South East governors and sit-at-home conundrum

Tough talk, threats and coercion seem to be the hashtags in the South East, oozing out from various Government Houses. The political leaders in the geopolitical zone are worried about the economic losses occasioned by the sit-at-home being observed by the people of the zone.

The political leaders are also worried that despite their threats and cajoling, the roads are always empty and markets and other business environments deserted as the people remain adamant.

Truth is that the people are huddling up in their homes to avoid being killed by dangerous elements that now populate the zone under the veil of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

The other day, gunmen invaded a community in Anambra State and massacred many innocent indigenes. Killings have continued to happen in all the states of the geopolitical zone without the perpetrators being brought to book.

Over the years, absence of people-focused governance has alienated the people of the zone from the government. The people care-less about government, as they try to eke out their own living through their individual efforts. There is also no presence of the Federal Government in the entire zone, which has also made it difficult for the people to listen to any instruction from government quarters.

The people’s argument has always been that a recalcitrant father, who has shirked his responsibility meeting the primary needs of his children, is not deserving of any respect. The people seem to have moved on in spite of the government.

The people have seen their relations and neighbours massacred for daring to step out on the others of government, yet, the same government could neither protect them nor secure justice for them.

Any recourse to coercion and threat to make the people shun the draconian sit-at-home order would not achieve the desired aim.

Read also: Of death of elections in Nigeria, South East governors and sit-at-home neck pain

Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State recently saw that threats can achieve nothing without purposeful governance. He had threatened to seal markets and shops in parts of the state if the traders and owners of shops continued to observe the sit-at-home. He was shell-shocked that the people ignored him.

The refusal to obey him was not born out of decision to disrespect the governor, but purely out of the fear of possible attack by hoodlums. As it is said in local parlance, ‘Amandianaeze” or “who wan die?”

It is rather unfortunate that the Federal Government is treating the sit-at-home issue as an “Igbo thing”, or the usual talk, “after all it is their own economy they are destroying.” That may be correct, but this narrow perception of the situation in the South East is the reason the country has refused to move forward several years after the civil war.

The economy of Nigeria would wear a new look if the vast opportunities in the South East region is harnessed. For crying out loud, is it only the Igbos who reside in that region that do business in Igboland? The answer is, no. People visit the zone from various parts of the country and even outside Nigeria for business transactions. The Federal Government is simply shooting itself in the foot by playing the ostrich in the sit-at home issue.

What the governors and leaders of the South East should do is to see how the Nnamdi Kanu issue could be resolved politically.

It is believed that the resolution of the Kanu-FG imbroglio would go a long way in resolving the sit-at-home problem. But trying to look good to Abuja by issuing all manner of threat words will not move the needle.

Speaking with BusinessDay, a prominent Igbo son in the field of Advertising, said: “The sit-at-home thing is a sheer waste of our time. We are just shooting ourselves in the foot. I also think that the governors should have used persuasion and not coercion; persuading the people in order to win them over. What is the guarantee that if they come out they would not be attacked or even killed? These are the issues. The people are not convinced that they will be protected. That is why the threat is failing. You cannot force the people to come out and die.

“It is not as if people fear the IPOB more than the state governments, but the fear of the unknown has enveloped them.”