Thursday 29 November 2012

whistleblower


Femi Fani-kayode questioned chief E.K clark’s decision of placing soldiers in the streets of Lagos last July during the oil subsidy. He was really angry about it because she was given the floor to speak and was greatly applauded. Chief clark felt greatly embarrassed and aimed to pay back Femi for his insolence.
On august 1st 2012, during a public lecture, chief clark proclaimed that femi was holding himself as s moral icon when behind the scene, he actually embezzled money while he was the minister of aviation. He said that the money embezzled by femi where meant to be used to stop planes from crashing and to reform the aviation sector.
During his speech, he also accused others like former heads of states,former presidents and vice presidents, former governors and federal ministers. He also accused the northern leaders of being behind the book haram and it all started under president obasanjo’s watch. He accused generals babangida and buhari of being behind the attacks and they should come clean if they weren’t  
Chief clark used the opportunity to target all his enemies without restraints. Anyone who was taught to be guilty of a crime under the new administration was ultimately pronounced guilty chief clark. People like Chief obafemi Awolowo, Olusegun Obasanjo and Bello were all arrested after the incident but were eventually released. The people who were behind the persecution were eventually murdered shortly before the release of their victims.
God alone rule the affairs of men and determines the destiny of a nation. People at high positions see themselves like they have the power over life but that’s not the case. God all controls all.

Ugochukwu Ozuah: Widow recounts five days as wife
WIDOW OF the 36-year-old engineer who was allegedly shot dead by policemen five days after his wedding in Gbagada area of Lagos, Mrs. Joan Ugochukwu Ozuah, has described her shortest experience as a wife with her late husband as the best days of her life.
This is just as members of the bereaved family currently await the outcome of the Special Investigative team set up by the Inspector- General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar to unravel the circumstances surrounding the late engineer’s death and bring the perpetrators to book.
Recalling the incident of September 20, 2012, which truncated her joy, Joan in a written tribute at a memorial service held in honour of her late husband, Wednesday evening at the King’s College , Lagos, where the deceased obtained his Senior Secondary School Certificate in year 1993, described her late husband as her friend, brother and mentor.
The couple on their wedding day.
The widow, who is yet to come to terms with the demise of her husband, stated in her tribute: “Sweet, so it is true that you are no more. I can’t believe that you have gone so soon. You were my husband, my brother, my friend and mentor.
“I can’t forget that fateful night of September 20, when the police shot you in the chest and left you to die in cold blood.
“Baby love, you were a caring, loving, God-fearing, calm and a thoughtful husband.”

CSR PROJECT

 In my previous blog, was the definition of CSR and its concepts. Our instructor told us to mix up in our groups, she didn't want an all girls or an all boys group. I feel when we mix up we will relate well.  In my group we were only three. They were the best group members so far in my stay in AUN they were committed and ready to work hard to achieve this goal, We went to different organizations and we were turned down, they were giving excuses that didn't make any sense. We finally got to a place where we were accepted the reception was so welcoming i was glad to be there and the place was called NAS MERIDIEN HOTEL. The manager was so glad she commented on us and said good things about our school, so we had high hopes and we were ready to really work with her.
she assured us that we had their full support and all we needed do was to make a formal proposal which we also did and handed over to them. We made a proposal and we handed it over to her. We all thought we were going to get through so easily but i must tell you, it wasn't easy at all. But at least we got something even if it wasn't what we were expecting. At least half bread is better than none. 

Sunday 25 November 2012

Corporate social responsibility (CSR)

What is CSR?
 The impact of a company's action on society.
Means that a corporation should be held accountable for any of its actions that affect people, their communities and environment.

From the 1950's to the present the concept of CSR has gained considerable acceptance and the meaning has been broadened to include additional.

CSR arguments for
1. Address social issues
2. Profit business self-interest
3. Limits future government intervention
4. Addresses issue by being proactive
5. Address issues by using business resource and expertise.
6. Addresses social issues caused and allows business caused and allows business to be part of the solution.

