Every Monday, many Anambra residents face a tough choice: stay home and be safe, or open shops and risk their lives. Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s push to end the sit-at-home is well-intentioned, but history reminds us that safety must come first before enforcement.
No economy can thrive under repeated shutdowns, and no government can fold its arms while productivity, education, and daily life are suspended week after week. In this sense, the governor’s resolve to restore normalcy is understandable and widely shared.
However, the recent decision to shut down Onitsha Main Market for one week because of traders’ failure to open on a Monday raises a fundamental concern: enforcement is being prioritised ahead of safety assurance, and history warns us that this order of action carries grave consequences.
Anambra has been here before.
In 2022, shortly after Governor Soludo assumed office, he similarly ordered an end to the sit-at-home and urged citizens to resume normal activities. Traders were told to open their shops, civil servants to return to work, and transporters to operate freely. Some citizens complied with that directive in good faith, trusting that the state could protect them.
What followed is still etched in public memory. There were violent attacks linked to the enforcement of sit-at-home by armed elements. Civilians were killed, others brutalised, and fear deepened across communities. To date, many of those incidents have not been conclusively resolved in the public domain. The absence of visible justice left a lingering perception that people were encouraged to come out, but left exposed when danger struck.
That experience explains today’s hesitation far more than stubbornness or defiance.
It is therefore insufficient to interpret non-compliance as mere indiscipline. For many traders, teachers, parents, and transporters, Monday is not a political statement; it is a calculation of survival. No rational individual prefers profit to life. Even the most successful trader would gladly forfeit a day’s earnings rather than risk not returning home alive.
Moreover, the government does not have an absolute legal or moral right to force private business owners to operate under conditions that put their lives or property at risk. While the state can regulate economic activity and mandate standards for public order, compelling individuals to open shops in the absence of guaranteed safety crosses into coercion. Punishing traders or closing markets, without first ensuring protection, effectively penalises victims rather than addressing the threat.
This concern is compounded by practical realities. Most businesses deposit their earnings in banks at the close of the business day for security. If markets open on Mondays while banks remain closed, traders are left holding large amounts of cash, significantly increasing their vulnerability to theft or attacks. This logistical gap shows that enforcement cannot succeed without functional support systems complementing it.
If the sit-at-home must truly end, the first responsibility of government is not punishment, but protection. People must be convinced, not coerced, that stepping out on Mondays does not place them in harm’s way. Such conviction can only come from visible and sustained security measures: security presence in markets, on major roads, at motor parks, and around schools; consistent patrols beyond urban centres; and reassurance that protection is not symbolic or temporary.
Equally important is acknowledgment. Governments build trust not only by looking forward, but by honestly confronting the past. A clear recognition of what went wrong in 2022, and what will be done differently now would go a long way in rebuilding confidence.
Governor Soludo’s vision of a productive, stable Anambra State resonates with many citizens. But authority exercised without empathy risks deepening resistance, while enforcement without safety entrenches fear.
Sit-at-home will not end because markets are sealed. It will end when people feel safe enough to open them.
History, in this case, is not distant. It is recent. And it should guide present action.
Copyrighted @
