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The noise from the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) threatening to picket and disrupt operations at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals is not about protecting workers. It is about protecting a decayed order that once held Nigeria hostage.
Their claim of 800 unjustly sacked workers collapses under the refinery’s explanation that those dismissed were saboteurs, whose misconduct endangered both lives and production at the world’s largest single-train refinery.
Even after the purge, the refinery said it still has in its employ over 3,000 Nigerians. The cries of injustice are nothing but a smokescreen.
NUPENG’s Tollgate of Extortion
While PENGASSAN plays the role of saboteur-in-chief, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has quietly become a toll-collector. At the exit gate of the Dangote Refinery, after tankers have lawfully loaded products at the gantry, NUPENG collects N50,000 per tanker. This is not unionism. It is extortion, plain and simple.
Imagine the scale: thousands of trucks moving daily, each one taxed by a union turned cartel. This is not service to workers. It is daylight robbery of Nigerians who will eventually bear the cost at the pumps.
DAPMANN and PETROAN: The Chorus of Blackmail
We have seen this pattern:
Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) demanded a fictitious N1.505 trillion subsidy, falsely accusing Dangote of enjoying what no longer exists.
Petroleum Products Retail Outlets owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) joined the blackmail chorus, preferring to preserve subsidy fraud than to embrace reform.
NUPENG now bleeds transporters with N50,000 levies, feeding fat on the lifeblood of the Nigerian people.
PENGASSAN, for its part, threatens sabotage and disruption.
Together, they form the remnants of the subsidy cartel, the parasites who once crippled Nigeria’s economy with fuel importation fraud and union-backed extortion.
Tinubu’s New Nigeria Has Broken Their Chains
But their time is over. Under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Nigeria has broken free:
Fuel subsidy is gone — the black hole that drained trillions is sealed shut.
Exchange rates unified, credibility restored.
External reserves have surged to $42 billion, their highest in six years.
GDP growth hit 4.23 percent in Q2 2025, stronger than last year’s 3.48 percent.
Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocations now exceed N2 trillion monthly, enabling states and Local Government Areas (LGAs) to clear backlogs, pay above N70,000 minimum wage, and launch mega infrastructure projects.
$19.4 billion of inherited debt has been paid, and Nigeria owes zero dollars to the International Monetary Fund (IMF_.
Oil production has almost doubled, from 900,000 barrels/day to 1.7 million barrels/day.
These reforms are translating into dignity for workers, stability for pensioners, and opportunity for the ordinary Nigerian.
A National Asset, Not a Union Playground
Nigeria holds a 5 percent stake in the Dangote Refinery. That makes it not just a private venture, but a national asset, vital to our energy security and economic sovereignty.
To sabotage it, to picket it, or to extort at its gates is not merely an attack on Dangote, it is an attack on the Nigerian people.
The End of Blackmail
The message must be clear: no union, no cabal, no cartel will be allowed to hold Nigeria hostage again. The refinery is too important, too symbolic, too tied to the destiny of 200 million Nigerians to be treated as the playground of extortionists.
The security agencies must be on red alert. The ordinary people will not tolerate one second of disruption. The age of subsidy blackmail is dead. The age of reform, renewal, and responsibility has begun.
. Dr. Awoyemi is a Real Estate Developer and Builder.