CSR arguments against
1. Restricts the free market goal of profit maximization
2. Business is not equipped to handle social activities.
3. Dilutes the primary aim of business.
4. Increase business power.
5. Limit the ability to compete in a global market place.
6. Places responsibility in business rather than individual.



ORGANIZATIONAL ETHICS AND LAW
What is corporate culture?                                                                                                                          
Shared beliefs, ideas, customs, assumptions, values, norms and feelings about what things are good, and feelings about what things are good, and normal in achieving the organizational  goals.

Function of culture.
Culture is the social glue that helps hold an organization together by providing appropriate standards for what employees should say or do.

How employees learn culture and how it is reinforced.

  • shaking hands
  • past, present
  • size of office
  • SBE-RSVP-AOB
  • rituals
  • stories
  • material symbols
  • language
Ethical climate= Tone

The unspoken understanding among employees of what is and is not acceptable behavior is called on Ethical climate.

Components of ethical climates.
1. Self interest approach: self interest, company interest, economic efficiency (egoism)
2. Benevolence (concern for others approach): Friendship interest, team interest, social interest.
3. Principle: (integrity approach): Person morality, company rules/procedures, law and professional conduct.

Business ethics across organizational function.
1. Accounting Ethics.
2. Financial ethics.
3. Marketing ethics
4. Information ethics

Making ethics work in organization.
1. Developed code of ethics
2. Promoted ethics at work
3. Establish ethics hotline
4. Report bad behavior
5. Offered ethics training
6. Conducted audit or evaluation

Law and ethics are not quite the same.
Law: are a society's attempt to formalize rules e.g harrasment
Ethics: are more complex than written rules of law e.g relationships














Monday 8 October 2012


Boko Haram: A Growing Islamist Threat
Boko Haram, a shadowy Islamist insurgency, has haunted the predominantly Muslim region of northern Nigeria, surviving repeated, bloody efforts to eliminate it. It appears to be branching out and collaborating with Al Qaeda’s affiliates, alarming Western officials who had previously viewed the militants as a largely isolated, if deadly, menace. The group has called for a strict application of Shariah law and the freeing of imprisoned members in the region, where mass unemployment and poverty have helped fuel social discontent.
In 2009, the group seemed on the verge of extinction. In a heavy-handed assault, Nigerian soldiers shelled its headquarters and killed its leader, leaving a grisly tableau of charred ruins, with hundreds dead.
But by the summer of 2011, the group was striking the nigerian military, the police and opponents of Islamic laws striking the Nigerian military, the police and opponents of Islamic law in near-daily assaults and bombings, using improvised explosive devices improvised explosive devices that can be detonated remotely and bear the hallmarks in the  Islamic maghre. Beyond the immediate devastation, the fear is that extremists bent on jihad are spreading their reach across the continent and planting roots in a major, Western-allied state that had not been seen as a hotbed of global terrorism.
In August 2011, a suicide bomber driving a vehicle packed with explosives rammed the united nations headquarters rammed the United Nations headquarters in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, killing 23 people. Boko Haram took responsibility for the blast. The attack appeared to confirm the worst fears of Western analysts and diplomats — that repression is hastening its transformation into menacing transnational force.  repression is hastening its transformation into a menacing transnational force.
A series of Christmas Day church bombings rocked the country in what appeared to be a coordinated assault by Boko Haram. At least 25 people were killed. Until then, the group had mostly targeted the police, government and military in its insurgency effort, but the church bombings represented a new, religion-tinged front, a tactic that threatened to exploit the already frayed relations between Nigeria’s nearly evenly split populations of Christians and Muslims.
In January 2012, more than 100 people were killed in a series of attacks on Kano, northern Nigeria’s largest city by Boko Haram. The attackers struck eight government security buildings, the national police said, including the regional police headquarters, two local police stations, the local headquarters of the State Security Service, the home of a police official and the state police command headquarters. 
In June 2012, suicide car bombers attacked three churches in northern Nigeria, killing at least 19 people and wounding dozens, and setting off retaliatory attacks by Christian youths who dragged Muslims from cars and killed them, officials and witnesses said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombings, but Boko Haram has often attacked church services.
A few days earlier, militants attacked two churches in the central Nigerian city of Jos, spraying the congregation of one of them with bullets and killing at least one person, and blowing up a car in a suicide bombing at the other, wounding 41. Boko Haram claimed responsibility.

