Oil workers and the rest of us

Oil workers and the rest of us

Only last week, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) dropped a hint that its members would begin a nationwide strike on November 20, 2000. They only said when the strike would begin, but did not mention when it would end. Fortunately, reasons prevailed and PENGASSAN called off the strike before the appointed day, citing the intervention of Gaius Obaseki and other well-placed Nigerians as reason for the rethink.

Whichever, Nigerians were relieved that another season of fuel scarcity was averted. But then, it is time we looked at the relationship between these oil workers and the rest of us. There is nothing wrong in a trade union applying the strike option to settle scores with employers. In fact it is an inalienable right of trade unionism in Nigeria and elsewhere. But the rest of Nigerians reserve the right to drive their cars and move from one place to another. Which is to say that the frequency of industrial upheavals in the oil sector is becoming something of grave concern to ordinary Nigerians.

This year alone, fuel distribution has been disrupted over a dozen and half times either due to a protesting NUPENG or PENGASSAN. And each time, the entire nation would be held hostage and Nigerians would go literally on their knees, begging these oil workers to liberate them. The way the oil workers have carried on so far makes it seems as if they have grudges against the rest of us. They have never restricted their battles to their constituencies. When an oil company sacks two or more workers, NUPENG will serve a notice of strike. They will threaten that unless their sacked colleagues are recalled, the rest of Nigerians shall be starved of fuel. If NUPENG or PENGASSAN has a bone to pick with Shell Petroleum for instance, there is absolutely no reason to involve the rest of us. They can do everything to cripple the operations of Shell and not the running of the national economy.

Somehow, these two unions have been allowed to grow too powerful and now they have indeed metamorphosed into the proverbial Frankestein Monster. And as they turn rather too frequently against Nigerians, the danger is real that their continued onslaught will someday touch off crisis of unimaginable consequences.

Not long ago, NUPENG had mobilised its members for a national show down. When people asked what was its aims this time around, the union officials explained that they were going on strike to force the Lagos State Commissioner for Public Transportation to release a fuel tanker that was impounded for obstructing free flow of traffic on a busy route. There is a law in Lagos which stipulates that a broken down vehicle must be removed from traffic route within a specified time. If a tanker breaks down and it is not removed as stipulated by the law, it is simply an offence and the offender must be made to face the law. That is how all decent societies are run. Any other method will bring about anarchy.

In fact this precisely was the explanation of the transport commissioner. He insisted that the tanker owner pay the N10,000 fine stipulated by the law. NUPENG bluntly refused because the union like the English crown is slightly above the laws of the land. So that law and order would be maintained and a wrong precedent not set, the commissioner offered to pay the fine. That also saved Nigerians from the agony of sleeping in filling stations and scouting for fuel among societal miscreants called "Area Boys".

Wittingly or unwittingly, we have come to accept that these very powerful oil workers cannot be wrong. If a tanker driver has a small encounter with another road user and in the ensuing imbroglio he sustains a minor injury on his left hand, he leaves immediately for NUPENG headquarters to brief the secretary general who will in turn serve notice of strike. To avert crisis, Governor Tinubu of Lagos State may elect to pay some compensation to the tanker driver. It could even be a more ridiculous case of a tanker driver losing his girl friend to a more prosperous contender. The cuckolded driver may cry to NUPENG which will now order a strike action to reclaim the deffecting lady. With due respect, the atmosphere was not this rowdy a few years back.

The police do not stop tanker drivers for routine checks. Such "disturbances" could provoke strike action. And no motorist in Nigeria wants fuel scarcity. The oil workers are lords. They are also conquerors, in fact becoming more adventurous than the armies of Alexander the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte. In their battle with the cattle rearers over the ownership of Malu Road, they won hands down and caused the butchers to be relocated almost 30 kilometres away from Apapa in Lagos. Consequently, Malu Road was changed to Mobil or (NUPENG) Road. No victory could be greater and sweeter.

Even that has not settled the contest for Apapa. When OPC struck recently in Apapa area and a few tankers just as many other vehicles were consumed in the resultant inferno, the nation was brought to a standstill for two agonising weeks. Everybody including NNPC Managing Director Gaius Obaseki and President Olusegun Obasanjo begged these oil workers to have a rethink. The next stage may very well involve the relocation of the entire residents of Malu changed to Mobil Road to somewhere else so that NUPENG can operate without hindrance.

Perhaps for fear of incuring the wrath of these cripplers of national life, nobody is prepared to say the truth. But the truth must be said even at the risk of another nationwide fuel scarcity. And the truth is that these so-called oil workers have since become urban terrorists operating almost unchallenged. They should also be told that they are not the only workers in Nigeria. We equally have bank workers, media workers like my humble self, government workers, hotel workers, school workers, hospital workers, etc. etc. If all bank workers go on strike at one fifth the frequency at which these oil workers go on strike I am sure the country will become paralysed. A few years ago, United Bank for Africa (UBA) sacked almost its entire workforce. Heavens did not fall and banking did not come to a halt even for one second in Nigeria.

Sacking of workers by their employers is not a big deal. It happens everyday around the world. But people talk to people and people understand. When The Guardian was in similar situation only two months ago, the entire media industry in Nigeria did not come to a stop. It was managed within Rutam premises. So also, the alleged sackings at consolidated oil, Belbob, Petrolog and Lonestar should be managed within those premises. It must have nothing to do with the rest of Nigerians many of whom do not even have jobs in the first place.

I repeat, a situation of perfect industrial harmony is simply a utopia that is not attainable any where in the world including developed and developing economies as well as capitalist and socialist economies. Energy is a critical sector. Subjecting it to these incessant dislocations will only lead to eventual doom especially with the anaemic economy of Nigeria.

The oil workers should also be reminded that except for our politicians who feed fat at the public expense, every worker in Nigeria is equally aggrieved. Mechanisms for sorting out industrial grievances are fairly many in Nigeria. Strike in fact is the last not the first option. Even if strike becomes completely inevitable, there should be an underlying sense of patriotism such that the nation does not lose everything to restore a handful individuals back in their jobs. The way NUPENG and PENGASSAN wave strike notices at Nigerians have become something of a blackmail. And it is fair to suggest that there is more to it than meets the eye. Afterall when fuel becomes scarce as a result of their strike action, it is the NUPENG and PANGASSAN members who provide the products at the black market where helpless motorists buy same at highly prohibitive prices.

I have only heard of a nation wide strike of electricity workers twice since I was born. The first was during Alhaji Shehu Shagari government and the second was in Babangida's time. In the later case, 11 NEPA men went to jail. It has not happened again. That is not to say that all is well with NEPA workers. It is just that the NEPA workers have been compelled to place national interest over their own interest.

To cut the story short, these oil workers NUPENG and PENGASSAN who have since equated trade unionism with strike actions, should be told to give Nigerians a break. I mean a real break. If they choose to go on the war path, Nigerians may be forced to meet them at the battle front. And our battle plan may include prevailing on the National Assembly to pass a law to permanently put them on the peace path. They have right to go on strike. Nigerians have right to steady fuel supply. Their own right should stop where ours begin.