Sit-at-home: Business activities yet to pick up — Traders

…An empty street on a sit-at-home day By Steve Oko & Chinedu Adonu Commercial activities are gradually returning to the South-East region after years of an illegal Monday sit-at-home order declared by non-state actors crippled business and social life. While commercial operations are picking up in some states, others continue to lag behind. For example, the Anambra State Government had to forcefully shut down markets in Onitsha and other areas to compel traders to reopen on Mondays, yet many businesses still remained closed.

The exact reason for this hesitation remains unclear, as the threat of the sit-at-home order has significantly receded across the region, with the violent attacks and harassment of the past now seldom witnessed. However, findings indicate that many South-East residents have simply grown accustomed to this forced Monday routine after experiencing it for so long.

Consequently, many individuals—particularly independent business owners—now voluntarily choose to rest on Mondays. Furthermore, several rural communities have permanently adopted Mondays for communal meetings, neighbourhood policing, road repairs, and other civic activities. Ultimately, what began as a forced restriction has largely transitioned into a voluntary day of rest, effectively extending the weekend by an extra day.In Aba, Abia State, following disruptions associated with the Monday sit-at-home, major markets in the commercial city are yet to fully recover their usual Monday patronage.

Although Aba, the economic honey-pot of Abia State, is gradually emerging from the disruption associated with the sit-at-home era, investigations have revealed that the psychological and political sentiments that sustained Monday closures continue to influence trading patterns in some parts of the city. The immediate-past Chairman of Ekeoha Shopping Plaza, Aba, Prince Tochukwu Aguguo, in an interview with SEV, said that while many traders now open their shops on Mondays, a significant number of customers still stay away from the major markets.

Aguguo attributed the situation partly to lingering resentment over the continued incarceration of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, saying some traders and customers were observing the Monday restriction voluntarily as personal expression of solidarity. According to him, the situation is no longer principally about coercion or enforcement by any group, but about what he described as a lingering “wound” in the hearts of some Igbo people over Kanu’s detention.

“Aba is gradually recovering, even though customers are not yet coming, especially in the major markets where we deal largely in wholesale. “The issue of sit-at-home is not really about force by IPOB or anybody anymore. It is a wound in the heart. Some people intentionally decided not to trade, not because anybody is forcing them, but because of the anger and what they feel about the way our son, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, is being treated.

“Even when people open their shops, nobody comes to buy. We don’t normally like staying at home, but the feeling is still there,” he said. The former Ekeoha Market Chairman said street traders and operators of smaller businesses were increasingly opening for business on Mondays, but the situation was different in the major markets, where customer turnout remained significantly below normal.

He cited Ekeoha Shopping Plaza as an example, saying many traders now open their shops but struggle to attract customers. “In Ekeoha, for instance, people open, but customers are not coming to patronize them. Some customers still believe that sit-at-home is in force. They no longer see Monday as a normal trading day,” Aguguo explained. He stressed that the continued low Monday patronage should therefore not necessarily be interpreted as evidence of coercion, noting that some individuals had made a conscious decision to stay away from business as a way of expressing their grievance over Kanu’s continued incarceration.

“We can comfortably conclude that even though people are not being coerced to shut down on Mondays, businesses have not necessarily picked up in Aba because some people still see staying at home as a way of expressing their grievance over the perceived injury and injustice against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. “It is not because they are under any coercion not to open their businesses.

Some simply believe that Kanu’s imprisonment should not have happened in the first place, and that is why they voluntarily choose not to open on Mondays. “It is a personal decision. Nobody is forcing anybody, and it is not a government directive. It is simply an individual decision,” he said. Release Kanu to restore Monday trading in S’East — Ex-ASMATA scribe Another textile merchant and former Secretary of the Abia State Amalgamated Traders Association (ASMATA), Hon.

Ikechukwu Nwafor, popularly known as the Mayor of Ekeoha, called for the release of Nnamdi Kanu as a major step towards ending the lingering Monday