1. Dangote took a loan to build his refinery and paid back the loan by round tripping of Nigeria’s foreign reserves. He collected dollars at subsidized rate and round tripped it to make profits. That alone affected the dollar availability and rates. He built and paid for his refinery from your sufferings.
2. Dangote buys crude in Naira and sells fuel at international oil market rates. This is the man who promised to make fuel cheap, yet his prices are at par with NNPC imported fuel prices. So where is the gain for Nigerians? So we have not gained anything as we still pay the same price for Dangote fuel as those imported into Nigeria by NNPC and other marketers. In fact, a particular importer/ marketer (BOVAS) even sells cheaper than Dangote. In Port Harcourt, I buy fuel at #880 per liter while NNPC sells at #885, and MRS (Dangote) sells at #890. So tell me the gains of Dangote refinery, except to enlarge his empire.
3. Dangote buys fuel from NNPC in Naira and still exports the fuel to Europe and other African nations in dollars. Who is gaining. Definitely not Nigeria, and when NNPC says he should buy in dollars, he tells Nigerians that he would sell his fuel in dollars. Is that not a violation of the law that requires that all business transactions in Nigeria be made in our local currency?
4. The same Dangote who built a refinery from the money he got from our foreign reserve on subsidized rates now employs more Indians than Nigerians. How much did Indian government contribute to the building of that refinery? Is it not economic sabotage to enjoy tax holidays and subsidized forex from Nigeria and give the benefit to Indians? Those who support this economic sabotage are real enemies of Nigeria, not the union.
5. Dangote pays Indians in Dollars but pays Nigerians in Naira, yet sells his fuel in dollars. Who is the sabotaging national interests here.
6. Nigerian workers in Dangote refinery are subjected to the worst kind of enslavement – poor salaries, poor condition of services, poor medical care, poor HSE standards. The Indians are treated as “expatriates,” while Nigerians are treated like slaves in their own country. That can not happen in India or any country.
7. The employees decided to join union which is their fundamental rights as enshrined in the Constitution of Nigeria, the Labour Acts, and ILO convention but rather than respect the rights of those workers, Dangote chose to sack them. What kind of impunity is that? Should Dangote now become bigger than the Constitution of Nigeria?
Those who are attacking the union are either grossly ignorant or just expressing the biases that are allowed. But one question that they should ask themselves is, “Will I accept to the treated like the Dangote employees in my own place of work?” This is a question only your conscience should answer.
But for us in PENGASSAN, Dangote is not above the law. He is not the biggest investor in Nigeria. In fact, he is Nigeria’s biggest economic saboteur judging from what he has done to our economy from rice to sugar to cement, and now he is coming into oil and gas. He must be stopped.
Comr. Joshua E. Owhor.