Before Dangote Built His Refinery, What Did You Do With Government Licenses? – Ndume Tackles NUPENG, Others

Borno South lawmaker, Senator Ali Ndume, has added his voice to the ongoing faceoff between oil marketers in the country and Dangote Refinery.

He accused some stakeholders in the oil industry of deliberately trying to demonise Dangote Refinery.

Speaking in a statement on Wednesday, Ndume accused the marketers of ganging up to falsely accuse Dangote of monopolising the market when they failed in the past to take action even when the government granted licences for the operation of private refineries.

He urged all stakeholders to work together for the benefit of Nigerians, rather than engaging in needless media wars.

the management of Dangote Refinery and the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), as well as the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), have been at loggerheads in recent times.

NUPENG had recently embarked on an industrial action, shutting down depots over the refinery’s alleged refusal to allow truck drivers to join the union as required under the Trade Union Act. On its part, DAPPMAN accused the refinery of stifling competition by allegedly offering products at cheaper rates to international traders while sidelining Nigerian marketers.

Despite an intervention by the government, which summoned the concerned stakeholders to a reconciliatory meeting, the issues are yet to be completely resolved, with all parties trading blame and counterblame.

In his submission on Wednesday, Ndume warned the oil marketers to stop the poisonous media narrative to paint Dangote in a bad light in the eyes of Nigerians and the international community, saying such can serve as a deterrent to attracting investment into the country.

He urged unions and stakeholders to pursue dialogue rather than fueling division.

“I urge NUPENG, PENGASSAN, and all concerned stakeholders to engage in constructive dialogue with Dangote rather than inciting division and undue sensationalism in the media. Our common goal should be to balance labour rights with the imperatives of national development and not put ordinary citizens at the receiving end of a needless power tussle,” he said in a statement released in Abuja.

He recalled how previous governments had issued refinery licences to private operators but lamented that many of them failed to deliver and now falsely accusing Dangote of seeking a monopoly.

“Before Dangote took the risk to build his refinery, previous administrations had granted licenses to many Nigerians. What did they do with it? Some of them only cashed in on the incentives of crude oil allocation. If my memory serves me right, licenses were granted to 12 private operators as far back as 2002 to build refineries and reduce dependence on imported fuel. The second round of licenses was done in 2007 by the then Department of Petroleum Resources after revoking the first batch, and granted nine new licenses to private investors. Those parading themselves as fuel importers today didn’t seize the initiative to come together to build refineries. Again, during the Buhari administration, licenses were granted to private investors to build modular refineries. How many of them actually scratched the surface, but they are ganging up to falsely accuse Dangote of monopolising the market.

“It is wrong to talk about monopoly in a deregulated industry. There are no deliberate bottlenecks against anyone, and no player has been accorded a special concession to the detriment of others,” he argued.

Ndume further urged regulators, including the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), to step in and prevent disputes from disrupting the distribution of petroleum products nationwide.