Following last week’s industrial action by oil workers under the aegis of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, Vice President Kashim Shettima declared that Nigeria is greater than PENGASSAN.
PENGASSAN had gone on strike after the refinery sacked 800 Nigerians who embraced unionisation due to poor working conditions, following which the firm replaced them with Indians.
Apparently stating the position of the Federal Government on the rift, Shettima, on Monday, emphasised the critical importance of the 650,000-barrel-per-day Dangote Refinery, declaring that it must be supported at all costs to succeed.
The government’s position was further emphasised by Minister of Budget and National Planning Senator Bagudu at the opening of the Nigerian Economic Summit 2025 in Abuja.
According to Shettima, the $20 billion facility is a national asset that must be supported to function.
He said, “Aliko Dangote, he’s not an individual, he’s an institution, and he’s a leading light in Nigeria’s economic parliament. And how we treat this gentleman will determine how outsiders will judge us. If he had invested $10 billion in Microsoft, in Amazon, or in Google, he probably might be worth $70 to $80 billion by now.
“But he opted to invest in his country, and we owe it to future generations to jealously protect, promote, preserve, and protect the interests of this great Nigeria.
“I wish to call for caution, retrospection, and a deeper sense of patriotism from both labour and the organised private sector in defining and improving the relationship between labour and industry in the interest of maintaining our steadily improving economic fortunes.
“It’s not about holding the whole nation to ransom because of a minor labour dispute.
“Nigeria is greater than PENGASSAN. Nigeria is greater than each and every one of us. I’m not coming to you as a partisan.”
