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11 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 9/1998
Nigerian oil workers' leaders Milton Dabibi and Frank Kokori are among trade unionists invited to take part in a UN-backed world conference on oil refining this month.
Normally, there would be nothing unusual in that. They are, after all, the elected representatives of Nigeria's oil workers.
Jailed oilworkers' leaders Milton Dabibi (left) and Frank Kokori.
Will they be freed in time for the UN-backed conference?
The only problem is that they are both in jail. Kokori has been detained without charge or trial by the Nigerian military regime since 1994, and Dabibi since January 1996.
The oil refining conference, to be held on 23-27 February in Geneva by the UN's International Labour Organisation, will bring together representatives of the world's governments, oil companies and oil unions. In line with usual practice, the ILO Governing Body has invited named employer and worker representatives from the countries involved, on the basis of nominations submitted by its employer and worker groups.
Together with Milton Dabibi and Frank Kokori, Nigerian government and oil company representatives have been invited to take part in the ILO conference, officially titled the Tripartite Meeting on Employment and Industrial Relations Issues in Oil Refining.
But if the Nigerian oil workers' elected leaders are not let out of jail to attend, the Nigerian delegation may find its credentials under challenge by the world's oil worker representatives, led by the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). Both the Nigerian unions are ICEM affiliates.
Frank Kokori, General Secretary of oil and gas workers' union NUPENG, and Milton Dabibi, General Secretary of oil and gas workers' union PENGASSAN, are recognised by Amnesty International as prisoners of conscience.
Both men have been refused access to lawyers and to their unions.
Dabibi and Kokori are now in very poor health and are being denied medical treatment. A number of other detainees have died in Nigerian jails over the past few months.
The world trade union movement as a whole has called on Nigerian Head of State General Sani Abacha to release Milton Dabibi and Frank Kokori without further delay. The union internationals have put the Nigerian government on notice of targeted action against Nigerian oil exports if the two men are not freed.
World union, employer and government delegates within the ILO have repeatedly ruled that Nigeria is flouting international Conventions on basic labour rights.
Topics at this month's Geneva meeting will include how to promote freedom of association and collective bargaining in the oil refining industry. The views of the Nigerian government and employer delegates, if they are still there, should prove fascinating. The Nigerian oil workers' unions are currently under direct government administration, while their elected leaders rot in jail.
The Nigerian economy is almost entirely dependent on oil exports. Can the country's authorities now move fast enough to prevent a major embarrassment in full view of the world's governments, oil companies and oil unions?