By Ebuka Onyekwelu, Ph.D
For the first time in nearly five years, the Onitsha Main Market was open and fully in business mode today, February 2nd, 2026. This has effectively put to rest the Monday sit-at-home instituted by IPOB. Since around mid 2021, IPOB called for a sit-at-home every Monday till the release of its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, who was arrested and charged with terrorism. Last year, Kanu was sentenced to life imprisonment and sent to the Sokoto correctional facility. A similar fate had befallen Simeon Ekpa, who was sentenced in Finland also on charges relating to terrorism. Yet, the sit-at-home had persisted with the same demand for the release of Kanu, now a convicted terrorist held by the Nigerian authorities.
Earlier, IPOB had denied sit-at-home or claimed to have cancelled it. However, following the enforcement of the resumption of business activities last Monday by the governor of Anambra State, Professor Charles Soludo, IPOB renewed its call for Monday sit-at-home, insisting that it must go on. Governor Soludo’s order for traders to resume last Monday was ignored, leading to a shutdown of Onitsha Main Market for the whole week by the governor, who assured that the market will open again today. However, in a show of power, IPOB issued a contrary order that traders should continue the sit-at-home, which it claimed it had cancelled. Today, the market was open, and compliance from traders was total as full business activities were resumed. This has given a fresh hope, signaling an end to the influence of non-state actors in Anambra State.
For long, Southeast states, especially Anambra state, had negotiated authority or given concessions to criminal gangs masquerading as separatist agitators. This Monday, several efforts were also made by IPOB through counter messages and threats to instill fear in the traders, and despite the order of the state government for traders to resume business activities today, but they failed.
The governor of Anambra State, Charles Soludo, also visited the Onitsha Main Market to confirm compliance with the full resumption of business activities today.
However, in places like Ekwulobia, Nnewi, among others, the pace of activities was slow. There were unconfirmed reports of gunshots in the early hours of the day, but no casualties were reported. In Awka and its environs, full business and academic activities have resumed, and popular malls that were formerly closed on Mondays due to threats were open today. The biggest market in Awka, the Eke Awka Market, was fully open for business.
So far, Anambra has succeeded in putting the compulsory Monday sit-at-home behind, as a part of its dark history. Many have projected that Mondays will improve with increased compliance, as people chart a new future for themselves in a post-neo-Biafra agitation era.
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