Monday Eze 
The news of the forceful closure of the Onitsha Main Market by the Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Charles Soludo, over the refusal of traders in the market to open shops on Mondays at their obvious perils was a big surprise for many.
Since the arrest and prolonged trial of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the practice of closing shops and businesses on some days in many states and cities of the Southeast has evolved as a form of protest over Kanu’s dramatic trial.
Initially, this practice known as sit-athome was allegedly ordered by the top brass of IPOB on some days to honour the memories of fallen Biafran heroes and heroines; and especially on Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s court days.
The initial resistance to the sit-athome order by the business communities of the respective Southeast states, nay the entire nation, was often met with fatal consequences. Gun-wielding men christened ‘unknown gunmen’ usually appeared in markets, roads and public places shooting, killing and inflicting harm on people who disobeyed the sitat-home order.
The storyline often issued by the Nigerian security agencies had, at best, always been reactive: Promises to track down the non-state actors; a charge on citizens to go about their lawful engagements without fear; and the evaporating assertion that Nigerian security agencies had taken full control of the situation.
Before long, many innocent lives and limbs were lost, wares and property worth billions of naira were burnt or destroyed and many businesses were forced to wind up in the sit-at-home enforcement-resistance battle in Anambra, Imo, Enugu and Abia states. Following the inability of the states to control the menaces of the non-state actors or offer tangible protection to the masses in those Southeast states, the people’s resistance crumbled and they succumbed to the sit-at-home order.
This development served as fillip to other fringe non-state actors, emboldening them to issue indiscriminate sit-athome orders, the height of which was the declaration of a sit-at-home order for two weeks by a splinter group of IPOB. Many times, IPOB had to put up rebuttals, dissociating itself from certain sit-at-home orders. At a point, it appeared settled that Mondays and Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s court days were sit-at-home days.
So on those days, businessmen, school teachers and pupils/ students as well as civil servants either sit at home or operate at ‘half mast’ in Anambra, Imo, Enugu and Abia states. Travellers from other parts of the country seemed to have equally taken “judicial notice” of this, hence, roads in these four states have continued to be lonely and abandoned on Mondays and sit-at-home days. Ebonyi State is the only southeast state that successfully stood up against the endorsement of the sit-at-home orders from day one.
The former governor of Ebonyi State, Engr. David Umahi, did not hide his aversion for non-state actors and rallied the people’s support to halt the enforcement of the order in Ebonyi State. His successor, Builder Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, has consolidated so much on that path that sit-at-home sounds like a story from distant lands to Ebonyi people.
Soludo’s failure to provide adequate security to enable businesses open in Anambra State on Mondays cannot be remedied by executive fiat
The sit-at-home debacle and other security challenges in Anambra State began before Prof. Soludo came to power in the state, but it is on record that the security challenges of Anambra State has been on the increase. In early 2025, Governor Soludo contrived a joint security outfit known as ‘Operation Udo G’achi’.
So far, the security outfit has succeeded in identifying and demolishing many kidnappers’ dens and hotels that served as hideouts for the criminal kingpins in Nnewi, Oraifite and Ozubulu. Soludo’s Agu N’eche Mba was said to have also destroyed an ESN/IPOB militia camp in Aguluezechukwu, Aguata Local Government Area, recovering weapons and improvised explosive devices a few months ago.
All these achievements notwithstanding, Governor Suludo’s security outfit seems to lack cohesive surveillance structure to track the massive human traffic in and out of Onitsha and the rest of Anambra State; and a rapid response squad to handle the often precise and fatal sporadic attacks which non-state actors usually levy against violators of the sit-at-home orders.
That is the unspoken reason behind the reluctance of the Onitsha market traders as regards the executive order to resume businesses on Mondays in Onitsha Main Market and in other parts of Anambra State. Governor Soludo and his team know the commitment of Anambra citizens, especially the Onitsha traders to their businesses.
The truth is that once the Sodudo administration puts adequate security measures in place to guarantee the security of their lives, limbs and property, they would love to open shops on every week day including Sundays! Governor Soludo should do first things first by providing security protection for the traders before asking them to put their life at obvious fatal risk by opening shops on Mondays.
Soludo’s failure to provide adequate security to enable businesses open in Anambra State on Mondays cannot be remedied by executive fiat. The professor of economics should humbly consult his counterpart in Ebonyi State for ideas and stop advertising his ineptitude as governor of Anambra State.
