By; AMOS TAUNA, Kaduna The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), has called on labour unions in the country to be wary of actions that can sabot
By; AMOS TAUNA, Kaduna
The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), has called on labour unions in the country to be wary of actions that can sabotage or discourage indigenous private sector investment drives for Nigeria’s industrial development.
It noted that Nigeria labour unions ought to be wary of the real international conspiracy and related machinations and blackmail aimed at sabotaging Nigeria’s (and Africa’s) quests for indigenous industrial development.
A statement issued on Sunday by ACF National Publicity Secretary, Prof. T. A. Muhammad-Baba, reminded PENGASSAN that any negotiations’ outcome need not be zero-sum game terms as a common ground on relevant issues is possible in the interest of all parties, stressing that as with any employer of labour, Dangote Refinery, should not be blackmailed into recruiting or retaining any with proclivity to sabotage or constitute threats to it.
ACF strongly supported the on-going Federal Government-led negotiations to find a solution to impasse, as well as welcomes the truce reached, hopefully a final and permanent one, and not temporary and called that appropriate sanction be meted to PENGASSAN for the egregious refusal to a court order.
The forum also called for a commission of enquiry, with judicial powers, to unearth the brain or brains behind the incessant strikes by employees of vital national and private institutions such that strikes do not result in acts of sabotage.
It encouraged the Federal Government of Nigeria, to take inventory of and declare any vital physical and non-physical facilities, intellectual property, public or private, as strategic resources within the ambit of national security for necessary protection against threats from any source(s), pointing out that the Dangote Refinery complex undoubtedly qualifies for inclusion into such a National Register of Assets.
ACF observed, “It is with great concern that the Arewa Consultative Forum has been monitoring the thinly disguised attempt to sabotage the world class Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals Company, Ibeju, Lagos State, Nigeria’s largest and most modern indigenous industrial crude oil processing outfit, equipped with sophisticated machinery.
“ACF rues the fact that from conception, implementation and commissioning, the Dangote Re-finery facility has continued to face unrelenting onslaught of sorts, including logistical challenges, public regulatory agencies’ misbegotten concerns about the quality of the Complex’s products, crude oil supplies from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), distribution, pricing problems.”
The statement stated that trade associations and organized labour also weighed in with demands, threats and actual pick-ets, notably from the Independent Petroleum Marketing Association, National Union of Petro-leum and Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Petroleum and Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).
Through it all, the forum said that the Refinery’s owner, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, persevered unrelentingly overcoming all sorts of obstacles, confident that the Refinery’s products will change the heretofore sordid narratives about petroleum products supply, long embroiled in controversies, sharp prac-tices, supply bottlenecks, pricing inefficiencies, subsidy scandals, and other shenanigans by a motley of interests, to the detriment of the national economy, as exemplified by the embarrassing failure of the four public-owned refineries to work.
Evidentially, ACF stressed that the challenges are the handiworks of entrenched subterranean interests or the proverbial cabals, bent on maintaining an asphyxiating hold on the oil sector and the national economy, saying that ACF acknowledges the rights of workers to join trade unions in line with constitutional provisions.
ACF explained, “What is questionable has been the forceful nature of demand for workers at the Dangote Refinery to join PENGASSAN. The constitutional provision does not confer automatic membership on anyone; it is an individual’s right to accept or reject membership.
“ACF also believes Alhaji Aliko Dangote’s assertions that the welfare of workers and safety at the workplace re-mains a prime concerns of the Refinery’s Management.
“As things are, ACF endorses Dangote Refinery Company’s resort to seek legal protection against the attempts to cripple its operations. For that matter, it should be concerning to all law-abiding citizens that PENGASSAN refuses to comply with a subsisting court order against any disruption to the Refinery’s operations.”
ACF also aligned itself to Senator Adams Oshiomole’s and that of Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume’s recent recommendation on national television and BBC Hausa service respectively to the effect that the Refinery should be allowed to stabilise before its workers resort to unionism ACF believes that a prime consideration for the workers should at this time ensuring that the Refinery should be fully functional as workplace before workers can unionise.
ACF also believed that putting down the Dangote Petroleum complex is a potent disincentive to domestic and international investors because it sends wrong signals to investors.
It said that in line with inter-national best practices, facilities and investments such as the Dangote Refinery complex, public or private, should be treated as strategic National Security Assets worthy of protection.
It said the challenges being faced by the Refinery would have been averted to the glory of Nigeria’s national political economy, adding that in the no distant past, US former President had halted the sale of the private-owned steel company to Japanese investors on account of national security interests, without attempting to nationalise the corporation.
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