SEATTLE (Oil Monster): After dominating sub-Saharan Africa’s cement production and cornering large portions of its market in sugar, salt, and packaging industries, the Nigerian multinational conglomerate Dangote Group is moving fast to monopolize fuel distribution.
Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, is locked in a conflict with the unionized workers and drivers of his Nigeria-based oil refinery. After violating an agreement with the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), signed earlier this month to end its strike, Dangote Refinery secured a court order on September 18, restraining the union from returning to strike for 7 days.
Operational since January 2024, the Dangote refinery is the largest on the continent, built at a cost of USD 20 billion on the outskirts of Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, by the Dangote Group.
After dominating sub-Saharan Africa’s cement production and cornering large portions of its market in sugar, salt, and packaging industries, the Nigerian multinational conglomerate is moving fast to take over the oil sector.
“This is not philanthropy, it is economic sabotage”
“The entire oil and gas Stakeholders were astounded and shocked” when Dangote announced in mid-June the import of 4,000 CNG tanker-trucks (subsequently raised to 10,000) to distribute gas to pumping stations and industrial units without any transportation charge.
“This is not philanthropy, it is economic sabotage,” NUPENG added in a statement. The union warns that the free distribution is “not a gift” but a “trap” to drive out competitors, and “monopolize distribution”, which, in the long run, will allow Dangote to charge extortionate prices from consumers.
The Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) has also sounded the alarm. Distributing fuel to stations free of transport charge is “not only unsustainable but is also a deliberate attempt to undermine and eliminate the thousands of independent transporters who form the backbone of Nigeria’s petroleum distribution network.”
Together, its members own over 30,000 trucks that supply gas to stations country-wide. They employ “thousands of drivers, assistants, and service providers” – many represented by NUPENG.
Before raising these concerns publicly, the leaders of NUPENG and NARTO had sought an audience with Aliko Dangote to seek clarifications on his plan.
He directed them to his cousin, Sayyu Dantata, the Managing Director (MD) of Dangote Group. Dantata told them that the Dangote “had resolved to have monopolistic control, not only of crude oil refining, but also distribution,” NUPENG maintains.
He went on to inform them that the drivers to be hired for imported trucks would not be allowed to join any existing union. Later on August 29, his company, MRS Oil Nigeria Plc, started hiring drivers for Dangote. Recruits were “forced to sign an undertaking not to belong to any existing union in the Oil and Gas Industry,” added NUPENG’s statement.
In defense of unionization rights, the NUPENG declared that it would go on a nationwide strike from September 8. “The revelations contained in NUPENG’s statement represent not just an attack on petroleum workers, but a full-blown declaration of war against the Nigerian working class, trade unionism, and the principle of Decent Work,” said the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), a national umbrella of trade unions with which NUPENG is affiliated.
“It must be realized that this is not the first complaint we are receiving against the Dangote Group. We have received several from other unions” in various sectors in which the Dangote group operates. “All of them verge on the same acts of impunity and unfair labor practices.”
It went on to explain, with an element of regret, that in the past, it had defended the multi-national “from complaints by workers of other African nations out of patriotic fervor.” NUPENG itself had welcomed its refinery.
“We did so in good faith, in expectation [that] it would create jobs, strengthen local capacity, and benefit the Nigerian people, under a conducive atmosphere for unions to thrive,” it clarified.
“But we have reached the point where remedial actions have become necessary,” the NLC added.”Instead of lowering costs for Nigerians, the Dangote monopoly exploits scarcity and control of distribution to raise prices, thereby deepening poverty and hardship.”
“This is not industrialization; it is economic sabotage. It is not nation-building; it is class robbery,” added its statement in support of NUPENG, calling on “the Nigerian people to see through the deception: this is not philanthropy” but “plunder … not development” but “dispossession”.
Courtesy: www.newsclick.in
