Regulation and Enforcement of Corporate Social Responsibility in Corporate Nigeria

It is usually assumed that there is sufficient legislation to regulate the Nigerian business community and combat corporate irresponsibility and that the challenge lies in lackadaisical enforcement by regulators. This article queries this assumption and analyses the corporate social responsibility (CSR) regulatory landscape in corporate Nigeria. It depicts a bleak picture of weak regulation, faulty legal transplantation of foreign principles, a lackadaisical attitude to enforcement, double operational standards from multinational enterprises, and incoherence and policy disparity between CSR regulatory provisions in primary legislation on the one hand and their subsidiary laws on the other. It argues that the challenge lies in faulty and disjointed legislation grossly undermined by fallacious legal transplantation. The article concludes by offering an agenda for the harmonization of the disjointed CSR framework in highlighted primary and subsidiary legislation, in line with best international standards.