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Today, August 20, 2022 makes it exactly one year and eleven days since the Indegenous People of Biafra, IPOB, imposed the sit at home on the entire South East geopolitical zone to protest the arrest and detention of it leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu by the Nigerian government.

Kanu is standing trial before the Federal High Court, Abuja, for alleged treasonable felony.

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At its inception, the leadership of IPOB made it clear that the weekly sit at home would continue until Kanu was released from detention. Later, the organization declared that the sit at home would also include days Mazi Kanu would appear in court.

In the region, therefore, markets, schools, transportation, banks and government offices are forced to be under lock on Mondays. Also, if there is a public holiday, the number of days for transacting business is further reduced in the region.

Initially, many people thought the sit at home would just last for few weeks, not knowing that it would turn out to become a norm. As if that was not enough, IPOB began enforcement of the order and those found outside their homes on Mondays had unpleasant stories to tell.

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The resultant effect was arresting people and sometimes killing the defaulters. Indeed, the enforcement brought fears in the region, thereby forcing people to comply. Since then, the South East has become a ghost region on Mondays and the days Kanu would appear in court, with all commercial activities shut down.

Perhaps IPOB thought that the introduction of the order would put pressure on the federal government to release Kanu unconditionally as soon as possible, but this was not to be. Kanu has stayed in detention for over one year.

It was indeed in an effort to enforce the sit at home that unknown gunmen surfaced in the region and in addition to killing people, the gunmen have contributed in no small measure in destroying the economy of South East.

As it stands in the region, work days have been reduced from five days a week to four days and sometimes three days if Kanu was to appear in court. What this amounts to is that the South East unofficially now operates the four market days in Igbo land, instead of the normal five days working week, no thanks to the sit at home.

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Although IPOB said it has officially suspended the sit at home following complaints by the people, some overzealous youths have continued to threaten those who dare to step out of their houses on Mondays. They are criminals and no longer Biafra agitators.

Enforcers of the sit at home have been attacking traders who attempted to open shops in any part of the region . They had killed many people, burnt vehicles seen on the roads and set ablaze goods worth millions of naira on Mondays.

At a stage, they started using the social media to threaten people by warning them to be prepared to receive whatever treatment they might meet if they came out on Mondays. Even when the IPOB spokesman, Emma Powerful announced that people should go about their normal businesses everyday of the week, a splinter group in the organization has continued to give a counter order.

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The sit at home is so effective that even security operatives desert their checkpoints on Mondays for fear of being attacked.

Recently, Governor Chukwuma Soludo, a professor of Economics and former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, said his state, Anambra, loses N19.6 billion to the sit-at-home every Monday.

“Every day there is a “sit at home”, the poor masses lose an estimated N19.6 billion in Anambra alone.

“Due to the protracted breakdown of law and order, businesses are relocating outside Igboland, with growing unemployment, and traders who used to come to shop in Onitsha, Aba etc, going elsewhere. Who is losing?

“By forcing our children—the future of Igboland—to stay at home instead of being in school, while even the critically sick people (including pregnant women) cannot go to the hospital, we harm our future,” Soludo lamented.

On April 4, 2022, Governor Soludo held a meeting with the stakeholders during which it was announced that sit at home had been cancelled. After the meeting, the governor said:

“Following the unanimous agreement of our leaders across board and the entire body of Christ, I am pleased to inform our people that Monday, April 4, 2022, marks the official end to the ‘Monday sit-at-home’ in Anambra State.

Although the governor’s announcement raised the people’s hope, such hope was dashed as markets, shops, banks, schools and filling stations remained closed for business the following Monday. And the situation has remained so.

Also speaking in the vein sometime ago, Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State said the South-East region loses so much money each time it observes the sit at home order directed by IPOB.

“We are destroying our economy. The sit-at-home is not happening in South West, the north is not sitting at home. Each time we sit at home, we lose over N10 billion in our economy,” Umahi had said.

Some businessmen have also been lamenting the effect of the sit at home. “Monday sit-at-home has destroyed our businesses, a trader at the Eke Awka market”, Mr. Innocent Okoye said.

(Vanguard)