Monday sit-at-home: South-East traders cautiously return to business despite lingering resentment

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. 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 sit-at-home and restoring full commercial activities across the South-East. Nwafor said that while Monday trading was gradually returning in Aba, the recovery remained partial, with many major markets still largely shut as traders continued to stay away. He explained that traders operating shops and stalls facing the streets were increasingly opening on Mondays, but major markets remained cautious because of the security risks of opening facilities where only a fraction of traders would show up. "Those that are trading outside the market are doing their normal business but the major markets are usually under lock and key, and you have tens of thousands of traders in them, many of who don't open on Mondays. You cannot open a market when less than 10 per cent of traders are willing to come. You would be exposing the shops to criminality. If you open a line containing about 200 traders and only 10 or 20 people come, you expose the market to a lot of criminality and other negativities," he said. Nwafor, who said about 60 per cent of traders operating outside the major market structures were already doing business on Mondays, urged the government to rely on persuasion and orientation rather than coercion. "As a civilized person, I don't believe in clamping down on individuals to do what is against their will. A trader is self-employed. The shop is yours and the business is yours, and you can decide when to go out and when not to go out. What government can do is orientation — make traders understand the implications of losing that extra business day and how it affects their income and families. If people are convinced, they will return to their businesses, not under force or duress," he said. The former market leader, however, identified Kanu’s release as the "bone of contention", arguing that resolving the issue would remove what he described as the root cause of the Monday disruption. "I believe that all the governors of the South-East should have come together by now, knowing full well that the release of Kanu is going to solve this situation once and for all. You don't treat an ailment by treating only the symptoms; you go for the root cause of the problem. Once Kanu is released, especially at this particular period of election year, the joy will make people want to trade. If it is possible, people may even want to trade on Sundays," Nwafor added. A trader at Ogbete Main Market, Mr. Henry Odo, said that traders in Enugu have returned to full business activities on Mondays, following the decline in enforcement of the years-long sit-at-home order. Odo said traders now open their shops on Mondays without fear, although some still stay away based on personal convictions. He said the sit-at-home was initially observed to show solidarity with Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, adding that it later became violent when it was hijacked by hoodlums as a result of infiltration and crisis over IPOB leadership. "It was a terrible thing then. Initially, the idea was to show solidarity with Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. Everybody was prepared to sit at home, and even those who came out would hardly find customers. But when the ideology behind it became violent, with people being killed and property destroyed, people started questioning it. We have resumed Monday business here in Enugu and are doing business with peace of mind. However, some people still choose not to come to the market on Mondays based on their individual ideology," he said. Also speaking, a community leader in Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area of Enugu State, Chijioke Ugwu, said it appeared that normal life had returned to the area as residents now freely come out for business on Mondays. Ugwu said the enforcement of the sit-at-home order had stopped, allowing residents to resume their normal activities. "Life has returned to the council area, although the effects of those barbaric acts can never be forgotten. Since the enforcers stopped, people have started coming out to do business on Mondays, and life is gradually returning to normal," he said.