Dangote vs Unions: When Business Meets Blackmail

Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, is not a blessed antheral astatine the moment, and the reasons are not far-fetched. I don’t deliberation Dangote has spoken to the property and granted interviews the mode helium did successful the past year. In fact, helium has granted much interviews and property conferences successful the past twelvemonth than successful the erstwhile 5 years combined.

Last year, his tiff with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC ) was good documented. Now he’s facing a caller conflict – this clip with labour unions who are threatening to unopen down his $20 cardinal refinery if helium doesn’t let workers to articulation their unions.

The concern quality betwixt the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Dangote Refinery has taken a caller crook arsenic the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has declared afloat solidarity with NUPENG and threatened to articulation successful shutting down the refinery operations.

My absorption to this development? This is thing but organised extortion disguised arsenic workers’ rights advocacy.

The question I inquire is wherefore has it go mandatory to articulation a union? I besides heard stories of them blocking Dangote trucks from moving. That’s an enactment of sabotage if you inquire me.

When did unions get the close to unit radical into rank and clasp businesses hostage?

These unions assertion they’re warring for workers’ rights, but what they’re truly doing is trying to musculus their mode into a palmy concern to extract rents. They spot Dangote’s occurrence and privation their portion of the pie, whether the workers really request oregon privation their representation.

Thankfully, the National Industrial Court successful Abuja has granted an interim injunction restraining NUPENG and the Direct Trucking Company Drivers Association from embarking connected concern enactment oregon compelling different motortruck drivers to join. Justice E.D. Subilim besides restrained the unions from blocking Nigerian roads oregon shutting down operations of Dangote Refinery and different companies.

This is the close decision. No national should person the powerfulness to unit rank oregon unopen down captious nationalist infrastructure due to the fact that its demands aren’t met. That’s not corporate bargaining; that’s economical sabotage.

But Dangote’s problems spell beyond national troubles. He has accused almighty ‘oil mafias’ successful Nigeria’s lipid and state assemblage of moving relentlessly to destruct his refinery, informing that the aforesaid forces which ruined Nigeria’s textile manufacture decades agone are present targeting his refinery.

Speaking astatine the refinery’s archetypal day of petrol production, Dangote explained however planetary traders and section marketers are trying to dump cheap, subsidised products successful Nigeria to weaken section accumulation – the aforesaid strategy that collapsed textile and refinery industries successful different African countries.

“The aforesaid mode they killed different sectors, they present privation to usage it to termination us,” helium warned. This is simply a superior allegation that deserves investigation.

What Dangote is describing is economical warfare – the deliberate demolition of section industries done dumping and unfair competition. We’ve seen this playbook earlier successful textiles, pharmaceuticals, and different sectors.

Foreign competitors flood the marketplace with cheap, often subsidised products to termination section production, past rise prices erstwhile section competitors are eliminated.

Despite these challenges, Dangote’s achievements are undeniable. Between June and September 2025, the refinery exported much than 1.6 cardinal liters of petrol, proving it tin proviso Nigeria and inactive gain overseas exchange. The refinery has ended Nigeria’s agelong past of substance queues and pushed petrol prices down from astir ₦1,100 per liter to astir ₦841 successful immoderate parts of the country.

“We’ve been battling substance queues for 50 years. If contiguous we tin eradicate them, that is thing we should beryllium celebrating,” Dangote said. He’s perfectly right.

But alternatively of celebrating this achievement, immoderate radical are much funny successful uncovering ways to exploit oregon destruct it. The national threats are peculiarly troubling due to the fact that they travel astatine a clip erstwhile the refinery is already battling marketplace manipulation from planetary players.

Let’s beryllium wide astir what’s happening here. Dangote has invested $20 cardinal of his ain wealth to physique infrastructure that benefits each Nigerians. He’s creating jobs, earning overseas exchange, and ending decades of substance scarcity. Yet alternatively of support, he’s facing coordinated attacks from aggregate directions.

The unions assertion they’re warring for workers’ rights, but forced rank is not a close – it’s coercion. Workers should person the state to take whether oregon not to articulation ...