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My Take on PENGASSAN's Labor Unrest in Nigeria.

If PENGASSAN's issue is with Dangote Refinery, let them go picket in front of its refinery, let them go to arbitration, or take Dangote to court...Instead of punishing the whole country, and causing billions of naira in lost revenue. Most private universities in Nigeria pay what they believe they can. They are for-profit entities. They lay off any staff who join Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). That is why ASUU is non-existent in any private university in Nigeria. It is absurd that PENGASSAN has gone on a national strike to protect the interests of its so-called members in Dangote Refinery.

PENGASSAN continues to constitute itself a nuisance labor union that does nothing but destroy the main source of revenue for the country.... ASUU pursues all routes of engagement with the government and negotiates for years before embarking on industrial action. They often start with a warning strike after many failed attempts at negotiation and arbitration.... PENGASSAN, on the other hand, uses frivolous excuse to hold the whole country to ransom. Why punish your other employers for your claim of high-handedness and poor labor practice by Dangote? Why cause the nation billions of naira in lost revenue because of members who signed a contract with Dangote and knew fully well what the package would be before they signed the job contract? Dangote spent billions of borrowed money to open its private refinery. It is yet to pay back the majority of the loan money. It agreed to pay salary based on its current status, which I am sure is still in the red. Dangote refinery is not profitable yet. These staff, though by global standards are underpaid, agreed to this salary at the onset. In less than a year, they are agitating for pay that is commensurate with their counterparts in PENGASSAN, right? If they want to be paid as their PENGASSAN counterparts, let them resign from Dangote Refinery and go and work for these other companies that hire their brothers in PENGASSAN... If those jobs were there, they would not have gone to sign a job contract that pays them N200k a month with Dangote. People forget quickly...

Strategies like this make an organization like PENGASSAN lose what is left of its credibility - if they have any. Stakeholders see PENGASSAN as obstructionists and colluders with the enemies of the state that hold the nation to ransom, siphoning our resources through the back door of fraudulent subsidies and deliberate sabotage of public refineries.

I support labor unions that fight fairly and with the rest of us in mind. That is not what PENGASSAN stands for, and their days are numbered... especially when they have crossed someone like Jagaban...

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