KEY POINTS
- PENGASSAN accuses Dangote Refinery of sacking 800 workers.
- Ndume calls for Tinubu to issue an executive order.
- Senator says corruption and “unexplained wealth” plague Nigeria.
Borno South Senator Ali Ndume has urged President Bola Tinubu to step into the escalating standoff between the Dangote Refinery and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), calling for an executive order to end the impasse.
Speaking on Arise Television’s Prime Time program on Monday, Ndume said the president must take “very drastic measures” to halt the nationwide strike declared by the oil workers’ union.
Strike over alleged mass sackings
PENGASSAN further accused Dangote Refinery of unlawfully dismissing 800 workers for joining the union, a move it said breached Nigeria’s labour laws, the Constitution, and global conventions on workers’ rights. The union directed its members nationwide to withdraw their services in protest.
Ndume dismissed the union dispute claims, arguing that PENGASSAN was “serving private rather than public interests.”
“The best thing is for the president to sign an executive order calling them off,” he said. “In this case, I don’t mind if he acts like a dictator.”
Senator slams corruption, culture of wealth
Ndume also broadened his criticism, lamenting what he described as Nigeria’s celebration of “unexplained” and “questionable” wealth. “In this country, unexplained wealth is being celebrated. Questionable wealth is being celebrated, and that affects our total resources,” he also said.
He contrasted present-day politics with earlier decades, saying public scrutiny of leaders had weakened.
“People used to go to prison because they could not account for local taxes. But today, corruption has been legitimised, and people don’t think about it. They are even celebrated after being declared as criminals and jailed,” he further said.
High stakes for Africa’s biggest refinery
The Dangote Refinery, a $20 billion project and Africa’s largest, has been billed as a gamechanger for Nigeria’s fuel supply, with capacity to produce 650,000 barrels per day, however has caused union dispute at different times.
But the labour dispute has stoked concern that prolonged industrial action could disrupt operations at the facility, seen as central to Tinubu’s reform agenda and efforts to stabilise Nigeria’s fuel market.
