By Samson Ezea
Who doesn’t like good soup or honey? Indeed, who doesn’t like good things? It is a fact that an average Igbo man, especially Enugu people and residents, are tired of the Monday sit-at-home in the state. It has taken a toll on them psychologically economically and financially.
They are tired and have been in a fix or dilemma on when and how it could be ended or how they could end it without being misunderstood, stereotyped, vilified, or attacked.
It was a case of who would boldly bell the cat and damn the consequences. No one was ready to do so until Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah took the bull by the horn and belled the cat by pronouncing the ban of Monday sit-at-home order in the state.
The cooperation, conviviality, camaraderie, commendations, and enthusiasm that have continued to trail the ban among the Enugu people and residents is a clear manifestation of their true feelings and acceptance of the ban.
It is like a rebirth and bold move to regain the lost glory of Enugu and usher in a dawn that is in line with Governor Mbah’s vision and mission in the state.
Reiterating and affirming their unflinching and unwavering support for Governor Mbah’s total ban of the sit-at-home, the major stakeholders in Enugu State which include market leaders, community leaders, youth groups, traditional rulers, transporters and others at a well attended and brainstorming town-hall meeting with Governor Mbah at the Old Government Lodge Enugu raised and signed a 12-point Communique which included commending Mbah for his proactive leadership,
commending his move to effect the release of Nnamdi Kanu; lauding the quality leadership he has brought to bear, urging the security heads in the state to beef up security in order to guarantee the safety of lives and property in the state, not only on Monday but also on every other day, urging the Governor to arrange for special buses and cars that will ply the roads from 9pm when the tricycle operators would have closed operations.
Of note and quite interesting is that at the town-hall meeting, leaders of the groups each took turn to speak their minds on the way forward.
In his speech, the immediate past chairman of Enugu State Council of Traditional Rulers, Amb. Barr. Lawrence Agubuzu decried in strong terms the sit-at-home home order and the killings and economic hardship it has inflicted. He wondered why anyone would think self-determination or separation could be earned by perpetration of killings and economic hardship on the people for whom the said freedom was being sought.
He noted that Eritrea separated from Ethiopia and did not achieve it by either killing the people or subjecting them to economic hardship of sit-at-home; that South Sudan separated from Sudan and did not do so by sit-at-home and killing of its people; that Bangladesh separated from Pakistan and did not do so by killing its people and subjecting them to the hardship of sitting at home. He then wondered why anybody should think Biafra could be earned by the killing of its people and subjecting them to economic difficulties.
Others who spoke condemned the sit-at-home order and commended the governor for taking the right step to recover the state from the menace called Monday sit-at-home. With this development and other collaborative measures already taken by Governor Mbah since he banned the sit-at-home, which included making a strident and sincere call for the urgent release of IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, sensitising and engaging the people to the effect that anyone sitting at home in Enugu State on Mondays, henceforth is doing so at his or her own detriment.
Meanwhile, Mbah did not stop at merely calling for Kanu’s release, he followed up by visiting President Ahmed Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa Abuja, where he placed the Southeast demand for Kanu’s release on the front burner of the new president’s agenda for national healing and reconcilation.
