Saturday, June 13, 2020
Corporate Social Responsibility: THE TASK BEFORE THE THREE NIGERIAN PHARMACEUTICAL ...
Corporate Social Responsibility: THE TASK BEFORE THE THREE NIGERIAN PHARMACEUTICAL ...: THE TASK BEFORE THE THREE NIGERIAN PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES As the world awaits the trial and result of the Covid 19 vaccine produced...
THE TASK BEFORE THE THREE NIGERIAN PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES
THE TASK
BEFORE THE THREE NIGERIAN PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES
As the
world awaits the trial and result of the
Covid 19 vaccine produced in China, it is pertinent to acknowledge that
similar efforts are going on around the
world laboratories. These steps are
taken at global level to fight Covid19 pandemic.
Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR) is a public service. It is a critical exercise for a cause
and social positive change. Its aim is to mitigate and add value
continually. The need for CSR in
modern day commenced in the 50s,
especially by industries and corporations which impact society negatively
through the processes of manufacturing goods and services. Since then CSR has become an essential part
of management and corporate systems.
The
recent outbreak of Covid19 has
intensified the strategy of corporate world to use CSR to tackle the
menace in a global manner. The stampede
to be the first organization to produce Covid vaccine is not only about the
commercial value, it is also public service which CSR is all about.
Perhaps
our long dependence on Western medicine stopped third world countries like
Nigeria and other African nations from using their local herbs and medication
to fight Covid19 just as Western Pharmaceutical companies have been doing since
the outbreak. The only country that have
proved exceptional is Madagascar.
It was
Madagascar that woke up the consciousness of Nigerian Pharmaceutical and medical experts to think along Madagascar
way. It was Mao Tse Tung’s China that taught
the world that agrarian revolution precedes industrial revolution. This time Covid came through there apparently
to teach the world how to use herbs
around their environments to cure ailments, without waiting for Western medical
experts to lead.
The
accolade for the herb experiments going on now in Nigeria may have been given to
the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Covid, but in essence it should go
partially or wholly to Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) and civil
society that campaigned for the trial and use of local herbs. It would have been a big shame if PTF did not
allow these agitators for local solutions to participate in this global
research and experiments.
Finally,
the task before the three companies is
to show integrity and leadership because there are more opportunities ahead.
Iyke
Ozemena Esq
Corporate
Attorney/Consultant #corporateleaders
IKECHUKWU
O. ODOEMELAM & CO, Legal Practitioners
corporateleadersboard.blogspot.com
www.amazon.com/Iyke-Ozemena/e/B0078UY9VQ?ref=dbs...
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Corporate Social Responsibility: CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS’ CSR AGAINST COVID19
Corporate Social Responsibility: CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS’ CSR AGAINST COVID19: CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS’ CSR AGAINST COVID19 There is no doubt that Covid came with an agenda of tearing the world apart directly thro...
Corporate Social Responsibility: CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS’ CSR AGAINST COVID19
Corporate Social Responsibility: CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS’ CSR AGAINST COVID19: CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS’ CSR AGAINST COVID19 There is no doubt that Covid came with an agenda of tearing the world apart directly thro...
CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS’ CSR AGAINST COVID19
CIVIL
SOCIETY GROUPS’ CSR AGAINST COVID19
There
is no doubt that Covid came with an agenda of tearing the world apart directly
through the pandemic infection; and indirectly through ancillary induced
socio-political and economic maladies. But
we saw a world that was united and daring, battling on all fronts across the
globe to stop the spread, if not terminate the dragon.
The
first onslaught was the global solidarity demonstrated everywhere to deal with
the epidemic irrespective of differences/considerations. This was the spirit that took philanthropy,
as corporate social responsibility to the center stage of the global war. There seem to be strong signal from this
singular act of philanthropy that the world would spare nothing to stop the
deadly disease.
Apart
from the casualties so far, the battle
has exposed the deficiencies and vulnerability of erstwhile global
systems. Both national, states,
districts governments and civil societies
across the globe embraced corporate social responsibility as the best
strategy to wrestle down the pandemic.
It paid off, as the world is not only waging the war effectively, also
more discoveries continue to be made regarding future global pandemic such as
this, as well as global governance in times like this, as well as changing work
pattern/environment.
The
World Economic Forum just concluded a meeting on how Covid is affecting global
food security and societies’ response towards This critical meeting almost
coincided with America’s decision to leave
the World Health Organization (WHO).
Consequently the morale of the global battle lost USA’s financial muscle
at a time the world needed it most. However, it remains a paradox that at the
time America took the infamous decision, Covid induced protests were going on across the
nation.
Among
all the various reasons for acting the way it did, White house insisted that
China was not held responsible for recklessness that led them drag the world to
the pandemic. America maintained that China showed poor corporate social
responsibility in spite of global commitment towards climate change and
environment.
The
need for CSR has been acknowledged by governments and non-government
organizations; and individuals and groups are aggressively living up to it. Hence, the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) is
leading among other civil society groups
in th CSR drive: Covid19 Pandemic Relief Fund for taking care of their
adversely affected members.
