Exposing the Anti-Worker Propaganda and Standing Firm on the Right to Unionize.

Exposing the Anti-Worker Propaganda and Standing Firm on the Right to Unionize.

By Johnson Ogunjimi

The article "Standing up to the oil unions" published by the cable.ng on the 24th September 2025, is not an analysis; it is a poorly? disguised, paid hatchet job aimed at vilifying Nigerian workers and their legitimate representatives while performing a sycophantic dance for a capitalist monopoly. 

The writer’s attempt to deflect from the core issue, Dangote Refinery’s blatant anti-union stance—by dredging up the failures of government-owned refineries is a classic, tired tactic that deserves nothing but contempt.

Let us be unequivocally clear: the right of workers to freely associate and join trade unions is a fundamental human right, explicitly enshrined in Nigerian law and international labour conventions.

 This is not up for debate. The management of Dangote Refinery’s resistance to this right is not "progress"; it is a dangerous and illegal regression into feudalism, an attempt to create a fiefdom where workers have no voice and cannot negotiate for better wages, safe working conditions, or dignity on the job.

The writers entire argument is built on a foundation of false equivalence and deliberate misinformation. The struggles of the government-owned refineries, plagued by decades of political corruption and gross mismanagement, are a separate tragedy. To lay this squarely at the feet of trade unions is not just intellectually dishonest, it is a malicious lie. The unions’ primary role in those contexts was to fight for the jobs and welfare of their members in the face of catastrophic government failure. They were the last line of defence against total collapse, not the architects of it. The writers failure to distinguish between union advocacy and government incompetence reveals his bias.

I challenge the writer  to present evidence: When last did the oil and gas workers resort to strikes? The writer should know that the stability and world-class operations of multinational giants like TotalEnergies, Shell, and Chevron all of which are fully unionized stand as an evidence to the fact that collective bargaining fosters harmony and productivity, not chaos. 

Even local players in the sector operate with unions. Why should Dangote be an exception? Is he above the law? Does he believe his workers deserve fewer rights than those employed by his competitors?

Your praise for Dangote’s “belief in Nigeria” is nauseating. A true belief in Nigeria includes respecting its laws and the rights of its citizens. Building industries does not grant a capitalist a license to trample on the rights of the very workers who power those industries. 

The disappearance of fuel queues is a welcome development, but it cannot be built on the back of exploited, silenced labour. Progress that denies fundamental human rights is not progress; it is oppression.

Stick to the matter at hand. This is about unionization. This is about a management that fears a collective voice because it desires absolute control. The writers attempt to paint the unions as “saboteurs” for challenging Dangote’s monopolistic tendencies is a service to greed, not to the Nigerian people. 

The unions are sounding an alarm that needs to be heard: no single entity should have unchecked power over a nation’s economic lifeline.

Nigerians must indeed see through the shenanigans. They must see this article for what it is: a desperate attempt to shield a powerful capitalist from accountability. We stand firmly with the workers of Dangote Refinery. Their fight for the right to unionize is our fight for the soul of Nigeria’s labour landscape, one where the law is respected, workers’ dignity is upheld, and paid propagandists are seen for what they are: enemies of progress and justice.

The workers’ right to unionize is non-negotiable. Dangote is not an exception.