By Charles Ogbu (Twitter @RealCharlesOgbu)
Nothing in recent time has exposed Ndigbo to ridicule more than the senseless and self-destructive Sit-At-Home that sees part of the Southeast barren of economic activities every Monday. What we have lost as a people to this self-inflicted madn£ss can not be quantified.
Many businesses have left AlaIgbo. Our Aku-Ruo-Uno (Think Home Initiative) has suffered stunted progress over this. Our kids have had their academic lives disrupted. Even our prestige as Igbos has suffered a great deal. Before now, when your brother living in the North complains of hostility from his host, you’d gladly encourage him to move down to the East but not anymore. An average Igbo today will prefer to endure the state-sponsored humiliation of being denied the right to vote in Lagos to the other option of moving down to the East where he will risk his children having their academic lives violated and Monday, the most important day for any businessman taken from him.
This should humble us enough to want to use every MEANS NECESSARY to end this madness. Look at the speed with which our businesses are moving to Asaba? Look at all the taunting of “can you campaign in the southeast on Monday” during the election?
What more damage do we need to surfer before we resolve to end this idiocy? The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) which earlier declared the sit-at-home as a protest against the detention of their leader, Nnamdi Kanu has since canceled it and made it clear that anyone seen enforcing it should be treated as a criminal. Nnamdi Kanu, through his lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor has since distanced himself from the sit-at-home. So it should be clear to all that this has since become a criminal enterprise used by opportunistic criminal groups to carry out their nefarious activities.
And of all the Southeast states, Enugu is the only state where Mondays witness virtually zero economic and academic activity.
Awka, the capital of Anambra state DOES NOT sit at home on Mondays. And we must give it to “our respected elder brother” governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo who has never waivered in his determination to fight these criminals. Owerri the capital of Imo state DOES NOT sit-at-home on Mondays and neither does Abakaliki, the capital of Ebonyi state where Simon Ekpa, the self proclaimed leader of the group currently enforcing the sit-at-home, comes from. Even Umuahia, the capital of Abia, the home state of Kanu opens for businesses on Mondays.
The only state where markets, schools, filling stations, banks, etc. don’t open for business on Mondays is Enugu. Only public buses and private cars ply Enugu roads on Mondays and to be fair, they do this unmolested.
Since this year, there has not been even a single report of attacks on anyone for being on the road on Mondays. You can drive to any part of the state on Monday or on public transport which is always available, without any security incident.
Enugu can easily reclaim their Mondays IF THE PEOPLE TRULY RESOLVE TO. What Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah needs to do is meet with relevant stakeholders like the market leaders, banks chiefs, road transport leaders, Keke drivers, the Church, etc. WITH ASSURANCES AND GUARANTEES in the event of losses to goods and property (This is very important). And I like to believe he must have been doing this. If the aforementioned groups resolve to take back their Mondays, it will be done. Gradually, maybe, but it will be done.
But the most important factor here is that the people must truly agree to re-take their Monday. This nonsense has made Ndigbo a laughing stock before the rest of the country.
We’re nowhere in the Nigerian public service. We’ve been schemed out politically. How can we continue to self-destruct in this one area (business, commerce, and industry), where we have excelled? How can we continue to take poison, locking ourselves in on Mondays of all days, and expect those who hate us to die? Our fathers must be rolling in their graves. Who did this to us? The self immolation cannot continue if we really want to make progress as a people.
And the federal government must demonstrate that it does not have any interest in the economic strangulation of the southeast by releasing Nnamdi Kanu if only to conclusively obliterate the last excuse under which these criminals are hiding to carry out their acts of terror and banditry. Not less than two courts of competent jurisdiction have severally ruled that Kanu should be released. But instead of obeying those rulings, the FG chosed the rigorous and very long process of appeal which would keep the IPOB leader in detention till the end of the process even when his health continues to deteriorate. Meanwhile, IN THE SAME COUNTRY, arrested Boko Haram terrorists continue to enjoy amnesty while being treated like kings even as the group continues its harvest of blood against Nigerians and her security operatives. This type of double standard and hate-induced institutional bias does nothing but fuel the agitation in the southeast. This is why some people hold the view that the government is deliberately and systematically destabilizing the region.
But this is also why we as Ndigbo must rise up and use everything at our disposal to save ourselves. As our people would say, Onye a julu o na aju onwe ya? (He who is rejected, does he reject himself?)
