When Aliko Dangote raised the alarm this week, it was not about foreign competition or government bottlenecks, but about a union. The Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), he alleged, has been collecting as much as ₦50,000 on every truck that loads fuel at the Lekki refinery. Such charges do not stop at the gate, they travel into fuel pump prices, transport fares, food costs, and ultimately, the inflation that suffocates households.
Let us do the math. At 2,000 trucks daily, ₦50,000 per truck translates to ₦100 million per day. Over just five days, that is ₦500 million siphoned, not for infrastructure, not for safety, but for gatekeeping. Half a billion naira in one week, extracted from a single operation. These figures, though conservative, reveal the hidden burden Nigerians shoulder in silence. “This is not union activism, this is extortion,” Dangote warned, and he is right.
If this is the practice in one refinery alone, imagine what will happen to modular refineries across the country whose operations have to compete with the big boys like NNPC, Dangote, or the BUA Group, when they finally complete their refinery project in Cross River State? The problem is systemic. Unions that should negotiate fair wages for their members have turned into rent collectors, taxing progress without providing service. A truck driver is only relevant to them as long as he has a job. If misfortune strikes, an accident, illness, or job loss, does NUPENG step in for his welfare? Evidence suggests otherwise. 
This practice mirrors the same nuisance Nigerians see daily with the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), where thugs in the name of union workers extract multiple levies from drivers without improving roads, vehicles, or safety. It is a cycle of parasitic collection, where unions survive not by empowering workers but by exploiting them and investors alike.
NUPENG should restrict its dues to stipulated deductions from the wages of its members, not from investors who have already risked billions in capital, nor from truck drivers who are simply trying to earn a living. Dangote spent over $19 billion to build his refinery, but NUPENG spent nothing on the 10,000 trucks bought to service it. Yet it positions itself as a silent shareholder, demanding compulsory tithes. Even God, who receives 10 percent of the salaries of His faithful, does not coerce His worshippers to part with them. Why should NUPENG force half a billion naira weekly from workers who never consented? And this is just from one single refinery. Imagine what they’re reeking in, from others, who are not even speaking out!
The Dangote Refinery was meant to be a game changer & turning point, launched in 2013 and commissioned in 2023, as a symbol of self-reliance and industrial rebirth. But when unions and regulators normalize rent seeking at the refinery gate, then we are not refining oil, we are refining & reinforcing corruption. The refinery’s promise of cheaper fuel and economic revival risks being undermined before it even reaches full capacity.
This issue is not about Dangote alone. It is about Nigeria’s business climate, where every milestone is taxed by opportunism. If the government cannot protect a private refinery from arbitrary levies, what chance do smaller investors have? Unless Nigeria curbs this predatory culture, progress will continue to be penalized and corruption will remain the most profitable enterprise. The true refining Nigeria needs today is not only of crude oil but of its people, governance, its unions, and its conscience.
By ESEKU Olufemi Samson
