Dangote, NUPENG face-off: ITUC-Africa warns of Africa-wide mobilisation over anti-union practices

The African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation, ITUC-Africa, has declared firm solidarity with the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, in their resistance to what it described as the “persistent anti-union and anti-worker practices” of the Dangote Group.
In a statement signed by its General Secretary, Akhator Odigie, and issued from its headquarters in Lome, Togo, on September 8, 2025, ITUC-Africa warned that it is on red alert for Africa-wide mobilisation should Dangote persist in undermining workers’ rights.
According to the organisation, “The Dangote Group’s continued union-busting, casualisation, unsafe working conditions, and wage suppression are a blatant violation of: ILO Convention 87 (Freedom of Association), ILO Convention 98 (Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining), ILO Convention 155 (Occupational Safety and Health), and Nigeria’s Constitution (Section 40) and Labour Act.”
ITUC-Africa described these practices as not only an assault on Nigerian workers but also a continental threat that sets “a dangerous precedent of corporate monopoly undermining labour rights across Africa.”
The continental labour body demanded: immediate cessation of anti-union practices by the Dangote Group, urgent unionisation of all workers across Dangote operations, federal government of Nigeria to sanction and enforce compliance with labour laws, and African regional bodies, including the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), to hold corporations accountable under the Decent Work Agenda and the AU’s Agenda 2063.
Sounding a note of warning, Odigie said: “This statement is also to officially put the Dangote Group and other African Conglomerates and Multinational Enterprises doing business in Africa on notice that ITUC-Africa, together with its affiliates in the African countries where these businesses operate, will double down on ensuring that they respect rights at work. We are on red alert for continental mobilisation against this persistent anti-union posture of the Dangote Group.”
The labour group affirmed its readiness to act in solidarity with Nigerian workers if the alleged anti-labour posture persists.
“ITUC-Africa will mobilise continental solidarity actions should the Dangote Group persist in its violations. We affirm that an injury to one is an injury to all,” the statement read.
The warning comes amid growing labour tensions in Nigeria, where NUPENG and others , including the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), have already threatened strikes over Dangote’s alleged anti-union stance.