By Eric Elezuo
The turn of events in recent times is proving that the unpopular sit-at-home order of a faction of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), led by Finland based Simon Ekpa, may come to an end soon.
This is going by the welcomed intervention of the acclaimed Supreme leader of the group, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, through a handwritten letter directing the immediate end of the order. The sit-at-home order has been in place in the South East since August 9, 2021 to press for the demand of Mazi Kanu, who has been in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) after he was renditioned to Nigeria in June 2021.
Originally slated to be observed any day Kanu was billed to appear in court for trial in honour, the order extended to every Monday in addition to days of court appearance. With time, and with the alleged leadership of Ekpa from faraway Finland, the order has been called at random, sometimes extending to cover a whole one week.
Consequently, the observance of the forced holiday has grounded economic activities in the region, leading to an estimated loss of N7.6 trillion in productivity, as reported by The Guardian, potential investments as well as loss of lives and personal and government property.
But a twist recorded over the weekend showed that Kanu has come out to call the Ekpa-led group to order, describing it as infamous and reckless, and asking that the unholy order be dropped forthwith.
Confirming the authenticity of the letter by Kanu, IPOB, in a statement, by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, emphasozed the importance of the letter, saying: “The global family and movement of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) confirms the authenticity of the handwritten note of our Leader penned to the Finland infiltrator and crime minister instructing him to end his infamous and reckless sit-at-homes.
“Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, in his wisdom, communicated the message to the infiltrators through the right channel and a source they should trust. The claims that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s handwritten note is fake is part of their mischief to continue in their contract to blackmail IPOB and Mazi Nnamdi Kanu with the violent enforcement of the infamous sit-at-homes used to terrorise our people.
“We understand that a power-drunk crime Minister with his inconsequential kangaroo defacto government in exile will ignore the order for the fear of deflating his over-bloated ego.”
He explained that IPOB leadership initiated the Monday sit-at-home in protest of the abduction and rendition of their leader and to make sure that the Nigeria government arraigned Mazi Nnamdi Kanu openly, in a public court where they could see him.
“But our leader instructed that it be suspended so that we don’t torture our people.
“In line with the principle of command and control, we obeyed, and the sit-at-home order was suspended. However, infiltrators who don’t believe in the principle of command and control, which is a core value of IPOB, ignored the order from our leader.”
He said Mazi Nnamdi Kanu had sent messages through his visitors at the Department of State Security (DSS) detention camp to the infiltrators to stop the reckless sit-at-home several times, all to no avail.
“Senator Enyinnaya Abaraibe tabled this message in the red chamber of the Senate, what Mazi Nnamdi Kanu told them when they visited him in the DSS custody with Ohaneze Ndigbo delegates in the DSS headquarters Abuja, where he was illegally and unconstitutionally detained in DSS solitary confinement since June 2021.
“When our leader called for complete peace in Biafraland and to protect our people instead of killing them in one of his court appearances, he was referring to the infiltrators to stop their infamous enforcement of sit-at-home orders and enforcement. That call went on deaf ears. This last message in his handwriting is the last straw.”
Sn investigation conducted by The Guardian revealed that that “since the Monday sit-at-home started, productivity has seriously dwindled in the region; jobs are threatened; there is loss of confidence by investors; insecurity has increased; and there is a near collapse in the infrastructure of the region with the attendant spike in social vices.”
More revelations prove that “between the commencement of the exercise in 2021 and this year, 105 Mondays of the 520 working days have been lost in terms of productivity or any real economic activity. This leaves the South-east region with 415 days in which her people are expected to go to work. Of the remaining 415 days, public holidays declared by the government further deplete the available productivity period in the region.”
It is worthy of worth that successive governors have either attempted to put a stop to the crisis, or buckled under threats of reprisal. Most citizens of the five South East states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo, who at one time or another another to flout the order and open for business, have either have their businesses destroyed or loose their lives in the bargain. A cross section of Nigerians have mocked the governors, holding that Ekpa is the authentic governors of the South East.
But with the arrival of Governor Peter Mba of Enugu State, moves were made to arrest the crisis. Stakeholders have however, argued that the government of Enugu State has put the cart before the horde as they went after the people instead of after of the perpetrators of the crime.
“What I think the Mba-led government should have done is found a way to tackle the menace through outright military incursion or negotiation. He can’t just ask people to flout the order and go their businesses when stories abound as to the consequences of the act. Most people have e in the past been summarily shot and killed. So it was not nice for the governor to ask the people to take such huge risk when there is no safety measures remotely or physically put in place,” a resident told The Boss.
While Anambra state governor, Prof Charles Soludo had during his swearing in on March 17, 2022 stated that every day that there was sit-at-home, the poor masses of the state lose as much as an estimated N19.6billion, the governor of Enugu said that state ‘loses N10 billion every Monday that people observed sit-at-home in the state, stressing that the trend was endangering the $30 billion GDP projection of his administration’.
Mba noted: “It should never be heard that we were cowed because of the threat of violence by these criminals”. He added “the poverty that will befall us for sitting at home will kill us even faster.
“We are losing over N10bn every Monday that we sit at home. Enough is enough. This foolishness must end and it must end now. We cannot marginalise ourselves and still complain of marginalisation.
“So, we must say no to sit-at-home because what it means is that we are destroying our employment, our economy, and our GDP. We must erase it from our memories. We should see it as our shameful past, which we do not want to remember. We must put it behind us and forge ahead, ensuring that we work every working day of the week.”
The abject poverty the exercise has bestowed on the people of the South East remains rather unquantifiable as it has encroached into the education of the pupils and students of the region.
In solidarity with Kanu’s reverse order, Enugu youths, on Saturday, stormed the streets in peaceful protest with inscribed placards reading: “Even Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is Against Sit-at-Home” and “Sit-at-Home Discourages Economic Progress”.
Others are: “We say NO to Enemies of our Dear State and region”; “Sit-at-Home Affects our Mental Health”; Sit-at-home is Affecting our Children Education” and “We Cannot Continue this Way” among others.
It is believed that compliance with the instruction of Nnamdi Kanu through the handwritten letter will bring about a boost in the economic activities of the region and ensure revenue turnover.
The way it stands, everyone in the South East is tired of the ‘illegal sit-at-home order’, and wishes a reverse. And with Kanu’s dissociation of himself from the act, it is now a between behind the South East regin and Simon Ekpa.
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