Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Rivers State chapter, has called for a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) that will benefit the Niger Delta communities hosting producing industries, so as to promote a shared prosperity for both the companies and where they operate.
Chairman of NIPR in Rivers State, Mr Paulinus Nsirim made the call in Port Harcourt at a Memorial Gold Paper Lecture organised for the late O. B Fubara by the institute.
Nsirim, who is immediate past Commissioner for Information in Rivers State, noted that CSR hadbecome a topical issue in the region, stressing that divide and rule attitude by multinationals had promoted crises in Niger Delta.
Speaking on the topic “Corporate Social Responsibility and Community Relations: The Niger Delta experience”, Nsirim stressed: “Corporate Social Rresponsibility has become a topical issue especially in the Niger Delta. We have a lot of oil producing companies, all those oil giants are operating here.
“There has been a nagging issue if CSR are really doing much for the Niger Delta communities where they operate. Corporate Social Responsibilities in some communities have led to community crisis because the organisations employ divide and rule.
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“What we are advocating in this programme is that the communities and the organisations should begin to collaborate, to work out social responsibilities that will benefit the communities very well, so that it will promote a shared prosperity for the companies and the communities where they operate.”
Nsirim also described the late Fubara as an icon in the public relations profession.
He said: “O. B Fubara believed in promoting professional excellence and immortalising men who have contributed to professional development.
“We are here to honour him, we started first as a commendation lecture when he was alive because his contributions to development of public relations professional in Rivers State and Nigeria are legendary.”
