The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has fired back at the Presidency over comments by Vice President Kashim Shettima condemning its recent industrial action following a dispute with the Dangote Refinery.
Speaking with journalists on Monday, PENGASSAN insisted it would take the same action again if its members were unjustly sacked.
This came as protesters in Kaduna accused the union of attempting to sabotage the Dangote Refinery.
PENGASSAN had last week shut down key oil and gas facilities over claims that the refinery dismissed 800 workers who had joined the union. Dangote, however, denied this, saying only a few workers involved in acts of sabotage were affected as part of an internal reorganisation.
The strike action led to disruptions in oil and gas production, as well as power generation, before the Federal Government’s intervention restored normalcy. PENGASSAN suspended the strike last Wednesday after the Dangote Group agreed to redeploy the affected workers to other business units.
Despite the suspension, fuel queues persisted, and the price of cooking gas remained high at about ₦2,000 per kilogram in Lagos and other cities—far above the pre-crisis price of ₦900.
Speaking on Monday at the opening of the 2025 Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja, Vice President Kashim Shettima described Dangote as an institution and a pillar of Nigeria’s economic growth.
“Aliko Dangote is not an individual; he’s an institution, and he’s a leading light in Nigeria’s economic parliament,” Shettima said.
“And how we treat this gentleman will determine how outsiders will judge us. If he had invested $10bn in Microsoft, in Amazon, or in Google, he probably might be worth $70 to $80bn 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.”
Reacting, PENGASSAN’s National President, Festus Osifo, countered that the nation was equally bigger than Dangote and the Presidency.
“Of course the nation is bigger than PENGASSAN, the way it’s bigger than Dangote and the Presidency. We have a mandate to protect the jobs of our members, that we will discharge whenever the need arises,” Osifo said.
Osifo, who also serves as the President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), maintained that if similar circumstances occurred again, PENGASSAN would not hesitate to take the same action.
“Should this same event occur again tomorrow, our approach will be exactly the same,” he declared.
Asked about comments suggesting the Federal Government could dissolve PENGASSAN over energy security concerns, Osifo replied, “Does the law prohibit workers’ right to strike?”
Similarly, PENGASSAN’s General Secretary, Lumumba Okugbawa, remarked, “Is Nigeria not bigger than any individual or institution?”
Meanwhile, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Bagudu, reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to supporting domestic production to sustain economic growth.