By Uche Anichukwu

Gradually, but assuredly, Enugu State is roaring back to life from over two years of total lockdown on Mondays occasioned by the compulsory Monday sit-at-home declared by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) on July 30, 2021 to protest the extraordinary rendition of their leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, from Kenya and to press home their demand for his unconditional release.

In a statement by its spokesman, Emma Powerful, IPOB stated: “We declare every Monday sit-at-home throughout Biafra land until our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, regains his freedom.

“This peaceful protest will continue once every week until our demands are met. We are going to cripple the Nigerian economy until they free him.

“Consequently, all institutions; public and private, transport companies, schools, banks, markets, airports and sea ports in Biafra land must shut down every Monday beginning from August 9.”

However, what was supposed to be a peaceful and voluntary civil disobedience, took a turn for the worse as gunmen took to the streets to enforce it, visiting mayhem, in broad daylight, on people who ventured out to look for their daily bread in what many have described as self-annihiliation of Igbo by Igbo.

Besides the grave damage to the psyche and reputation of Ndigbo, the region has become a ghost of itself. Businesses continue to relocate. New ones are not springing up.

The International Centre for Investigative Report (ICIR) puts the region’s losses to sit-at-home at $12.215 billion or N5.375 trillion.

Yet, despite repeatedly annulling Monday sit-at-home and IPOB washing its hands off it, a militia group, Auto Pilot, allegedly loyal to a faction of IPOB led by Finland-based Simon Ekpa, have continued to enforce it with banal brutality.

In all of these, however, Enugu State has been the worse off. Whereas Umuahia, Abakaliki, where Mazi Nnamdi kanu and Simon Ekpa hails from, respectively, as well as Awka and Owerri bubble with activities on Mondays, Enugu was the only capital where government and private businesses are shut down on Mondays. But that was before the coming of the Dr. Peter Mbah administration.

Mbah, who had promised, during the campaigns, to build Enugu from a $4.4 billion to $30 billion describes Monday sit-at-home as the big elephant in the room, which must be taken out.

According to him, Enugu State loses N10 billion every Monday that people observed sit-at-home, endangering the $30 billion GDP target is allowed to fester.

Consequently, on June 1, two days after his inauguration, Mbah banned the sit-at-home, saying, “the idea behind sitting at home on Monday, the first working and business day of the week, is abominable and antithetical to greatness and the spirit of industry we profess to have inherited from our forebears; this cannot be us.

“For us to transit from a public service economy to a private sector-driven one, we must free our markets from the shackles of restriction to commerce,” he said.

Besides putting security on red alert, Mbah personally takes a tour of major malls, markets, banks, and government offices to monitor compliance. The result is that Enugu is responding to his charge with a substantial compliance to the ban on sit-at-home, although many are still afraid.

Nevertheless, there are also some, who wonder why the governor should make ending sit-at-home his priority, while others insist Kanu’s release as the real answer.

But expressing government’s willingness to dialogue with groups with genuine grievances, Mbah announced a total crackdown on criminals in the state, whom he said, hide under the pretext of Biafra and Nnamdi Kanu to kill, maim, and destroy.

He told the people not to be deceived. To underscore government’s seriousness, the police, a fortnight ago, displayed the bodies of four gunmen, who allegedly tried to enforce sit-at-home.

Last Monday, Governor Mbah embarked on yet another compliance monitoring tour, which took him to the SPAR Mall, Roban Stores at Bisalla Road, Market Square, Shoprite, Zenith Bank at Ogui Road, Celebrities, Ogbete Market, Garki Awkunanaw Market, Mayor Market, Abakpa Market, and the State Secretariat.

Interacting with business owners, shoppers, traders, and civil, he insisted that “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”.

At Ogbete, market, for instance, he wondered why anyone would fail to open his or her shop despite the strategic positioning of armed security personnel and hardware, including armoured personnel carriers around the market.

He reiterated that Enugu had not recorded the usual Monday attacks by sit-at-home enforcers since the ban because security agencies had adequately enabled to rise to the occasion.

He also read the riot acts to those who would rather listen to criminals.

“There are also consequences for not heeding our orders. Going forward, I want to put you on notice. I will go around the state again on Monday next week. We are going to come with the Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority to put a seal on any shop that is found locked on Monday because of the illegal sit-at-home.

“We will take it that you are not ready to do business. We will revoke your shop title and reallocate it to someone else, who is ready to do business. This is something we must enforce with effect from Monday next week,” he forewarned.

However, Enugu seems to be overcoming their fears, as citizens told the governor that they were tired of sitting at home. At the Ogui Road Branch of Zenith Bank, the Branch Manager, Mrs. Jane Nnaji, explained that the bank had been opening for business over the past four weeks since the cancellation of the illegal sit-at-home.

At SPAR Mall, the Branch Manager, Mr. Kumar, said they were encouraged by the security measures put in place by government to reopen for business on Monday mornings, expressing confidence that more shops would open going forward.

He, however, lamented low sales as a result of the sit-at-home even as he appealed to members of the public to overcome their fear and go back to shopping and business on Mondays.

On her part, Mrs. Nweke Martha, a manager at the Roban Stores, Bisala Road, said she was glad the governor was personally leading the charge against sit-at-home, saying it had encouraged more people to shop on Mondays.

For Mr Emmanuel Ojoboro, who works at Kilimanjaro and Mr Emeka Udeh, a financial manager working with the Polo Park Development Company, the sit-at-home had finally come to and end. They encouraged the people to break away from their fears. They said the ill-conceived sit-at-home had negatively impacted on people’s businesses.

According to Udeh, “our tenants have been finding it difficult to pay rents; so, we are ready to cooperate with the government to end this economic impediment”.

He however expressed optimism that the security arrangements and governor’s action would inspire the entire people back to productive Mondays.

At Ogbete traders, President of Enugu State Amalgamated Traders Association, Comrade Stephen Aniagu, told the governor during a meeting with the traders that they had agreed that the market would fully open to business next Monday, being July 24.

Also, at Abakpa Nike Market, which was a beehive of activities as Mbah visited, their leader, Bernard Anike, told governor that they had since complied with the ban on sit-at-home.

Richard Emeka Ezeh, who was handling a project in the vicinity of Abakpa Market, lamented the high cost of sit-at-home on the South East.

“I’m pleasantly surprised to see the governor here. As a development economist, I know that the private sector drives every economy, but the private sector cannot thrive in a place where people sit at home.

“I like it that he is going round to sensitise the people on why they should come out. Employers of labour were losing so much money to sit-at-home,” he stated.

In the meantime, public and private schools monitored by journalists in Enugu were open, most of them for the first time on a Monday since the beginning of sit-at-home.

“For instance, at the Spring of Life International Schools, where full academic activities were on, a parent, Mr. Dominic Okoro, told reporters “restoring academic activities on Mondays will help the children.”

However, whereas public confidence is being restored, many experts and residents have, however, advised government not to let down its guards. But one thing is sure: Enugu is coming back to life.