Oil is sweet. Never mind if it is categorized as sour, sweet or light; oil is always sweet and smoothens the throats of the rich. Similarly, power is sweet. It is a common saying that people should not be trusted until they have power and money. So, a combination of oil and power can intoxicate.
It is this blend that the Toyin Falola Interview on Sunday, November 2, 2025, invited a parliament of Nigerian intellectuals to examine. They were Professors Victor Oguejiofor Okafor, Mobolaji Ebenezer Aluko, Ehiedu Goodluck Iweriebor, Jibrin Ibrahim and John Onyeukwu. I was honoured, as a labour veteran, to join them.
The discussions opened with a documentary whose usefulness was fatally flawed by a blend of some truth, half-truths and large doses of Trumpian Alternative Facts.
The point was well made that the Dangote Refinery is a necessary and historic intervention in the country’s economic life. It is a life that has been tortured by British colonial brigandage and exploitation, military conquests and occupation of its treasury and outright ‘privatisation’ of its wealth. This includes the ownership of its Central Bank by a rapacious political elite for whom the difference between national and individual wealth is a mere academic exercise.
So, the Dangote Refinery is a major contribution to the return of the country to the path of industrialization it had taken from the period of self-government in the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s, when the military, at gunpoint, pointed it to a new direction of dependency.
However, the welcome birth of the Dangote Refinery two years ago has been followed by needless controversies, endless accusations, mega tons of propaganda, and diversions. This is to the extent that the hitherto seemingly reclusive Alhaji Aliko Dangote, the CEO of Dangote Plc, has become like a rock star featuring in endless interviews, advertisements and propaganda materials.
These have also raised ideological issues. Some of these, I hold sacrosanct. For instance, that industrialization must serve humanity, not humanity serving industrialization. That Wealth, whether state or privately owned, should be at the service of humans, not humans worshipping at the temple of wealth.
If, for instance, the Nigerian working class were taken to a high mountain, shown all the riches of the world, and told they would belong to it provided it bows to industrial growth and agrees to abridge its human rights, I will ask it to decline.
True, capitalism was a high stage of progress which propelled humanity unto a higher stage of development. But even its acclaimed father, Adam Smith, warned that capitalism is not based on altruism, but on self-interest. He warned: “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.” So, on what basis would anybody argue that we rely on the magnanimity of a single player in any industry?
It is in this context that I presented the case of the Nigerian working people against Dangote Plc and its owners. I began by clarifying that the case against Dangote Plc and its refinery do not concern its businesses, but its practices.
First, that Dangote, contrary to Section 40 of the Nigerian Constitution which states that: “Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.” banned its staff from freedom of association. Secondly, it also violated Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that: “Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.”
Thirdly, it established a union for its staff contrary to Sections 3&4 of the Trade Union Act. Fourthly, it claimed it was defending staff from being forced to belong to unions but provided no shred of evidence. In any case, I submitted, the workers do not need the employer to defend them.
Fifthly, it unilaterally fired over 800 workers, claiming it was reorganizing. If its claims were true, they violated Section 20 of the Labour Act which provides for procedures and processes of declaring redundancy.
Six, that its claims about 22 acts of sabotage, remain unsubstantiated; indeed, nobody has been charged. Therefore, its mass sack of its Nigerian employees amounted to collective punishment.
Seven, by denying the staff the right to Collective Bargaining, Dangote violated the International Labour Organisation, ILO, Convention 98 of 1949.
Eight, in seeking to use the courts and the government to ban the importation of fuel products into the country, Dangote Plc tried to make itself the sole distributor of petroleum products and ensure itself as a single seller. This, I submitted, violates Section 16 (2) C of the Constitution which states that: “The State shall direct its policy towards ensuring that the economic system is not operated in such a manner as to permit the concentration of wealth or the means of production and exchange in the hands of few individuals or of a group.”
Nine, that with its failed attempts to use the courts to stop the importation of petroleum products necessary to fill the shortage vacuum and enhance competition, the refinery is getting a helping hand from the Tinubu administration, which has announced the imposition of a 15 percent import tariff on fuel products.
Ten, that there is something amiss when Dangote Plc which enjoys tax incentives, Customs duty waivers, cheap labour and, due to its refining locally, does not need to pay freight, insurance, demurrage, ports and NIMASA charges, is afraid of competing with imported fuel which despite the above, tend to be cheaper.
Eleven, that Labour, for over a decade, has had objections against Dangote Plc buying public companies because when it bought public companies like the Nigeria Textile Mills, NTM and the Oshogbo Steel Rolling Mills, rather than reviving, it shut them down.
Twelve, Labour had equally had fights with Dangote Plc when it sacked en masse workers in its food sector who dared unionize by joining the National Union of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employees.
Thirteen, that there are double standards on the part of Dangote Plc, which, through its Ibese and Obajana Textiles, belongs to the Nigeria Textiles, Garment and Tailoring Employers Association, but bans trade unionism amongst its staff in the Dangote refinery.
My final submission was, let Dangote Plc face its businesses, respect the constitution, Nigerian laws, domesticated international conventions, and Fundamental Human Rights.
Some panelists felt that, given the refinery’s importance, some rights of workers, such as those to unionization, should be suspended to allow such industries to grow. My position is that trade unionism is no obstacle to development anywhere, and workers cannot for any reason be slaves or serfs. In any case, if certain constitutional rights are to be suspended for any reason, the proponents need constitutional amendments not government fiat.
