3 weeks ago
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By Emma Nnadozie
Former General Secretary of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, Honourable Joseph Akinlaja, has warned that the lone mode Dangote Refinery tin forestall its workers from joining existing lipid manufacture unions is by amending Nigeria’s labour laws arsenic stipulated successful the constitution.
According to him, the country’s constitution and the 1978 labour decrees intelligibly classify lipid workers: inferior unit nether NUPENG and elder unit nether the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN. Any effort to divert them to different unions is illegal.
In this interview, the seasoned labour leader, who was besides a subordinate of the House of Representatives, reflects connected the commencement of NUPENG, the struggles that shaped the union, and the football-like teamwork of its founding leaders. He explains wherefore Dangote indispensable enactment with established unions alternatively of attempting to isolate workers, stressing that practice is the lone mode guardant successful managing Nigeria’s astir strategical sector.
You person been described arsenic 1 of the founding fathers of NUPENG. How did it each begin?
Nobody tin portion much h2o than idiosyncratic who has drowned successful a river. Nobody tin beryllium much experienced successful NUPENG than Akinlaja.
At the beginning, we were three: Chief Frank Ovie Kokori (of blessed memory), myself, and Comrade Elijah Okougbo (of blessed memory). Kokori was our Rashidi Yekini, Akinlaja was J.J. Okocha, and Okougbo was Amokachi, “the Bull.” We combined similar a shot team. Kokori scored the goals, Akinlaja created the chances, and Okougbo neutralised threats, adjacent if it meant taking a reddish card. That operation made NUPENG strong.
What was the inheritance to NUPENG’s creation?
In 1977, I was portion of the steering committee that drafted NUPENG’s constitution. Then successful 1978, the Obasanjo authorities promulgated Decrees 21 and 22.
Before then, Nigeria had 986 commercialized unions; each institution had its own. Some unions leaned towards the Soviet Union, others towards the West. The authorities couldn’t tolerate this and restructured unions on concern lines. That’s however 42 concern unions were formed and affiliated to the Nigerian Labour Congress. NUPENG became 1 of them.
The instauration officers included myself, Chief Kokori, Elijah Okougbo, and John Ernest Dubre, who became our archetypal president.
How did petroleum tanker drivers travel into the picture?
The instrumentality that created NUPENG intelligibly states “including petroleum tanker drivers.”
At the time, petroleum transport was dominated by Lebanese companies similar Safieddin and Transcontinental. Only 1 Nigerian steadfast existed, Transnab successful Ibadan. Later, arsenic pipelines were built and haulage deregulated, Nigerians began buying tankers; immoderate had one, immoderate had two, and NUPENG organised them astatine depots nationwide.
That’s besides however autarkic marketers emerged, aft the authorities insisted Nigerians, not foreigners, should predominate marketing. Thousands registered.
What astir depots and backstage marketers?
Initially, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC (now Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL), ran 21 depots linked by 5,000 km of pipeline. Later, backstage depots sprang up—Zenon Oil (Femi Otedola), Capital Oil, Ascon, and others. Today, determination are astir 190 backstage depots crossed Nigeria.
Which unions and associations predominate the downstream assemblage today?
NUPENG, inferior lipid workers, including tanker drivers; PENGASSAN, elder lipid staff; the National Association of Road Transport Owners, NARTO, transport owners; and the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, autarkic marketers.
With Dangote Refinery present successful the mix, what’s the situation?
Dangote indispensable harmonise with the unions. They cannot combat NUPENG due to the fact that the constitution and labour laws classify workers: inferior unit successful NUPENG, elder unit successful PENGASSAN. Freedom of relation doesn’t mean lipid workers tin articulation a textile union. Just arsenic I, from Ondo State, cannot articulation Ndigbo successful Enugu. Freed...
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