in the polluted environments under the supervision of Bioremediation professionals to ensure goals are achieved.

If this suggestion is adopted and implemented accordingly, the Oil and Gas firms will be the largest employer of the indigenes after the government, the polluted environments will be seen to be attended to and farmers and fishermen would be hopeful of returning to their normal businesses.

Another suggestion is that a standard “Skill Acquisition School” for the handicapped (especially those whose legs were amputated or paralyzed) and illiterate should be established by the firm that wish to perform social responsibility in the operating locality.

The school should focus more on skills that will enhance participants to have production (non-consumable items) mindsets. I will suggest skill of making leather materials such as belts, bags and shoes. The firm should also make available a standard production factory that will accommodate the graduates of the school and regular supply of needed raw materials for production should be done.

The firm should also teach the elite among them online marketing and various ways their products can be sold.

During this learning period, the selected handicapped people will have their welfare and their family members (for those that are married) taken care of by the firm.

The idea is that the handicapped persons should be transformed into productive people, according to their abilities, with their overall wellbeing enhanced.

All these will usher peaceful environments for everyone in the community.