Sit-at-home: Businesses return to Enugu

From Jude Chinedu, Enugu

There was a gradual return of business activities in Enugu state yesterday following the ban on the Monday sit-at-home by the state Governor, Peter Mbah.

The Governor who monitored the level of compliance to the ban on Monday witnessed a relative beehive of activities in various parts of the state.

This was even as Enugu traders and residents told the governor that they were tired of sitting at home, describing the order as a plague killing their businesses and household economies.

While commending the level of compliance in most places visited, Mbah warned that traders, who continue to sit at home from Monday, 24th July stood to lose their shops to serious-minded businessmen.

He said adequate security had been provided, observing that there had not been any incident of attack since the ban on sit-at-home in June.

Mbah, who took time to interact with business owners, shoppers, traders as well as civil servants at the State Secretariat, said “it should never be heard that we were cowed because of the threat of violence by these criminals”, noting that “the poverty that will befall us for sitting at home will kill us even faster”.

“We are losing over N10bn every Monday that we sit at home. Enough is enough. This foolishness must end and it must end now. We cannot marginalise ourselves and still complain of marginalisation.

“So, we must say no to sit-at-home because what it means is that we are destroying our employment, our economy, and our GDP. We must erase it from our memories. We should see it as our shameful past, which we do not want to remember. We must put it behind us and forge ahead, ensuring that we work every working day of the week”, he urged Enugu people.

Meanwhile, the market leaders and business owners have assured the governor that they were now ready for full compliance, saying they were already sick and tired of the Monday-sit-at-home.

At the meeting with the Ogbete traders, President of Enugu State Amalgamated Traders Association, Comrade Stephen Aniagu, assured the governor that they had already agreed to commence full business, saying all shops would be open from next Monday.

Also, the leader of Abakpa Nike Market, Bernard Anike, also assured the governor that they had since started complying with the ban of sit-at-home

At the Spring of Life International Schools, where full academic activities were on, Mr. Dominic Okoro, who came to complete his child’s registration, told reporters that “restoring academic activities on Mondays will help the children”, expressing happiness at the development.