₦airaland Forum

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria has tackled the Presidency over comments by Vice President Kashim Shettima condemning its industrial action over a rift with the Dangote refinery.

PENGASSAN told The PUNCH on Monday that it would take same action if its members were sacked again.

This comes as some individuals staged a protest in Kaduna, accusing PENGASSAN of attempting to sabotage the Dangote refinery.

PENGASSAN had last week shut down critical oil and gas facilities over allegations that Dangote refinery sacked 800 workers who joined the union. But the Dangote refinery said it only sacked a few workers who were sabotaging the facility, saying this was part of the company’s reorganisation.

But oil and gas workers embarked on a strike in defence of their colleagues, causing the nation losses in oil and gas production as well as a drop in power generation.

The intervention of the Federal Government restored normalcy as PENGASSAN suspended the strike on Wednesday after the Dangote Group was asked to redeploy the sacked workers to other business units.

Despite the suspension of the strike that caused queues in filling stations, the price of cooking gas has yet to return to about N900 per kg, as it still sold for N2,000 in Lagos and other places as of Monday.

Speaking on Monday at the opening of the 2025 Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja, Shettima described Dangote as an institution and a pillar of Nigeria’s economic development. He warned that Nigeria is greater than PENGASSAN, and no one should hold the country to ransom.

“Aliko Dangote is not an individual; he’s an institution, and he’s a leading light in Nigeria’s economic parliament,” the Vice President said.

“And how we treat this gentleman will determine how outsiders will judge us. If he had invested $10bn in Microsoft, in Amazon, or in Google, he probably might be worth $70 to $80bn by now. But he opted to invest in his country, and we owe it to future generations to jealously protect, promote, preserve, and protect the interests of this great Nigeria.

“[b]I wish to call for caution, retrospection, and a deeper sense of patriotism from both labour and the organised private sector in defining and improving the relationship between labour and industry in the interest of maintaining our steadily improving economic fortunes. It’s not about holding the whole nation to ransom because of a minor labour dispute.

“Nigeria is greater than PENGASSAN. Nigeria is greater than each and every one of us,” Shettima emphasised.
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Reacting, the National President of PENGASSAN, Festus Osifo, said the nation was bigger than Dangote and the Presidency as well.

According to Osifo, PENGASSAN had a mandate to protect the jobs of its members sacked by the Dangote refinery for joining the association. This mandate, he said, would be discharged whenever the next arises.

“Of course the nation is bigger than PENGASSAN, the way it’s bigger than Dangote and the Presidency. We have a mandate to protect the jobs of our members, that we will discharge whenever the need arises,” Osifo told The PUNCH.

Osifo, who doubles as the President of the Trade Union Congress, stressed that if the same situation that led to the sack of its workers occured again, it would deploy the same strike action to address it.

“Should this same event occur again tomorrow, our approach will be exactly the same,” he stated.

Asked for his reaction to social media comments that the Federal Government might be pushed to dissolve PENGASSAN because a strike by its members threatened energy security, Osifo responded, “Does the law prohibit workers’ right to strike?”

Similarly, the General Secretary of PENGASSAN, Lumumba Okugbawa, said, “Is Nigeria not bigger than any individual or institution?”

Also speaking, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Bagudu, said the Federal Government would not relent in its support for domestic production as part of efforts to stabilise the economy and sustain growth.

“The next focus of government is sustaining the reform for achieving growth and development. Inflationary expectations are on the decline, and we shall continue to support domestic production,” he said.

Bagudu explained that reforms introduced May 2023 had helped avert fiscal collapse, ease macroeconomic pressures, and strengthen resilience.

He said the removal of fuel subsidies, deregulation of the foreign exchange market, tighter borrowing discipline and the naira-for-crude policy were bold choices that laid the foundation for stability.

The minister added that reforms were beginning to yield results, with GDP growth improving to 3.4 per cent in 2024 and further strengthening into 2025.

According to him, the government is prioritising agriculture, manufacturing and infrastructure to sustain the downward trend in inflation and ease the cost of living.

He stressed that expanding access to credit, mechanisation, storage and transportation remained critical.

Dangote thanks Tinubu

Dangote Petroleum Refinery commended Tinubu for his timely intervention in averting what it described as “the disruptive actions” of PENGASSAN against the company.

In a statement, the company said the President’s leadership, through his ministers and senior government officials, ensured the restoration of order and stability to the energy sector at a critical moment.

“Dangote Refinery is grateful to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, for his intervention, through his ministers and senior officials, which resulted in the abatement of the disruptive actions of PENGASSAN against the refinery,” the statement read.

According to the company, among the key government officials who worked “tirelessly” to restore normalcy were Nigeria’s security chiefs, led by the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu; the Director General of the Department of State Services, Mr Adeola Ajayi; and the Director General of the National Intelligence Agency, Mr Mohammed Mohammed.

The refinery also commended “other senior government officials who worked untiringly and determinedly into the wee hours of several nights to avert the declared disruption of Nigeria’s energy sector by anarchists and agents of darkness.”

These, it noted, included the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Mohammed Dingyadi; the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun; the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Bagudu; and the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, saying, “We remain very grateful to these officials for their patriotism and national service.”

princeade86:
I dont think federal government should be supporting anybody in this matter.

Obaofaba:
It is high time the government probscribed this economy sabotage union.

dahmie2013:
I agree with PENGASSAN on this. The VP shouldn't have made that statement. Nigeria is bigger than everyone one,

BondRiv:
Imagine the statement from the Vice President of Nigeria referring to an individual as an institution. What a reckless remark. Dangote is not an institution, and if he is the pillar of Nigeria's economic development, then I feel very sorry for this country.

dalongjnr:
Dangote should shutdown and see how those union members will survive.
He's already made. See how union leaders are dragging a private sector as if it's their fathers property 🤔 🙄 😒 😐 🙃.