Why PENGASSAN is Hellbent on Destroying Dangote Refinery, By Abubakar Alkali

[Friday lines (81) with Engineer Abubakar Alkali, PhD]

The answer to the question in the title is very simple and straightforward; the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN wants to destroy Dangote Refinery to maintain the status quo of fuel importation, illegal fuel subsidy payments, inflated bridging bills, aggravated oil theft and by and large, sustain the unprecedented and humongous corruption that has held the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry and the nation down for far too long.

Clearly, the recalcitrant union PENGASSAN is increasingly becoming a threat to national security especially when it’s unnecessary attacks on Dangote refinery is juxtaposed with the criticality of white products; Premium motor spirit (PMS), automated gas oil (AGO) and dual purpose kerosene (DPK) in Nigeria’s economy.

PENGASSAN is clearly misusing its powers in the industry by colluding with oil marketers to destroy Dangote refinery and pave the way for NON-STOP fuel importation in Nigeria. This is a mega refinery built at over $20 billion which can satisfy domestic fuel consumption and even make Nigeria a net exporter of refined petroleum products.

With the recent coming of Dangote refinery, the fuel queues are gone in no time but PENGASSAN and the oil cabal want these obnoxious fuel queues back for more hardship on Nigerians.

This union and the oil marketers are promoting anarchy in Nigeria because fuel scarcity can potentially lead to protests, riots and breakdown of law and order nationwide.

Dangote has provided a fuel supply lifeline to Nigerians but PENGASSAN and the oil canal wants to stop it. If this is not terrorism, tell me what it is.

Without a shadow of doubt, PEN-GAS-NIGERIANS a.k.a PENGASSAN (they want to gas us all out) is working in cahoots with the so-called marketers represented as OIL CABAL to destroy Dangote refinery so that they can continue to import fuel and make scandalous blood money.

The downstream sector of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry is officially deregulated by the federal government. Hence, PENGASSAN and the oil cabal need to be reminded that they can import fuel and participate in a healthy competition but they don’t have to destroy Dangote refinery on their way to hell.

Let no one be deceived, the so-called leaders of PENGASSAN are N.O.T fighting for Nigeria and Nigerians. They are fighting for their pockets. They don’t represent us.

PENGASSAN wants to ensure that Nigeria remains a perpetual importer of fuel from the so-called foreign consortium. By its unprovoked attacks on Dangote refinery, PENGASSAN is holding 220 million Nigerians to ransom.

The oil cabal must continue to suck the blood off innocent Nigerians by using PENGASSAN to stop and destroy Dangote refinery.

They want us back to fuel queues, they want to open more windows for oil theft. They want to upgrade the bridging claims fraud from billions to trillions of Naira.

PENGASSAN will not succeed in destroying Dangote refinery.

If the federal government of Nigeria will not protect us from the claws of PENGASSAN, Allah (SWT) will.

The money these marketers make from the so-called fuel subsidy is scandalous and mind-boggling; In 2022, Nigeria spent a whopping N4 trillion on fuel subsidy payments which represents 27% of the 2022 budget.

In 2023, after the ceremonial declaration of an end to fuel subsidy by President Tinubu in May without due diligence and its potential impact on struggling families, fuel subsidy payments grouped at N3.6 trillion which represents 17% of the budget for the year.

In 2024, subsidy payments were projected by the NNPCL at N5.4 trillion which is 21% of the budget for the year (N26.01 trillion).

From these figures, the average percentage fuel subsidy payments over the 3 years -2022, 2023 and 2024 – stood at 22% of the budget. Nigeria spends 22% of the annual budget over the last 3 years to payment of an utterly fraudulent fuel subsidy. These fuel subsidy payments lead to stunted economic growth, fiscal deficit and inflation. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported that fuel subsidy payments cost Nigeria up to 3% of GDP in 2024 after the unofficial reintroduction of fuel subsidy to cushion the effect of weak Naira exchange rates.

Not only that the fuel subsidy payments are humongous but also, well documented evidence shows that about 55% of fuel subsidy payments find their way to private pockets. Huge corruption is imbedded in fuel subsidy payments.

In fact, well documented evidence shows that the federal government still pays fuel subsidy even after the ceremonial declaration by President Tinubu on 29th May 2023 that ‘fuel subsidy is gone’
The oil cabal will not let go.

It is common knowledge that often times, fake subsidy bills are presented by marketers to NNPCL for payment when no fuel was supplied or imported. The marketers work in cahoots with government officials to pay off any subsidy claims presented without being audited. Everyone takes his share and everybody is happy.

Moreso, the subsidy payments are not centralised. A marketer can present his claims to NMDPRA, then present the SAME claim to NNPCL, then go ahead to present the same claim to accountant- generals office and to the ministry of finance incorporated all at the same time and still gets paid through all these channels.

