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It is not in doubt that the South-East region witnessed peace during the 2025 Christmas celebration and the 2026 New Year season. Most people from the region who had not visited their villages for four years or more due to insecurity did so during the period under review. Masquerade displays, dances, burials and weddings took place in the region without disruptions. People moved freely without molestation even on Mondays in some parts of the region, an indication that the weekly sit-at-home order is no longer as ferociously enforced as before. Even where it is enforced, people move freely and even trade as from 3pm. The mass return of people was massive in many states in the region and there were no ugly incidents during the period and now.
Arising from the foregoing, the recent closure of Onitsha main market by the governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Charles Soludo, because the traders have refused to open their shops on Mondays, should be condemned in strong terms. Soludo’s action is mindless and ill-advised. It is punitive to the traders who close their shops for fear of insecurity and possible attacks and deaths. Closing the Onitsha main market for a week or one month or indefinitely as the governor has boasted is not a solution to the problem. It can even worsen it. It will ruin the economy of the region and businesses which Soludo intends to protect. It is not yet late for Soludo to rescind the decision and allow peace to reign in the market. Let the governor and the traders dialogue over the matter before it degenerates to anarchy.
It is unarguable that the Monday sit-at-home has badly hurt the South-East economy, caused low flow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the region as well as relocation of businesses from the South-East to other regions in the country. It has also affected education, development and governance in the region. According to a new report by SBM Intelligence, the South-East has lost about N7.6 trillion in four years due to the enforcement of the sit-at-home orders by the Indigenous people of Biafra (IPOB). The loss might be higher than what SBM Intelligence has reported. While the group has reportedly stopped the weekly holiday order, some people and groups sympathetic to its cause still enforce it in some places.
The Onitsha main market is the biggest market in the South-East. It is one of the biggest markets in the country. It was once regarded as the largest market in West Africa. Onitsha main market represents the Igbo spirit of commerce, enterprise, industry, creativity and resilience. Onitsha main market is the mother or precursor of similar markets in Igbo land. It was this market that gave birth to the popular Onitsha Market Literature, which gave birth to literary creativity in Onitsha and the region. Onitsha main market is very dear to Ndigbo. Although located in Anambra State, it is not entirely an Anambra thing. All Igbo and other Nigerians trade in Onitsha. Peoples from Central Africa and West Africa trade in Onitsha main market. Its closure will affect inter-regional and inter-African trade. Let Soludo be mindful of this factor.
Governor Charles Soludo has no right to close the market simply because the traders refused to open it on Mondays in obedience to the sit-at-home order. The traders can decide which day to open the market or not. Let the governor reconsider its closure of the market for seven days and open it. Closing the market for one week cannot resolve any problem the governor intends to solve. It is likely to compound it. The earlier the governor opens the market, the better for the traders, the state and the society.
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Ending the weekly holiday will enhance commerce and socio-economic development in Anambra and other states in the South-East region. However, closing the Onitsha main market for a week or more will not lead to the realization of that aspiration so soon. It requires political maturity and a wider consultation within the region with major stakeholders to resolve the intractable problem that has almost ruined the South-East economy. The five South-East governors, past governors and legislators, leaders of thought, businessmen, professionals and other stakeholders should meet over this matter. Peace in the South-East is everybody’s business. It is not something government alone can achieve. It is also not achievable by fiat or by violence.
Apart from insecurity and bad politics in the region, bad governance and non-transparent electoral system in the South-East have added to its underdevelopment and ruination. When the peoples’ votes do not count, when the wishes of the people are trampled upon, when democratic dividends are denied the people, the result will be violence, chaos and anarchy. In fact, bad governance is why the South-East is not yet developed like its peers in the country. Bad governance can explain why people from the region migrate to other regions for business, employment and other pursuits.
The governors of the region must be intentional about governance, development and making the region suitable for habitation and industrial development. Only the people from the South-East will develop it, outsiders will not do it for us. Our people have received needless insults from some other regions because of our politicians’ disinterestedness to develop our region. Our properties have been demolished because of this and hatred. We have been denied appointments and even NYSC postings because of hatred and this factor as well.
The non-democratic governance in the local governments in the region has alienated most of the people from government and governance. It has created ungoverned spaces and general insecurity in the region’s unprotected rural areas. If the five governors of the South-East can allow real governance in the local governments and allow the elected officials run the affairs of the local governments, the region will experience quantum socio-economic development and insecurity will be done away with. The absence of governance at the grassroots has left a vacuum being filled by those outside government. On the closure of Onitsha main market, the traders should engage the governor and discuss with him on the way forward. At the same time, the governor should dialogue productively with them and open the market forthwith.
