IPOB
IPOB: Sit-at-Home, Lasting Solution in the South East
IPOB: Sit-at-Home, Lasting Solution in the South East
The fact that residents of Enugu State appear to have disregarded a recent order from Governor Peter Mbah not to comply with the most recent sit-at-home directive issued by a faction of the state’s outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) demonstrates that ending the disruptive, long-standing practice of keeping Mondays off work cannot be accomplished by executive order.
NewsReport Nigeria understands that there is a need for comprehensive initiatives that will address both the problem’s root cause and the complexities it has subsequently produced. Chukwuma Soludo, the governor of Anambra State, attempted to do the same by issuing directions to the populace, but his efforts were unsuccessful since they just made him the target of unfair assaults.
Asking the people of the state to go about their normal duties, Mr. Mbah vowed that his administration would resist the continuation of the civil action in the state starting Monday, June 5, 2023. “Therefore, those that strike on Mondays, putting restrictions in the way of our Igbo spirit of creativity, cannot be our true representatives. To this end, therefore, from Monday, June 5, 2023, there will be no observance of any sit-at-home in all nooks and crannies of Enugu State. “The government will enforce this with all the powers at its disposal,” said Mbah.
The governor then asked all schools, markets, retail outlets, hospitals, and transporters to stop obeying the Monday sit-at-home order in the state or face sanctions. “Any market, transport outlet, or any other body that fails to open for business risks being shut down immediately,” Dan Neomeh, head of Governor Mbah’s media team, stated.
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But the warning did not work, as most people stayed indoors. The government has not convinced the people of their safety if they venture out.
There should be a collective and holistic effort by the authorities of the South East and the Federal Government in any serious attempt to end the sit-at-home.
The continued incarceration of IPOB leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is as significant a factor in resolving the issue as putting faces to the enforcers of the IPOB order, given that the mainstream of the organization has declared a suspension of the practice.
Originally, IPOB declared the sit-at-home every Monday, and every day Kanu was to appear in court to press for his unconditional release.
However, despite IPOB’s withdrawal of its order, some unidentified groups have emerged and continued unabatedly to enforce the sit-at-home order most violently. Many innocent people have been killed, and vehicles accosted on the road on sit-at-home days were burned. It is clear that the continued detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu by the Federal Government even after no court of competent jurisdiction has found him guilty of treason as charged is at the root of persistent agitation by IPOB and its armed wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN), for the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. To complicate the matter is the emergence of one Simon Ekpa, a Finland-based lawyer and activist who is the de facto leader of IPOB and is now issuing sit-at-home orders that are religiously obeyed in the South East.
To stop the continued disregard of official directives, it will be worthwhile for the government to propose a political solution with Kanu’s freedom at the center. It is instructive that Governor Mbah has pleaded with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to release Kanu as a precondition for assuaging IPOB and its worldwide network of adherents and as a prelude to the evasive peace in the South East.
The sit-at-home was declared in 2021 after Kanu was renditioned from Kenya to Nigeria despite traveling to Kenya as a British citizen. He was hitherto charged with running a proscribed group, jumping bail, and treason. Kanu was, however, acquitted and discharged by the Court of Appeal. His counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, had also earlier appealed to President Tinubu to release Kanu and eschew toeing the line of his predecessor, Mr Muhammadu Buhari, whose government sought a stay of execution order for Kanu’s release at the Supreme Court.
Mbah was concerned that the sit-at-home order was at variance with his administration’s quest to improve the welfare of residents of the state.
“A time comes in the lives of a people when they must decide whether they genuinely want to move forward or remain stuck with the conditions of their underdevelopment. The creativity and sense of industry of Ndi Igbo are remarkable. Our DNA is wired with commercial and entrepreneurial prowess. If this is what we are known by, then it becomes inconsistent with the reality that the spirits of entrepreneurship, commerce, and creativity are killed every Monday in our land. Our restless spirit of industry abhors laxity and indolence,” he stated.
Mbah said the order was killing the dream of his administration to move the state forward. “For us to transition from a public service economy to a private sector-driven one, we must free our markets from the shackles of restriction on commerce. If indeed we aspire and anticipate an influx of private sector practitioners and investors in Enugu State, we must know that this will not happen where the perception of us is that of unproductive people.”
Mbah, therefore, called on President Tinubu to consciously work towards the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, believing that his release “will expedite the healing process Nigeria needs at this time.” For a new government raring to make a great impact on the country, no sacrifice is too much to make by the Tinubu administration towards finding lasting peace in the South East and indeed Nigeria.
