On Monday, January 26, 2026, Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, paid an official visit to the Onitsha Main Market–only to meet locked shops and empty stalls. Traders stayed away, observing the sit-at-home largely out of fear of insecurity. The governor responded by ordering a one-week closure of the market, warning that the shutdown could be extended and that the government could ultimately deploy bulldozers to level the market if traders persisted in staying away on Mondays.
The optics were dramatic. The implications are deeper.
First, it is important to state the obvious: traders are not employees of the Anambra State Government. They are independent economic actors who make daily risk calculations about safety, livelihood, and survival. When they choose to stay away from their shops on Mondays, it is not a strike against the government; it is a fear response. Threats of market demolition may project authority, but they do not address the root cause of that fear.
Second, the sit-at-home did not emerge from thin air. Its original political trigger was the incarceration of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). Over time, what began as a protest morphed into a climate of coercion, criminal opportunism, and insecurity. Ignoring this origin–or treating it as irrelevant–has not helped to resolve the problem. Suppressing symptoms without addressing cause has only entrenched mistrust.
Third, sit-at-home has persisted largely because of a deficit of political cohesion and will among South-East governments. This same weakness explains why many regional initiatives struggle to survive. The contrast between the South-East’s Ebubeagu and the South-West’s Amotekun is instructive. While Ebubeagu never achieved sustained regional confidence or operational clarity, Amotekun benefited from unified political backing, shared intelligence, and clear legitimacy across the South-West.
Relatedly, the South-West provides a political lesson the South-East has been reluctant to learn. Sunday Igboho, a prominent agitator for Yoruba self-determination, was once declared wanted on terrorism-related allegations. Following sustained and coordinated engagement by South-West leaders–including traditional institutions–his name was later removed from the wanted list. Reports at the time linked this outcome to high-level political and traditional interventions, notably appeals made to federal authorities by respected royal figures. Whether every detail of those reports stands the test of time is secondary to the core lesson: collective leadership engagement works.
Nothing, therefore, prevents South-East governors, traditional rulers, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, market leaders, and other stakeholders from presenting a united front to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to formally request amnesty or other lawful relief for Nnamdi Kanu, using the appropriate constitutional and political channels. Fragmentation has been the region’s undoing; unity remains its most potent, underused tool.
There is also a practical, local example closer to home. One week upon assuming office in 2023, Enugu State Governor Dr. Peter Mbah, on June 5, publicly announced the end of sit-at-home in the state and backed that declaration with action: a strengthened security architecture, coordinated patrols, intelligence-led policing, protection of markets and transport corridors, and sustained confidence-building with communities and traders. The result was not achieved through loud coercion or threats, but through reassurance, presence, and consistency. Today, sit-at-home is largely a thing of the past in Enugu State.
Against this backdrop, threatening to bulldoze markets because of sit-at-home risks punishing victims rather than perpetrators. It may harden resistance, deepen economic losses, and shift public sympathy away from the state. Authority is not diminished by restraint; it is diminished when it appears disconnected from lived reality.
If Anambra–and the South-East more broadly–wants to end sit-at-home, the path is not theatrical force but cohesive leadership, credible security, honest political engagement, and visible protection of citizens who choose to go about their lawful business.
As the saying goes: “The blacksmith that does not know how to mold the metal gong should observe the tail of the kite.” GMTNewsng
The analysis is correct and factual, the problem with our leaders is that they think outside their brains, soludo knows what to do if he wants to end sit at home in his state which is to discuss with the federal government on how to release MNK.