Corporate citizenship in the Nigerian petroleum industry: a beneficiary perspective

Abstract

Based on ethnographic data from Nigeria's oil-rich and gas-rich Niger Delta region, and relevant secondary data, this article presents a case for a beneficiary-centred approach to analysing and reporting on corporate citizenship, and for a shift from the dominant top-down approach. It addresses one key question: What do the experiences of people who share their socio-ecological and cultural neighbourhoods with petroleum operators say about some specific practices of corporate citizenship? The article does not present an anti-theory of corporate citizenship or of the broader sustainable development debate. Rather, it relates a counter-narrative informed by the new scramble for natural resources in Africa and the experiences and stories of respondents in communities targeted by corporate citizenship initiatives. The paper offers a modest empirical basis for re-examining how corporate citizenship affects local communities and how it can be made a powerful mechanism for empowering them.