These
civil society organizations are either donating or actively organizing through
volunteers, rallying support for the distribution of donations and palliatives
across Nigeria: HEDA, Women
Advocacy Research and Documentation, Centre for Democracy and Development, Help
Centre, Civil Society Network Against Corruption, Journalists for Democratic
Rights, Peace and Civic Responsibility Centre etc.
To ensure
transparency, accountability and purposeful utilization of funds and resources
donated to the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Covid-19 the National Assembly
is reportedly scrutinizing the records. However, according to CovidTrack, a
website dedicated to the tracking of Covid-19 donations the summary of funds
has exceeded N700 m as at May 2020.
Iyke Ozemena Esq
#corporateleaders
Corporate Attorney/Consultant
corporateleadersboard.blogspot.com
www.amazon.com/Iyke-Ozemena/e/B0078UY9VQ?ref=dbs...
Monday, May 25, 2020
Corporate Social Responsibility: POST COVID19 ECONOMY WILL DEMAND DECISION, TRAININ...
Corporate Social Responsibility: POST COVID19 ECONOMY WILL DEMAND DECISION, TRAININ...: POST COVID19 ECONOMY WILL DEMAND DECISION, TRAINING, SOLUTIONS FOR RECOVERY Some of the rudimentary issues induced by Covid pande...
POST COVID19 ECONOMY WILL DEMAND DECISION, TRAINING, SOLUTIONS FOR RECOVERY
POST COVID19 ECONOMY WILL DEMAND
DECISION, TRAINING, SOLUTIONS FOR RECOVERY
Some of the rudimentary issues
induced by Covid pandemic have to be acknowledged in order to appreciate the
enormity of economic devastation and havoc that have taken place across the globe.
Perhaps the best starting point is
the experience in Wuhan, China where the first case was reported in December
2019. The panic alone caused a lot of
loss of man-hour; then followed by actual attack of thousands if not millions,
of workers and families resulting in hospitalization and death of some
percentage of victims. There is no doubt that Chinese budget for 2019/2020 was
over-stretched. The projects and all
other economic activities expected to take place in that period via budget
allocation were obviously short-changed by the sudden outbreak of Covid.
Beyond the financial cost of the
global war against the scourge, some of the victims were skilled and expert
corporate and private individuals. Their
demise and or incapacitation meant huge losses for the economy. Training and replacement of them would
certainly take a toll on the budget, but first, there must be a firm decision
that it is the way forward.
Partial, complete lock-down and curfew
were some of the measures applied in tackling the menace. During these periods no tourism, no economic
activities took place, except those essential preserving services. That meant loss of productive hours for as
long as it lasted. It also meant abandonment
of projects, breach of contracts, rusting of facilities and equipment etc. Needless to analyse these consequences to the
logical point of litigation, whether rational or irrational.
Every country as much as Nigeria
borrowed a leaf from Chinese experience.
Of course we are aware that the health care sector immediately became
the battle field; both the staff and facilities were over-stretched to breaking
point. The personnel became the next
wave of attack and spread of the deadly disease. We may not know the actual cost inflicted on
the global economy by covid.
However, what we do know is that the
entire global economy was forced to stagnate and consequently driven several
steps backwards. If we extrapolate to
every nation these basic economic issues raised by the first case of covid the
task of rebuilding the global economy would depend on massive training.
The pandemic was a sudden outbreak
and it would be foolhardy to say that global infrastructure and security architecture were absolutely dependable when the
disease broke out. Therefore a new security architecture would become imperative. The Paris/Copenhagen protocol on climate change
and their mitigation provisions remain as helpless as ever. How can these provisions be enforced? Were
they not meant to solve global problems staring us in the face? Where lies the burden of corporate social responsibility?
It is therefore apparent that
post-covid world would expect at national levels the enactment of new
legislation. For instance do you need
the declaration of state of emergency under s. 305 of the 1999 Constitution for
a complete or partial lock-down by the President or Governor? If that is the case, what then is the use of
executive orders?
Does the doctrine of force-majeure alone
compel governments and corporate
organizations to break the law or implement policies against fundamental human
right without any law authorizing that#?
Again the issue of social distancing
has produced industrial innovation called ‘working from home’. This innovation
seems to have been adopted to be the future of work place. Presently social distancing has proved
difficult to enforce in crowded cities and where you have grass-root people in markets and social gatherings as
well as religious meetings. It’s been
reported quite widely that some religious groups find it difficult to maintain
social distance during observance, believing that God would not allow the
infection. What a pity. Why then is the world searching for
vaccines?
With the World Health Organisation
(WHO) saying covid has come to stay, the inevitable conclusion are that there
must be at least one vaccine/medicine that cures covid. The world will remain indoors and online,
living skeletal jobs outside the home.
More and more people would hate work with a lot of people hating staying
at home. But most importantly they would hate covid the root of the
problems. Then the desire for entrepreneurship
would expand and grow after the battle against covid is over.
Iyke Ozemena Esq
Corporate Attorney/Consultant #corporateleaders
IKECHUKWU O.
ODOEMELAM & CO, Legal
Practitioners
corporateleadersboard.blogspot.com
www.amazon.com/Iyke-Ozemena/e/B0078UY9VQ?ref=dbs...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)