By the end of March 2012, the insurgent violence stalking northern Nigeria struck a new target: schools. At least eight public and private schools in the city of Maiduguri have been firebombed, apparently the work of Boko Haram. Crude homemade bombs — soda bottles filled with gasoline — have been hurled at the bare-bones concrete classrooms Nigeria offers its children.
The simple yellow facades have been blackened and the plain desks melted to twisted pipes, leaving thousands of children without a place to learn, stranded at home and underfoot, while anxious parents pleaded with Nigerian authorities to come up with a contingency plan for their education.
Boko Haram’s very name is a rallying cry against schools — “Boko” means “book” or “Western learning” in the Hausa language, and “haram” is Arabic for forbidden — but it has never gone after them to this degree before, analysts say.
Maiduguri, the birthplace of the Boko Haram insurgency, has become used to living under siege.  Fear and an army-enforced curfew empty the scruffy low-rise streets well before dark. Nervous public officials — prime assassination targets of the insurgents — avoid speaking the group’s name or blaming it. Army checkpoints are omnipresent. The soldiers, also a favorite target of snipers, are grim-faced and brusque.
Yet the destruction of Maiduguri’s schools has bewildered and demoralized students, parents and teachers in a way that other attacks have not. The targeting of children, even indirectly, is seen as a new and sinister twist



Russia culture and social norm.
Russia is one of the most populated countries in the world and is ranked at 9th but has a low population density.  Russia is the largest country in the world. It has been ranked 154th in the corruption perception index which means Russia is among the world most unethical country. According to CIA (the world factbook) database as of July 2012 Russia has a population of 142,517,670. Russia is rich in mineral resource and energy and is among the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world. It also among the world’s most industrialized country. Based on the CIA’s factbook   Russia is located in North Asia extending from Europe. (Central Intelligence Agency)
Corruption in Russia is a major issue in the lives of Russia citizens. As of 2005 the corruption in Russia was precarious. The corrupt activities going on in Russia seems to affect every functioning sector of the Russian society, from the hiring of public servants to education to the medical sector. Corruption in Russia is a normal routine for the citizens, it can even be said that it is part of their culture because it was part of their system for a very long time. Civilians were allowed to bribe government official who could help them in one way or another, this was the source of income for the public servants who at that time weren’t receiving fixed salaries. In other words, bribery was legal (FRIEDMAN). Though it was made a criminal offense by different governments and monarchs, the system never lasted because whenever there was a crisis and the salaries of the public workers could not be paid, they riveted back to collecting bribes as a source of income. The corruption in Russia has become a norm; most accept it as normal way the system functions.
In 2010, a law was passed that allowed the public workers to make citizens pay for public services. This was seen as another way to stop corruption but which clearly makes corruption in Russia legal. Though the problem begins with the public officials, the citizens have adapted it as a way of doing things or getting things done. (Bershidsky)
The corruption in Russia is a serious agenda for the current president of Russia and he is doing everything to stop corruption by forming an agency anti- corruption campaign. The campaign is formed to supervise the corruption situation in their country, but the problem is most people believe that under his (President Vladimir V. Putin’s) rule, corruption has gotten much worse (Bershidsky).
Though most people in Russia have accepted corruption a way to survive, few of them are beginning to riot against the corrupt system and asking for the restructuring of the system.