ANALYSIS OF GOVERNANCE DEFICIENCIES ENABLING CORPORATE SILENCE ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Corporate activqities in Nigeria inflict serious environmental damage, not because environmental regulation is entirely absent, the reality is that many corporations have chosen not to report their environmental risks and impacts. This study examines the governance deficiencies that enable corporate silence on environmental issues in Nigeria. Adopting a doctrinal research methodology, it analyses relevant provisions of Nigerian corporate and environmental laws, as well as sector-specific regulatory frameworks, to identify and critically assess the legal deficiencies that enable such corporate silence. The findings of the study reveal that environmental non-disclosure is often sustained by a combination of the absence of mandatory environmental disclosure laws, inadequate shareholder activism, limited stakeholder engagement, and the effect of the political and economic interests on the corporate silence. The study finds further that the laws in Nigeria that obligate disclosure are disjointed and ineffective, thereby allowing corporations to comply with the law in a technical sense, while being environmentally obscurantist. The study concludes that situation leaves shareholders, regulators, and affected communities without the information needed to demand accountability or prevent environmental harm. The study therefore recommends that the law should place upon directors the positive duty to identify, evaluate, and report on the environmental impacts and risks as part of their decision-making responsibilities, just as they are required to do with respect to financial outcomes.