LAGOS SEPTEMBER 20TH (URHOBOTODAY)-Chairman/CEO DAS Energy Service, Chief Sunny Onuesoke has appealed to National Union of Petroleum and Gas Workers (NUPENG) to leave Dangote alone and concentrate on how to fix the moribund refineries in the country.

Recall that the management of Dangote Refinery and  NUPENG  have been at loggerheads in recent times. The Union had recently embarked on an industrial action, shutting down depots over the refinery’s alleged refusal to allow truck drivers to join the union as required under the Trade Union Act. Condemning the act of NUPENG while responding on the sideline to questions from Energy Correspondent at an Oil and Gas worskshop held  in Abuja recently, Onuesoke noted that  NUPENG’s action was capable of scaring away investors.

Onuesoke  questioned why the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries remain inactive despite years of huge investments in turnaround maintenance and rehabilitation projects and what was the role of NUPENG in reviving the refineries? He challenged the union to reveal those responsible for the alleged $18 billion spent on the  government-owned refineries without producing any results.

Responding to allegations that  Dangote restricts petroleum tanker drivers from unionism, Onuesoke  recalled NUPENG’s role in opposing the 2007 privatisation of the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries transactions in which Dangote was part of the acquiring consortium, stressing  that the union’s resistance contributed to the reversal of that sale, which could have revived the moribund plants.

Onuesoke  urged the government to call the union to order, saying their action was portraying the country in bad light, especially with investors paying a close look as the situation unfolds.

“Let me tell NUPENG one thing today, without investors like Dangote, there won’t be NUPENG in the first instance because you require this level of investments to employ in the first place across the value chain before they can even unionize. While somebody has decided to invest hugely in a sector that the government has not been able to pull off and they are now bringing unionism to distract Dangote.

“I think it is unfortunate. I think NUPENG should be called to order and if they insist on this irresponsibility, NUPENG should be proscribed because this will scare away foreign investors into the sector, meaning they will start contending with unions after bringing their money,” he disclosed.

He noted that the way the union was going about their case smacks of economic desperation, just as he maintained that  the situation is a drawback to President Bola Tinubu’s effort to get investors into the sector.

According to him, “This is dicey and calls for decorum amongst the operators as this is more of economic desperation. Unfortunately, this is not good to foreign investors we want to attract to that sector, going by the recent presidential executive order to stimulate growth and expansion that sector as well as encourage local refineries of crude in Nigeria.”

He accused  the Union of  going beyond their boundary and exposing their retrogressive inherent character that majorly put them out as anti-business.

“While it is there right to fight for workers, this they must do within the voluntary acceptance of workers willing to be part of them. Yet still they the trade union must stop being unpatriotic because of their immediate gains, over what is national patriotism which they lack at this point in time.”

“For me, it’s time for a well-meaning Nigerian to stand with Dangote Refinery. We have one global heavy investment from the Dangote group that must not be toiled with in the name of unionization or trade union overzealousness. The investment of the Dangote group in oil and gas is too sensitive for a group of people to molest.

“It does not make economic sense, neither is it logical to comprehend at this age that AI is shaping work place environment that, the like of NUPENG, DAPPMAN amongst others are not even think off, but are out to sabotage Dangote Refinery,” he further said.

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