The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has strongly condemned the recent comments made by Senator Adams Oshiomhole on national television, describing them as a ‘reprehensible assault on the fundamental rights of Nigerian workers’ and ‘a gross distortion of established labour laws.’
In a hard-hitting statement jointly signed by NUPENG’s National President, Comrade Williams Akporeha, and General Secretary, Comrade Afolabi Olawale, the union expressed ‘profound dismay’ that a former labour leader could now be ‘a vocal advocate for corporate oppression,’ campaigning against the very rights he once fought to protect.
‘We witness with utter disappointment a former labour leader now transformed into a vocal advocate for corporate oppression, actively campaigning against the very rights he once championed,’ the statement read. ‘His attempts to rationalize the victimization of workers for exercising their fundamental rights of association and peaceful action are not only nauseating but represent a flagrant misrepresentation of Nigerian Labour Law and International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions.’
NUPENG equivocally labelled Senator Oshiomhole a betrayer of labour movement ideas, describing his latest remarks as ‘the prattle of an apostate, intoxicated by the opium of power and dollarized into betraying the cause of the downtrodden Nigerian workers.’
The union said it was ironic that the man once regarded as the voice of Nigerian workers had now become an advocate for the ‘unconscionable capitalists’ opposed to unionization in their enterprises.
Citing sections of the 1999 Constitution and relevant labour laws, NUPENG reaffirmed that ‘every person in Nigeria: citizens and foreigners alike has the right to freedom of association and assembly,’ and that ‘no employer has the right to interfere with an employee’s freedom to join or form a union.’
The union recalled that Section 9(6) of the Labour Act expressly forbids any contract that attempts to exclude a worker from trade union membership, while ILO Conventions 87 and 98, both ratified by Nigeria, guarantee workers’ rights to form and join unions without interference.
The oil and gas workers’ body dismissed as ‘absurd and archaic’ Oshiomhole’s suggestion of a ‘moratorium on unionization,’ calling it ‘a regression to an unknown phase in human history that has no place in a modern democratic society.’ The union challenged him to ‘state to the whole world the section of the Labour Act or Trade Unions Act where such a slavish provision exists.’
Reacting to Oshiomhole’s criticism of the ongoing Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) strike, NUPENG described his position as ‘an act of profound historical revisionism and political amnesia.’ The union emphasized that PENGASSAN’s solidarity action with its members at the Dangote Refinery, where over 800 engineers were reportedly sacked for unionizing, ‘is a protected legal action under Section 31 of the Trade Unions Act.’
‘The principle that ‘an injury to one is an injury to all’ is the foundational ethic of trade unionism globally,’ NUPENG asserted. ‘For some Undistinguished Senators to now find this principle inconvenient only reveals a trading of once avowed class consciousness for a place among the oppressors.’
The union further expressed dismay that Oshiomhole, who once served several times in the Governing Council of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and in the Committee on Application of Standards that reviews global violations of workers’ rights, could ‘demonstrate such monumental ignorance of trade unionism.’
Referring to a past comment allegedly made by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, NUPENG recalled the description of Oshiomhole as ‘a comrade in the morning and a politician by night,’ suggesting that the statement now rings truer than ever. The union accused the former labour leader of ‘rewriting history to suit his current reactionary advocacy’ and questioned his moral standing to lecture anyone on integrity or strategy.
In a dramatic conclusion, NUPENG declared Senator Oshiomhole persona non grata among Nigerian oil and gas workers for what it described as ‘the Undistinguished denunciation of the PENGASSAN strike against the unjustifiable sack of 800 engineers.’ The statement said the declaration means that ‘henceforth, we will not participate in or lend legitimacy to any event featuring Senator Oshiomhole,’ while urging the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC), and ‘conscionable civil society organisations’ to take note.
‘Oshiomhole’s denunciation and insensitivity to the plight of 800 engineers and his resistance to unionism in the petroleum and gas sector is a dangerous toxin designed to weaken the resolve of the working class and strengthen the class enemy,’ NUPENG warned. ‘We will continue to deploy every legal and industrial instrument available to us, in full compliance with Nigerian law and global labour standards, to secure justice.’
Declaring that Oshiomhole’s position on the PENGASSAN strike ‘qualifies him as the Judas Iscariot of Nigerian trade unionism,’ the union concluded with its enduring slogan: ‘Solidarity Forever! Our solidarity remains constant, for the union makes us strong.’