Tuesday, October 7, 2025 - Vice-President Kashim Shettima has declared that the 650,000-barrel-per-day Dangote Refinery, is of critical importance to Nigeria and must be supported at all costs to ucceed.
Reacting to the recent skirmish between the Petroleum and
Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and management of
refinery, Shettima said it was unnecessary for members of PENGASSAN to hold the
nation to ransom over what he described as “a minor labour dispute”.
Shettima spoke on Monday at the 31st Nigerian Economic
Summit (NES) of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) held in Abuja.
Recall that on September 28, PENGASSAN commenced a
nationwide strike over the dismissal of Nigerian workers by Dangote refinery.
The strike was however suspended after Dangote Group, the
parent company of the refinery, agreed to redeploy the sacked workers.
Faulting the association’s move, the vice-president said
Aliko Dangote, president of the Dangote Group, is not an individual but an
institution.
He added Dangote is “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, in Google, probably he 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 project the interests of this great Nigeria,”
Shettima said.
“I wish to call for caution, retrospection and a deeper
sense of patriotism from both the 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 and Nigeria is
greater than each and every one of us.”
Speaking further, the vice-president emphasised that he was
not acting out of partisanship, but as a “patriot in search of solutions to our
national challenges”.
He emphasised that in the interest of improving the nation’s
fortunes, the government was tasking the NESG with taking more than a passing
interest in the matter.
“The government will expect priority recommendations from
the NESG in addressing this issue even as the government is also taking steps
to protect big industry and ensuring industrial harmony for the good of the
nation. This is a refinery, Your Excellencies, Your Royal Highnesses,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,” Shettima said.
The vice-president reiterated that the refinery project was
financed through a mix of equity investments, debt financing, and loans
obtained from both local and foreign banks.
Consequently, he said the refinery has to function to
salvage the debt and “we cannot hold the whole nation to ransom for some issues
that we can amicably settle across the table”.
Shettima said his stance “reflects the true position of
President Bola Tinubu” and “the Nigerian people”.
On October 2, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC)
Limited, on projected revenue losses due to the suspended strike by the
PENGASSAN, resulting from deferred production, missed liftings, and reduced gas
sale.
Earlier on Monday, Bayo Ojulari, group chief executive
officer (GCEO), NNPC, said the recent rise in the price of liquefied petroleum
gas (LPG), popularly known as cooking gas, was also linked to the recent strike
by PENGASSAN.
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