By Atoyebi Nike
Nigeria’s Dangote refinery has dismissed fears of fuel shortages despite an ongoing nationwide strike by the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), which began on Monday and has drawn support from local and international unions.
“There is no fuel shortage, everything is going on,” refinery spokesman Anthony Chiejina said on Tuesday, confirming that discussions were continuing with the government and labour representatives.
The dispute centres on allegations that tanker drivers hired by the refinery are barred from joining NUPENG. Union president Williams Akporeha claimed Dangote was imposing conditions to weaken organised labour, describing it as an attempt to silence workers’ voices.
Chiejina rejected the allegations as “cheap blackmail,” insisting that no worker had ever been denied the right to unionise.
The Dangote refinery, which opened last year with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, has reduced petrol prices for consumers and disrupted decades-old fuel import patterns in Africa’s biggest oil producer. However, its rapid expansion most recently with plans to deploy thousands of compressed natural gas-powered trucks has unsettled existing players who traditionally rely on over 20,000 diesel tankers.
The strike has gained backing from the Nigeria Labour Congress, global union IndustriALL in Switzerland, and the International Lawyers Assisting Workers (ILAW) network in Washington, amplifying pressure on the refinery and the federal government to resolve the standoff.
