The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), a group led by an economist, has been warned against engaging in an industrial war that it cannot with the Dangote Group.
He made this comment on Monday’s The Morning Brief on Channel 9 and The Daily Mail about the company’s handling of some of the Nigerian workers’ union disputes.
Read more about PENGASSAN declaring a national strike at Dangote Refinery.
Don’t join a fight you can’t win, is my counsel to labor. Don’t try to destroy a systemic, strategic, and national interest-protecting refinery. You can’t, he said, “do that.”
Right to hire, and fired
The professor lamented that despite the enormous investment being made to revive them, Nigeria’s refineries were still in operation despite the country’s declining foreign direct investment.
“Our foreign direct investment has melted away, and we won’t even receive $ 2 billion this year, compared to $ 20 billion,” he said.
Even the $10 billion that the NNPC spent to build the refineries for ten years was futile. The refineries are shut down because they securitize our five-year revenues, which they receive in return, Ife said.
The economist also argued that hiring and firing shouldn’t be denied to employers.
READ MORE: Strike: FG Appeals to PENGASSAN Over Dangote Dispute, Monday Truce Meeting Holds.
“The allegations are that Dangote opposed unionization and workers’ rights. Because Dangote has stated that it supports workers’ union rights, but those rights are voluntary, that is not true.
“Dangote (Dangote) has already started anti-labour practices, and we don’t have any proof that they were selectively targeting those or preventing them from enlisting in a union,” according to the second one.
In a country with democracy and free markets and where employers are denied the right to hire and fire, I don’t know about any labor laws. And I don’t know any where unions pick the employee and hire, he said.
“Take the Court”
According to him, the union’s failure to end the lives of the 800 allegedly sacked by grounding the economy is inadmissible.
He added that the refinery’s timing of the sacking of the Nigerian workers was not problematic.
You can’t live above the law, these unions say. You fight for and defend the rights of your members.
“Contact the industrial court if you have any problems.” You don’t violate the laws in your own hands, Ife said, so that’s your first port of call.
Nationalwide Strike and Labor Dispute
Last week, PENGASSAN issued a directive to its members to immediately halt gas supplies to Dangote Petroleum Refinery, accusing the company’s management of disengaging unionized workers and launching a “mission of misinformation and propaganda” rather than meaningful union engagement.
The refinery’s plan to stop crude supply to the refinery was criticized by PENGASSAN as a “brazen, albeit shocking, display of lawlessness and criminality.”
Additionally, it claimed that the union was unable to direct its branches to “cut off” crude oil and gas deliveries to the refinery.
However, the union later directed its members to revoke their services in a circular issued after a momentary National Executive Council meeting on Saturday, September 27, 2025, which was signed by General Secretary Lumumba Okugbawa.
The refinery was fired because it had joined the association, infringing on Nigeria’s labor laws, the constitution, and international labor organization conventions.
The Federal Government urged PENSASSAN to reconsider its proposed strike over its dispute with Dangote Refinery on Sunday because of the effects the industrial action had on the economy.
Source: Channels TV
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