Bridging payments are part of the fuel subsidy scam and grossly inflated. In February 2025, the independent petroleum marketers association of Nigeria (IPMAN) claimed that the federal government through the Nigerian midstream downstream petroleum regulatory authority (NMDPRA) is owing them N100 billion in bridging payments. By May 2025, IPMAN claimed that the figure has risen to N200 billion even when bridging is no longer applicable because fuel subsidy has been removed.

If you ask the oil marketers why they are still submitting bridging claims to NMDPRA even when subsidy is gone more than 2 years ago, they will tell you that ‘it is a backlog before the removal of subsidy’ There will always be bridging backlog for IPMAN. Clearly, PENGASSAN wants this humongous corruption to continue hence they want to bring down Dangote refinery to pave the way for endless fuel importation.

While your truely remains a vocal critic of the abrupt removal of fuel subsidy by the Tinubu administration in May 2023, i have always maintained that marketers who milk the nation dry must be taking out of business by removing corruption in the subsidy regime and retaining genuine subsidy for the benefit of poor and vulnerable Nigerians.

In its latest bullying tactics, PENGASSAN has threatened to shut down Dangote refinery because the refinery laid off some workers. The question; when did PENGASSAN assumed the rights to dictate to an organisation when and who to hire and fire? In fact the pervicacious PENGASSAN has threatened to shut down the entire oil and gas industry in Nigeria effective today Sunday, 28th September, 2025. This is an empty threat but must be taking seriously though.

The threat by PENGASSAN against Dangote must not be dismissed with a wave of the hand as any disruptions in fuel supply in Nigeria will have a bandwagon effect on critical sectors such as transportation, manufacturing, food security, education, technology and innovation etc.

Since 1995, Nigeria has been a perpetual importer of petroleum products particularly the premium motor spirit (PMS) or petrol. The coming of Dangote refinery has changed Nigeria’s status from a petroleum products import-dependent nation to one that has been able to satisfy domestic demands. PENGASSAN must not be allowed to reverse the gains recorded since the coming of Dangote refinery just to satisfy the selfish interests of the marketers and oil cabal.

We have seen genuine comrades cum unionists in the oil sector in the 80s and 90s who deployed unionism to fight for workers rights, democracy and justice. We have seen the likes of the late colossus comrade Ali Chiroma who served as President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) 1984 – 1988 and the late comrade emeritus Frank Kokori the general secretary of the national union of petroleum and natural gas workers (NUPENG). Both comrades left a legacy of genuine unionism in Nigeria. They fought for the rights of workers including inter alia the cannibalisation of labour and dehumanisation of work.

They fought for the restoration of democratic rule in Nigeria. Comrade Kokori deserves a special mention in the fight to restore democracy in Nigeria. These are genuine unionists and we will always remember them.

The current trade union leaders including PENGASSAN, TUC, NLC are simply masquerades and musketeers who deceive workers to feather their nests and make illegal money for themselves from unionism. We must never trust them as most of them are on the payroll of the federal government. The government uses the musketeer trade union leaders to shut down any perceived decent whether real or imaginary against the current unbelievably corrupt system in Nigeria. The government uses the trade unions to weaken any opposition to the status quo.

Even when PENGASSAN has a duty to protect vulnerable employees from the exploitative tendencies of employers, it must do so with patriotism and sensitivity to national security.

All actions of PENGASSAN against the Dangote refinery points to the union being insensitive to Nigeria’s fragile stability. Even when the price of fuel is almost unbearable to Nigerians, PENGASSAN wants to make the situation much worse by frustrating Dangote refinery so as to promote artificial fuel scarcity.

The civil society organisations (CSOs) and other charitable organisations must rise up to the occasion to stop PENGASSAN from its attacks on Dangote.

The federal government owes it a duty to step in and ensure national stability and the protection of national security by bringing to justice all so-called leaders of PENGASSAN, oil marketers and their agents who are promoting anarchy in Nigeria. They cannot be more powerful than the government. Yes all so-called PENGASSAN union leaders should be arraigned before a court of competent jurisdiction and tried for sabotage and threats to national security.

Clearly section 40 of the constitution, federal republic of Nigeria 1999 (as copy edited) is infringed by PENGASSAN in its attacks against Dangote. While the relevant section 40 guarantees the right of every Nigerian to freely associate and belong to a union or an assembly, it doesn’t confer the prerogative to PENGASSAN or any union for that matter to sabotage critical national assets and interfere in private contracts.

Henceforth, any sabotage of the critical oil assets which constitute the lifeline of Nigeria’s economy ala PENGASSAN’s attack on Dangote should be designated as terrorism.

A word is enough for the wise.