Beyond the reopening of Onitsha Main Market

After a one-week forced recess, traders resumed business at Onitsha Main Market in Anambra State on Monday. Their holiday followed the sudden shutdown of the market by the state governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, over non-compliance to his directive that the market and other public institutions must remain open on Mondays. As has become customary every Monday, the traders did not open their shops in obedience to the sit-at-home order originally given by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in August 2021. The order is a form of protest against the arrest, rendition, and detention of the IPOB Leader, Nnamdi Kanu, in June 2021.

Soludo’s anger was that the traders failed to listen to his repeated appeals to open on Mondays to save the state from the economic losses occasioned by the sit-at-home. He described the situation as economic sabotage against the state. Anambra State government estimates that the state loses N8 billion every week while the entire South-East loses N19.6 billion to the sit-at-home. Soludo threatened to send bulldozers to bring down the market or revoke their ownership of the shops if traders failed to comply after the one-week shutdown.

The governor also warned private school owners to open their schools on Mondays or have them locked up by the government. He said he would meet and discuss with banks and petrol station owners to also open on Mondays. The Onitsha traders trooped to the streets to protest the shutdown last week. Their blockade of the Onitsha Head Bridge caused serious traffic snarl in the area and the neighbouring Asaba in Delta State. This was despite the heavy deployment of soldiers and policemen at strategic locations.

We sympathize with Anambra and other South-East states over the economic losses incurred each time the sit-at-home is observed. We also commiserate with all those who have lost their loved ones to the mindless killings by gunmen who usually enforce the order. Gladly, the market reopened on Monday without any incident. Nevertheless, there is need to tread with caution. Soludo was clearly high-handed in his efforts to keep the markets open. That the Onitsha Main Market belongs to the state government and that he has the right to revoke the ownership of the shops are not contentious.  

The issue is that the traders are private businessmen who pay their levies to the government and should be accorded some rights in the conduct of their business. They did not close their shops for the fun of it. And we do not believe they do it every Monday to sabotage the economy of the state. Ordinarily, the traders also incur great losses by closing their shops on Mondays. What propelled the continued observance of the sit-at-home was fear. IPOB had since cancelled the exercise. But some renegades have continued to enforce it in the South-East. A number of unlucky ones have been killed just for venturing out on Monday to do one business or the other.

In 2023, Soludo had similarly compelled traders to open their shops. Market leaders were particularly enjoined to ensure compliance. In obedience to the governor, the Chairman of Mgbuka Amazu, also known as Ngbuka Obosi/Old Motor Spare Parts Markets, Chief Francis Enibe, opened his shop on September 25, 2023. Soon after he opened the shop, gunmen invaded his place and kidnapped him. His whereabouts remain unknown up until date. It is not certain if the state government compensated the family in any way.

Soludo has assured the traders of adequate security. He said he provided about 150 security operatives in the Onitsha Main Market. This is good. We hope the step is enough to keep the gunmen who operate in a guerrilla style permanently at bay. We also hope there are enough security personnel to cover all the nooks and crannies of the state henceforth. The people have undergone different traumas of life and should be spared another orgy of insecurity in the state.

The governor should constantly dialogue with traders and other stakeholders in the state with a view to finding lasting solution to the sit-at-home menace. We also believe that when the excitement about the sit-at-home subsides, the issue will die naturally.

The issue demands political solution as well. If the jailing of Kanu is reversed, the problem will significantly stop. Yoruba nation agitator, Mr. Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, was delisted from the Federal Government wanted list on account of the intervention of some prominent traditional rulers from the South-West, especially the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Rashidi Ladoja.  A similar thing can be done for Kanu, who is currently serving a life sentence at Sokoto Prison.

There is need for South-East leaders to come together to tackle the sit-at-home problem once and for all. No one state can do it alone. If the problem is not solved in all the states, there is a tendency for criminals to infiltrate a better secured state from the other and cause havoc.