Recall that the senator holding forth for Edo North Federal Con­stituency had taken to a national television, describing the actions of PENGASSAN and NUPENG as a “reprehensible assault on the fundamental rights of Nigerian workers” and “a gross distortion of established labour laws.”

NUPENG’s National Presi­dent, Comrade Williams Akpore­ha, and General Secretary, Com­rade Afolabi Olawale, both took to a statement to express “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.

According to NUPENG leader­ship, “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 reads.

Continuing, NUPENG said, “His attempts to rationalise the victimisation 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 dollarised into betraying the cause of the downtrodden Nigerian workers.”

According to the union, it is ironic that the man once regarded as the voice of Nigerian workers had now become an advocate for the “unconscionable capitalists” opposed to unionisation 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 unionisation,” 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 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 emphasised that PENGASSAN’s solidarity action with its members at the Dangote Refinery, where over 800 engineers were reportedly sacked for union­ising, “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.