The Weekly Sit-at-Home Order and the Effect on The Economy of South Eastern Nigeria.

De Erudite Communications
10th August, 2021.

It’s no longer news that the people of south eastern part of Nigeria and some other nearby south-southern states has over time made the culture of sitting at home on 30th-31st of May of every year in commemoration of the declaration of the defunct Republic of Biafra in May, 1967 by Late General Emeka Ojukwu a yearly routine.

However, the recent re-arrest of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People Of Biafra(IPOB), a group who are the champion of the modern day agitation for the creation of a sovereign state of Biafra from the Nigerian state has engulfed the south eastern part of Nigeria in a state of political and security quagmire.

Nevertheless, the latest issue at hand being the declaration by IPOB that every monday of every week starting from this month of August will be sit-at-home all over the southeast zone. This has brought a lot of tension in the zone as citizens fear for their lives should the situation get violent. Yesterday, being monday, the 9th of August the sit-at-home order was indeed obeyed, largely in the south east. However, this came with a lot of losses as business activities couldn’t go on as well as some human losses as IPOB supporters were alleged to have gone violent on persons perceived to have flouted the order.

All the major markets in South-East such as Onitsha Main Market, Ochanja Market Onitsha, Motor Parts Market Nkpor, Ogidi Building Material, Ariaria Aba, Ogbete Main Market Enugu, Douglas Market and Eke Ukwu Market Owerri etc did not open and this means huge losses to the zone as the combined quantity of trade in these markets on daily bases amounts to several billions.

The Ohanaeze Ndiigbo, the apex sociocultural body of Igbos in Nigeria has also cautioned the IPOB to forgo the every-monday sit-at-home plans in order not to further cripple the economy of the zone as well alienate the zone from the rest of the country as the economy of the zone is already struggling with declinations since the advent of armed agitations and altercations with government security in recent times.