MTN Nigeria and Airtel have continued to snub invitation by House of Representatives Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility at public hearing.
The telecoms companies were supposed to be at a public hearing on a bill to regulate corporate social responsibility in Nigeria but they have failed to honour the invitation the committee.
Worried by this attitude, the committee on Tuesday threatened to issue warrants of arrest for failing to honour its invitation. Hon. Lillian Orogbu expressed regret that some companies had repeatedly violated the law, emphasising the need for appropriate punishment.
Also, she noted that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), MTN, and Airtel had consistently ignored the invitation of the committee hence the need to invoke its powers by issuing a warrant of arrest.
She said: “Section 89, 8 of the constitution mandates individual companies as invited to make themselves available to parliament but they break the law and I want to tell you Sir, MTN Airtel they take so much from our nation and they feel too big to appear before the parliament we will not tolerate that.
“I want you as a regulatory body to organise those telecommunication companies where they will be meeting between this parliament and the telecommunication, we gave them the powers to operate in Nigeria so to refuse to honour the invitation of the parliament is a no, no, we take exception to it.
The parliament is frowning at it and this is an opportunity to say clearly. “If MTN is here and I have taken all friendly measures to make them understand the need to appear before the parliament but they have refused.
If you feel you are responsible then you should appear before the parliament, we want you to be responsible and accountable they operate across the country and they have disrespected the same nation by not housing our invitation.
“We want the committee to be socially responsible. If you are providing any social responsibility let us know what you are doing, all we want to know is what you are doing. We are not here to hunt any company.”
However, in his presentation before the committee, a representative of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Wondi Ndanusa, said that the CBN was in support of the bill, but raised concerns on the proposed penalty of imprisonment to defaulting companies.
Ndanusa said that instead of the penalty, the companies should be persuasive because many of them were faced with a lot of financial burdens and responsibilities.
The Speaker of the House, who was represented by the leader, Julius Ihobvere emphasised that the success of the legislative process is dependent on public response and contribution to the public hearing.