Oil War: Dangote, NUPENG on Collison Course

By Eric Elezuo

In spite of the intervention of the Federal government of Nigeria, the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), has insisted that it will go on with its proposed strike for Monday.

The Union, on Sunday declared in a statement that much as the government has reached out to them on the need to avert the strike, that it would still embark on it to address the grievances of the union.

However, NUPENG President, Williams Akporeha, downplayed the action, saying that the strike would go ahead, pending the outcome of the meeting with the government Monday.

According to a Punch report, the NUPENG president, who admitted that the union was invited by the government to a meeting on the matter, insisted that the group would begin its strike.

Akporeha said the Federal Government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company have reached out to the union over the planned strike. He insisted that the intervention of the government was not enough to stop the planned strike.

“The Federal Government and the NNPC are reaching out, but there is nothing concrete yet,” Akporeha said. Asked if the strike would still start on Monday, Akporeha replied, “Yes, though the Minister of Labour has called for a meeting. The meeting will be held tomorrow (Monday) in Abuja. But the strike starts tomorrow morning as planned.”

Recall that the union had on Friday announced that it would begin an industrial action on September 8, 2025, a development that could lead to fuel scarcity. Its decision stemmed from the Dangote Petroleum Refinery’s plan to import 4,000 Compressed Natural Gas-powered trucks for direct fuel distribution to retailers.

Although the scheme, earlier scheduled to begin on August 15, was delayed by logistics challenges in China, the refinery said it would kick off once a substantial number of the trucks arrived.

But in a statement jointly signed by Akporeha and the General Secretary, Afolabi Olawale, on Friday, NUPENG accused the Dangote refinery of anti-labour practices that threatened the livelihoods of members of its Petroleum Tanker Drivers branch.

The union lamented that the refinery’s owner, Aliko Dangote, had insisted that new drivers for the imported trucks would not be allowed to join any union. It described the decision as an affront to freedom of association guaranteed under the 1999 Constitution and a breach of international labour conventions to which Nigeria is a signatory.

NUPENG recalled that it had held several meetings, alongside the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners, to persuade Dangote to reconsider. However, its appeals were allegedly ignored. The matter got to its climax when MRS oil firm, owned by Dangote’s cousin, Sayyu Dantata, reportedly began the recruitment of drivers for the CNG truck and compelled them to sign undertakings not to belong to any oil and gas union.

In a bid to avert the strike, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammad Dingyadi, announced on Sunday that he had summoned all parties to a conciliation meeting in Abuja. The intervention aims to defuse rising tensions over alleged anti-unionisation policies at the refinery.

In a statement signed by the ministry’s Head of Information and Public Relations, Patience Onuobia, Dingyadi appealed to NUPENG to suspend its planned shutdown of petroleum operations and called on the Nigeria Labour Congress to withdraw the “red alert” it issued in solidarity with oil workers.

“I have invited all the parties for a conciliation meeting tomorrow, Monday, September 8, 2025. Since I have intervened, I plead with NUPENG to rescind their decision to shut down the petroleum sector from tomorrow. I also appeal to the NLC to withdraw the red alert it issued to its affiliate unions to be on standby for a nationwide strike,” Dingyadi said.

The minister warned that industrial action in the petroleum sector would trigger widespread hardship across the country and inflict heavy losses on government revenue.

“The petroleum sector is very important to this country. It constitutes the core of the country’s economy. A strike in the petroleum sector, even for just a day, will have an adverse impact. It will not only lead to revenue losses running into billions of naira but also cause untold hardship for Nigerians,” he cautioned.

He also called on all stakeholders to allow peace to prevail, assuring that the government will broker a resolution acceptable to both labour and the private refinery. “The matter will be resolved amicably to the satisfaction of all the parties involved,” the minister stated.

In support of the petroleum unions, many organisations, groups and well meaning Nigerians have lent their voices though most of them go against any form of industrial action that could cripple the distribution of petroleum products, thereby worsening the lot of the common Nigerian.

In a statement released on Sunday, rights activiat and constitutional lawyer, Femi Falana, said the policy of the Dangote Group contravenes Section 40 of the Constitution, Section 12 of the Trade Union Act, and Article 10 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act.

He further stated that the policy violates the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) of the International Labour Organisation, as well as the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, all of which Nigeria has ratified.

“In view of the legal obligations imposed on the Federal Government of Nigeria by the Constitution, Trade Union Act, and international law to respect the fundamental rights of workers to freedom of association, the Registrar of Trade Unions should call Dangote Petroleum Refinery to order without delay.

“At the same time, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission should halt the monopolistic practices of the Dangote Group forthwith, as they violate the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act of 2018.

“Even though powerful trade unions exist in all capitalist countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States, the Dangote Group appears determined to undermine trade unions in Nigeria because it has been allowed to operate outside the ambit of the law.

“However, the Dangote Group should be reminded that the struggle of Nigerian workers to unionise was fought and won under the British colonial regime. To that extent, we support the strike of the National Union of Petroleum and Gas Workers against the policy of the Dangote Group, which seeks to erode the rights of Nigerian workers to unionise,” Falana stated.

In the same vein, marketers of petroleum products have agreed to shut down their filling stations should the planned strike by tanker drivers over their face-off with the Dangote Group, in solidarity with NUPENG.

According to The Punch, the National President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria, Billy Gillis-Harry, said that filling stations would have to close down if the strike starts today (Monday). He described the strike as a looming danger.

That is our concern. The reality is that if our pump attendants, who are members of NUPENG, don’t come to work for any reason, what are we going to do in these stations?” he said.

He announced PETROAN’s three-day suspension of lifting and dispensing of petroleum products commencing from the early hours of Tuesday, September 9, 2025, saying this was PETROAN’s advocacy for healthy competition “as against any form of monopoly in the Nigerian petroleum downstream sector.

He emphasised that the action of NUPENG would be both lawful and peaceful, underscoring the association’s commitment to promoting workers’ rights and benefits through constructive engagement.

He called on President Bola Tinubu, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC, Bayo Ojulari, the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, and security agencies to intervene urgently in the proposed industrial actions to avert potential hardship and pain for citizens.

While making it clear that pump attendants at PETROAN filling stations are registered members of NUPENG, he said NUPENG’s strike would mean these attendants would be absent from duty.  As a result, he instructed filling station owners not to discipline or sack any pump attendant who would be absent from duty until the end of the strike.

Gillis-Harry stated that “the aggressive business strategies of the Dangote refinery would have far-reaching consequences, including pushing private depot owners, modular refinery operators, marketers, retail owners, truck owners, and truck drivers out of business.” This, he warned, would trigger millions of unemployed persons nationwide, with devastating effects on the economy and the livelihoods of Nigerians.

Opposition to the Strike

But stakeholders, including the Petrol Tanker Drivers and the Direct Trucking Company Drivers Association, have kicked against NUPENG’s planned strike, a development that has however, been dismissed as a management-inspired group created to weaken the ranks of petroleum tanker drivers, by NUPENG.

Meanwhile, Dangote Refinery on its part, has maintained that its decision on the new CNG trucks and its drivers is a consequence of well thought out process, which will enable the free flow of petroleum products across the nation without fear of strikes and industrial actions.

While NUPENG sees Dangote’s action as taking their jobs from them and subjecting them to slavery, Dangote Refinery sees it as national assignment laced in patriotism.

So far, there are no basis for compromise as the two feuding are fast heading to a collision course, which will be detrimental to national economic and the already worsened way of life of the ordinary Nigerian.