The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) had on 30th July 2021 announced a-sit-at home order to be observed in the entire states of the south East every Monday following the arrest, detention and arraignment to court of the group’s leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. This order which took effect on the 9th of August 2021 has since then been observed in all the south eastern states every Monday with all business, commercial and academic activities locked down on the stipulated days.
This controversial activity has stared mixed reaction among the observers. While some support the course of the sit at home and willingly obeys it, others are compelled to obey out of fear of violence which they may be met with if they step out on the stipulated days. While some people see the sit at home protest as a right step in the right direction, others opined that its effect on the masses is a great cause for concern stating that the adverse effect of the exercise is still borne by the same people whom the “freedom fighters’” sacrifices are supposed to benefit.
Civil servants on the other hand seem to be the group between the devil and the deep red sea as most south eastern governors are out to deal with workers who obey the IPOB’s sit at home orders and the IPOB members ready to lynch anybody who flaunts the order by stepping out of their homes. Banks suffer threats of confiscation from government should they not open for business on Mondays and other days of the order, and as well face the risk of violent attacks should they flaunt the order. Some governors go as far as visiting bank offices to ascertain those that adhered to the IPOB’s order for punishment. Some set up task force for the same purpose and one may ask, “The governors who persuade people to flaunt the IPOB’s sit at home order and go about their normal business activities, what security measures did they put in place to ensure the safety of the people when they eventually go out?” Banks in some states have considered working on Saturdays and Sundays in other to meet up with their work demands and avoid the Monday dramas. Pictures and videos made round the social media of vehicles set ablaze for commuting on the days of the order.
Businesses have suffered in the face of this recent development and while some business owners play solidarity to this order, others grumble for the loss indirectly incurred for adhering to the order not out of solidarity but fear. Schools are not left out in this ordeal. School children are forced to stay home on Monday which used to be the peak of the academic week. Candidates for the year’s West African Examination Council (WAEC) exams are not spared either and they cannot have their timetable adjusted since the government have not asked them to sit at home. Most of these candidates missed some of their vital papers (Mathematics inclusive) which were scheduled on the sit-at-home days while some schools who tried to conduct the exams faced violence from thugs. This ordeal will adversely affect most of the WAEC candidates in the South East who will have to wait an extra year to clear the paper which they omitted on these days.
Women have suffered mostly in the face of this exercise. Most women especially in the rural communities are famers and artisans. Farming activities have been disrupted as much as market and other commercial activities are. Women can no longer visit their farms for cultivation or harvest nor go to their shops for business activities. Many of these women depend on their daily earnings to feed their homes. So many household starve and suffer in the face of this exercise and the effect is mostly borne by women.
A hungry man they say is an angry man. Artisan men feel frustrated being prevented from going out to work in other to be able to fend for their families. Some of these men end up venting their frustrations on their wives by physical and verbal abuse. Women in abusive marriage are always looking out to daybreaks for their husbands to go out for work and themselves too. This always reduce the frequency of abuse for them but this forceful staying at home has been a nightmare to them having their husbands vent their frustration on them at every slightest provocation.
The government who should have the security of lives and properties of its citizens at heart in the face of a challenge like this should seek the restoration of normalcy of living for her citizens and not engage in tussle for authority with a group who are agitating for a course they deem worthwhile. When two elephants fight they said, it is the grasses that suffer.