The unfolding crisis between the Dangote Refinery and Nigeriaโs oil unions, NUPENG and PENGASSAN, deserves to be examined with sober reflection and patriotic candour. At stake is not merely a clash over unionization or labour rights, but the future of Nigeriaโs economic independence, the liberation of millions from perpetual fuel import dependence, and the credibility of a nation long held hostage by parochial interests. For decades, Nigerians have lived under the shadow of a petroleum paradox: blessed with abundant crude oil, yet condemned to import refined products at crippling costs. This absurdity has sustained a cycle of scarcity, price manipulation, and subsidy fraud that has enriched a few while impoverishing the many.
Nigeria spends over $10 billion annually importing refined petroleum products, despite being Africaโs largest crude oil producer. This drain on scarce foreign exchange weakens the naira, inflates local prices, and deepens dependency on external refineries. Subsidy regimes, now phased out, consumed trillions of naira that could have built schools, hospitals, and roads, while Nigerians were still queuing for fuel. In this darkness, the Dangote Refinery emerged as a beacon of possibility โ a bold industrial venture with a processing capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, making it the largest single-train refinery in the world. If allowed to operate freely, it has the capacity not only to meet Nigeriaโs domestic fuel demand but to export surplus across Africa, saving billions in imports, stabilizing supply, and ushering in genuine competition in a sector notorious for cartel-like dominance. The promise of such a project is not private to the Dangote Group; it is inherently national, with ripple effects across industries, markets, and households.
Yet, at the very moment Nigerians should unite to protect and nurture this lifeline, a section of organized labour appears determined to place barricades on its path. NUPENG and PENGASSAN, two unions with undeniable historical importance in defending workers, now risk squandering their moral authority by descending into narrow, parochial battles that serve neither their members nor the nation. Their accusations against the refinery โ resistance to unionization, reliance on expatriates, alleged intimidation of workers โ might have been legitimate grounds for negotiation under normal circumstances, but their chosen tactics tell another story. Threats to shut down operations, block gas supply, and physically barricade a refinery still in its stabilizing phase amount to industrial blackmail. In exercising their right to associate, they trample on the refineryโs right to operate without sabotage, and more dangerously, they trample on the peopleโs right to energy security.
The Nigerian Constitution in Section 40 affirms the right of every citizen to freely associate, including the right to join or form trade unions. This provision is important and must be upheld. However, rights are never absolute; they exist within the framework of law, balance, and responsibility. The same Constitution also charges the State with the duty to protect the welfare of the people and the prosperity of the economy. Likewise, ILO Conventions 87 and 98, which guarantee freedom of association and collective bargaining, emphasize that the exercise of these rights must respect the rights of others, including employers, and must not jeopardize public order or essential services. When unions weaponize their influence to blockade a refinery, cut off critical supplies, or threaten national fuel stability, they step beyond the boundary of protected rights into the territory of economic sabotage.
At this juncture, the Government must rise above neutrality and stand firmly in the gap to defend the right of industries to exist and operate without intimidation. The duty of government is not only to protect workers but also to safeguard enterprises that provide employment, drive competition, and ensure public access to essential goods. The Dangote Refinery alone is projected to create over 135,000 direct and indirect jobs, stimulate ancillary industries, and contribute billions of dollars to GDP annually. A government that allows unions to sabotage such a strategic national asset risks signalling to investors โ local and foreign โ that Nigeria is hostile to industrial growth. No nation can aspire to prosperity while permitting parochial barricades to choke its economic lifelines. By ensuring that the Dangote Refinery and other critical industries enjoy a climate of operational freedom, the Nigerian state will be affirming its responsibility to balance labour rights with the higher imperative of national progress.
It is here that Nigerians must be more sensitive, more discerning, and more courageous. We must recognize that behind the loud rhetoric of labour resistance may lurk interests that do not align with national progress. We must ask whether the goal is truly to improve conditions for Nigerian workers at the refinery, or to frustrate a project that threatens entrenched beneficiaries of import dependency. We must see that every delay imposed on Dangote Refinery is a delay in freeing ourselves from decades of petroleum servitude. Every obstruction prolongs the humiliation of a crude-rich nation that cannot fuel its own vehicles without foreign mercy. Every act of sabotage is an act against the Nigerian people, not against Dangote alone.
To be clear, no one denies workers the right to organize or to demand fairness. Unionization is a democratic right, and it should be protected. But there is a difference between negotiating for fairness and holding a nationโs hope to ransom. The former strengthens democracy; the latter cripples it. What Nigerians must insist on is that dialogue replaces barricades, that collective bargaining replaces threats, and that national interest supersedes parochial agendas. The Dangote Refinery cannot be judged or strangled in its infancy. Its foundation must be allowed to solidify, its promises must be allowed to materialize, and its contributions must be given room to flourish.
This is why the government, civil society, and indeed ordinary Nigerians must rise in defence of this national lifeline. Supporting Dangote Refinery is not the same as defending one manโs empire; it is about defending the chance of millions to buy fuel without queuing endlessly, to pay fairer prices, to witness competition instead of monopoly, and to watch Nigeria finally walk the talk of self-sufficiency. If labour unions truly love Nigeria, they must embrace this reality. They must put the people before politics, dialogue before disruption, and progress before parochialism.
The present crisis is a test of our collective priorities. Will Nigeria side with liberation, competition, and industrial rebirth, or will it allow entrenched interests, cloaked in union slogans, to suffocate its future? The answer must be clear. The Dangote Refinery represents more than steel, pipes, and machinery. It represents a promise โ the promise of a Nigeria that can finally refine its destiny within its own borders. No barricade, no sabotage, no parochial interest, and no failure of government protection should be allowed to extinguish that promise.
Osabinu Olufemi
Convener
Advocacy Intelligence & Development Foundation(AIDF)
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