A spokesman for Dangote Refinery said on Tuesday that Nigeria would not face a petrol shortage despite an ongoing strike by a union representing fuel tanker drivers.
The strike, which began Monday, has drawn support from other labour groups in Nigeria and abroad. It comes as the refinery, Africa’s largest, begins hiring its own fleet of drivers to distribute fuel directly to retailers.
“There is no fuel shortage, everything is going on,” refinery spokesman Anthony Chiejina told AFP, adding that talks were ongoing between the union, the government, and the company.
Before the commissioning of the 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery last year, Nigeria, one of the world’s top oil producers, imported nearly all of its petrol due to years of neglect and mismanagement of state-owned refineries.
Since operations began, the Dangote refinery has lowered consumer prices and unsettled entrenched interests in Nigeria’s petroleum sector, long plagued by corruption. However, its growing dominance has also raised monopoly concerns, given its backing by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote.
Last month, the refinery announced plans to roll out thousands of compressed natural gas-powered trucks to distribute petrol nationwide. But logistical delays have stalled the initiative, stirring unease in a market where over 20,000 diesel-powered tankers have operated for decades.
The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), which launched the strike, accuses Dangote of hiring drivers on the condition that they not join the union—an allegation the company firmly rejects.
“What Dangote has shown over time is that he’s not prepared to have workers that will have a say in his employment,” NUPENG president Williams Akporeha told Arise News on Tuesday.
The union has received solidarity from the Nigeria Labour Congress as well as international groups, including the Switzerland-based IndustriALL Global Union and the International Lawyers Assisting Workers network in Washington.
Chiejina dismissed the claims as “cheap blackmail,” insisting that drivers were free to join unions. “It’s not true… nobody has done that and nobody ever has,” he said.
