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After five years of socio-economic disruption in the South-East, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has finally and permanently cancelled the mandatory weekly sit-at-home in the region. According to IPOB spokesperson, Emma Powerful, the convicted leader of the organisation, Nnamdi Kanu, had directed the permanent cancellation of the exercise with effect from Monday, February 9, 2026.
“This directive comes directly from Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu himself, who has once again staked everything on the line to ensure that our children return to school every Monday and that our people go about their lawful businesses without fear, intimidation, or molestation,” Mr. Powerful said.
He also stressed that anyone attempting to enforce the sit-at-home henceforth is acting against Mr. Kanu’s directive, adding that “such persons are enemies of our people and the Biafran cause. They will be pursued to the ends of the earth and confronted until they are completely defeated.” Mr. Powerful urged the people to resume normal activities across the South-East without fear.
The IPOB announcement came a day after the Simon Ekpa-led Biafra Liberation Army also declared an end to the sit-at-home. In a video circulating on Facebook, a terror kingpin known as Angel De Makeup, flanked by armed men, said the cancellation followed Mr. Kanu’s directive. “Monday sit-at-home is cancelled from today,” he declared, adding that observance would now be voluntary.
The cancellation of the weekly compulsory holiday by the two IPOB groups came on the heels of the closure of Onitsha Main Market for one week by Anambra State governor, Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, over the traders’ insistence to observe the sit-at-home every Monday. The governor had threatened to convert the market to an educational institution if the traders continued the observance of the sit-at-home order.
The termination of the exercise by Anambra State government and IPOB is good for the South-East economy and social life in the zone. The first sit-at-home exercise was carried out on May 30, 2014 in remembrance of Biafran soldiers and indigenes of the zone who died in the tragic Nigerian civil war of 1967-1970. It recorded substantial compliance by the people who saw it as a way of hounouring their fallen heroes. The directive became an annual event subsequently, and was largely observed in orderly manner. Things started going awry following the re-arrest and repatriation of the IPOB leader from Kenya.
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The controversial weekly Monday sit-at-home directive was issued by the IPOB on August 9, 2021 to prevail on the Federal Government to release Kanu from detention. Each time such order was issued, it usually witnessed near total compliance in most cities in the region. During the period, markets, schools, banks, motor parks, and even worship centres were shut and vehicles withdrawn from the roads, either out of fear or in solidarity to the separatist cause.
Even when the IPOB high command had relaxed the weekly Monday directive, some renegades had brutally enforced it. At a point, some secondary school children were prevented from writing the WASC/GCE examinations by those enforcing the sit-at-home order. There were reports of vehicles being vandalized or set ablaze by the overzealous enforcers. Since the commencement of the exercise, the South-East economy has almost been ruined. For instance, Anambra State alone loses about N19 billion every Monday due to the sit-at-home. Other states in the zone suffered similar losses. Most businesses have reportedly left the South-East to other regions in the country. The South-East has also attracted the least inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the past five years.
Apart from the losses arising from the sit-at-home orders, attacks on residents and security personnel in the region took unprecedented dimensions. Many residents and citizens of the area were killed by overzealous enforcers of the exercise. Dr. Chike Akunyili, the husband of the erstwhile Director-General of the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), late Prof. Dora Akunyili, and his colleague, Dr. Lawrence Ezenwa, were among those killed.
The ending of the Monday sit-at-home is a welcome development. It is laudable that IPOB has seen reasons to permanently end the exercise. We urge the people of the region to go about their normal activities every Monday without fear. Nevertheless, let security agencies ensure adequate security in the region during the transition period and always. The governors of the region must prioritize security and ensure that every citizen is safe in the region.
We urge the youths in the region to embrace peace and use dialogue to settle perceived grievances. Let the federal government address the problems that led to recent youth restiveness in the region by opening dialogue with the separatist agitators. Over 50 years since the end of the Nigeria-Biafra war, there is need for closure. There is urgent need for national healing and reconciliation.
