Dangote, NUPENG and our oesophagus

I had wanted to title this piece “Dangote, IPMAN, NUPENG, NNPC and all of us”, but not all of us are feeling the tension in the land today. We are the proverbial grass while those not affected by the rampant poverty are the proverbial elephant that tramples on the grass. Or don’t the Kikuyu of Kenya say “where two elephants fight, the grass suffers”? The custodians of our pot of soup have turned against us and are now dragging us at our oesophagus. They are dangerously pulling our gullet with the powers they derived from drinking their fill from our petroleum. Those people are not among us. That must be made abundantly clear.

Who are those people? They are the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN); National Union of Petroleum, Energy and Gas Workers of Nigeria (NUPENG); Petroleum, Energy and Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN); and Dangote Refinery. They are not among us and are not fighting for us. They are fighting for themselves and for who gets the longer end of the stick.

Is the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) not among them? NNPCL is supposed to be an unbiased umpire in the whole drama. But is it playing that role? Is the NNPCL acting like a true father in a siblings’ fight? Is the NNPCL fighting for hapless Nigerians? Are we the cause and consequence of the things we are hearing and witnessing in the “downstream sector” of the Nigerian petroleum industry? Is the welfare of the suffering Nigerian the cause of these back and forth grinds? My answer is unequivocal NO!

The ever-confusing Nigerian petroleum sector has always remained a mystery. And each time the petroleum industry players engage in their power play, the Nigerian masses are usually the grass in the inexplicable political turf. From what is visible to the eyes, and perceptible by the labouring and slaving Nigerians alike, there is still a very dark cloud hovering over the pricing of petrol in the country. It is so much of a mystery that even some of the players on that turf are also in the dark.

There are numerous plies to the crude mystery… the type Saheed Osupa and Shallipopi sang about. Saheed Osupa sang about Adan –the Bat, saying when you cut up one bat, you’d find another inside of it. Audacious Shallipopi of the Gen Z came from nowhere and sang the mystery of the avian species. Shallipopi, in the track he curiously titled “Elon Musk” sings that “…Inside that your avian so, another avian dey inside. Inside that your avian, another avian dey inside.” So, while we try to grapple with and solve one problem in the sector, we dissect it, encounter and sink into another problem in the same sector.

The songs by these men only reinforce the existence of mystery – the darkness typified by what we see time and again in the handling of everything petroleum supply and pricing in Nigeria. Being mysterious is the forte of oil sector operations in Nigeria, and that has remained the true foundation of the current imbroglio between Dangote Refinery on one hand and IPMAN and NUPENG on the other. NNPC is standing curiously askance like a person prodding on a fighting child. What is the cause of the current confusion among the rival parties? Can any Nigerian, who is not equipped to see inside the grey area of our oily coven, tell what is really happening in this current impasse? How would these people turn the whole country upside down with the government watching with arms akimbo, making feeble calls at peace and reason?

The game currently going on between NUPENG/IPMAN and Dangote Refinery is similar to the game they call ‘truth or dare’. It is definitely k’obirin tatorin, k’okunrin tatorin… let the man and the woman pee while walking and we shall see whose legs would get wetter at the back. The petroleum workers’ unions are daring both the government and Dangote to go it alone without them. They have threatened that they would ground the system and leave Nigerians in the usual spot if they are not reckoned with. Dangote on the other hand is insisting that they cannot be forced to associate or unionise as it is a constitutional matter.

However, joining a union or an association is just one the grievances people can place a handle on. Who but the ‘senior boys’ in the Nigerian petroleum coven can spell exactly what the current the tiff is truly about? One notable IPMAN official nearly riled a radio presenter in Ibadan during the week as he tried to explain their grievances against Dangote Refinery. While featuring on Dende Oro on Fresh FM Ibadan, anchored on Tuesday by Salawat Lukman, Alhaji Lawal Olalekan said they were not ‘dragging the steering wheel with Dangote’ over his refinery, but that Dangote’s CNG trucks was the bone of contention.

Alhaji Lawal, who is the chairman of IPMAN in Oyo and Osun States, said: “Those vehicles he brought in are the cause of the problem. You know he is the owner of the depot, and he is also the owner of the refinery. His vehicles will be loading at these places while those of us who borrowed money from banks to buy vehicles, what should we do? Should we tell the banks that Dangote has driven us back home or have you got another job at Fresh?” The IPMAN chief insists that Dangote is paving the way to becoming a monopoly in the sector just like he said he had become with sugar in the country.

IPMAN, going by the postulations of Alhaji Lawal; Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), which wrote a letter to President Tinubu last year, are both wary of a Dangote monopoly. NUPENG wants Dangote workers to join unions so that they could have a ‘cover’. Dangote, on its part is clinging tenaciously to the belief that association with any trade union is strictly by choice, citing the Nigerian constitution and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions. In the same breath, Dangote says it neither interferes with nor restricts its employees’ right to freely join legally recognised unions.

All the parties in this matter are acting the wasp and the bee. Both are denying the sting which has left the farmer’s face swollen. Nigerians do not seem to matter in this co-wives’ rivalry. The calculation of all these petroleum businessmen is capitalist-driven. If what they stand to lose is more than what they stand to gain, then there must not be anything other than what would suit them. What have Nigerians done to deserve a country this opaque and anti-people?

For the NNPC Limited, it is sad that when a village is known to dance for unwholesome causes, every child of that village already has a name! We may not know what the case against Mele Kyari would turn out to be eventually, but we know that all is not pure in that behemoth organisation. The case against Kyari might end up like a confounding maze like that of Godwin Emefiele, but Nigerians know that if the NNPC Ltd had their back, there would not have been this ensuing conundrum.

We must therefore plead that they should leave our oesophagus. We are seriously choking. I think President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must repeat his call to let the poor breathe. We need that call and action now more than ever before. Let the poor breathe!

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