When the Enugu State Governor, Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, on June 5, 2023, pronounced that the illegal sit-at-home that has crippled and still destroying the struggling and fragile economy of state has been banned, I knew that there would be pockets of challenges, resistance and sabotage. But one clear thing is that it takes a proactive and assertive leader of Mbah’s mould to toe this path that was avoided like a plague by ex-governors of the Southeast region.
Since the ban, Governor Mbah has done and continues to do what is required of his government to sustain it and free Enugu State from the menace in the overall interest of the state and its people. These include engaging, persuading, dialoguing, soliciting the support and cooperation of youths and all stakeholders in the state, re-jigging and re-equipping the security architecture of the state for optimal performance, pressuring the Presidency for the unconditional release of detained Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, providing means of transportation for civil servants to go to work on Mondays, constant visitation of markets, streets and offices to monitor compliance and embarking on aggressive and comprehensive media campaigns and sensitisation about the need to ignore the sit-at-home directive and go about their lawful businesses on Mondays.
Fortunately, there has been a high level of compliance, cooperation and enthusiasm among the people who have become tired and antagonistic of the sit-at-home order before now. Recently, Enugu youths and residents marched in their thousands on the streets to protest against the illegal sit-at-home order.
It is no longer in doubt that while all these concerted and collaborative efforts are being made by Mbah’s government, security agencies and the good people of Enugu State that are determined and prepared to rescue their state from the clutches of the non-state actors hiding under the illegal sit-at-home order to destroy it, there are people within and outside the state that have remained unapologetic, sympathetic and supportive of these destructive agents that have been using their social media handles, influences and political platforms to promote them.
This is despite the fact that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, whom the non-state actors claimed to be enforcing the sit-at-home to secure his unconditional release, has through his lawyer, Mike Ozekhome (SAN), condemned the order and those enforcing it, warning them to desist from it because they are destroying the Southeast region and its economy. If this is the case, is it not obvious that those who are insisting on Monday sit-at-home and their supporters are known enemies and saboteurs of the state and its people with hidden agenda and sinister motives that security agents must beam their searchlight on henceforth?
It would be recalled that since the ban on the illegal sit-at-home, the Enugu State government has consistently assured the people of their safety. It has also consistently urged residents to abide by the ban on the sit-at-home. Almost on a daily basis, press statements are issued and repeated radio announcements made in this regard to create awareness and raise people’s consciousness about the ban and the urgent need to comply with it to avoid being penalised.
It is also of note that since the ban, there has been no attack of any sort across the state. This is unlike in the past when enforcers of the sit-at-home usually moved about in some parts of the state on Mondays, operated unhindered and disappeared thereafter. What this simply shows is that there are some extraordinary security measures that have been put in place by the government and security agencies to gain people’s confidence, which residents should reciprocate by supporting the move to end Monday sit-at-home in Enugu.
It is not shocking or strange that since the government sealed some shops in the state for non-compliance with government’s directive regarding the sit-at-home after repeated appeals and warnings, tongues have been wagging and social media have been buzzing. Most people, who have not offered any solution to the menace since August 2021, have suddenly woken up from slumber and found their voices. Opposition politicians that had been licking their wounds over electoral defeats have resorted to issuing press statements and exploring the situation. Some people have argued that the government has no right to do so while others are of the view that the government’s approach is anti-people and confrontational.
This is democracy and talk is always free and cheap. They are right in their own judgments and thoughts. One thing they have forgotten is that government is government and government cannot be cowed by non-state actors at any point. If government fails to act from the point of strength and allow non-state actors and their sympathisers to dictate the tune, the government and the governed will be messed up; the system will collapse and the blame will be placed at governor’s doorstep.
What the Enugu State government has used and is still using in sustaining the ban on sit-at-home is a carrot-and-stick approach, which is the best in this situation. Former governor David Umahi used in Abakaliki Ebonyi State and it worked. Governor Chukwuma Soludo used in Awka, Anambra State, it is working.
Enough of this hypocrisy and politicisation of the menace! In a community in Anambra State, the people didn’t wait for security agents or the government to apprehend and burn men who came to enforce sit-at-home there. The verified picture and video of the incident are in the public domain.
Anyone proposing or encouraging the carrot approach alone is not sincere and altruistic as such has failed before now. If Enugu State has no power or right to close shops of those who go against the ban on Monday sit-at-home, why did the shop owners pay government revenues and get government’s approvals to build them and commence business activities?
Why? Please, I need further explanations or clarifications. I know some of these shops were built and allocated to the people by the government. Now that the state government has insisted that the condition for the reopening of the sealed shops is for the owners to show evidence of their tax payments and other revenues to the government, how many of the affected shop owners are up to date in payment of taxes and others? Many don’t even pay the government anything at all, but will be first to flout its order and then rush to the streets and social media platforms to protest, blackmail, castigate and criticise the government.
In most cases, just like the protest in Ogbete Main Market Enugu over sealed shops where one live was allegedly lost, following its hijack by hoodlums, these gullible protesters were allegedly prodded or sponsored by the opposition, narcissists, cynics, hypocrites and apologists of the non-state actors that have never seen anything good in Mbah’s government in the state. Many of them are not from Enugu State. They are not living in Enugu and have never been to the state but are always on social media platforms writing negative things about the state after being contracted and compromised. Some who are from Enugu and living in Enugu have allowed their political affiliations, emotions and sentiments to becloud their sense of reasoning and judgment.
That is why they have continued to instigate and incite people against Mbah’s government; unduly and unfairly criticise, politicise and trivialise the government’s determined and unrelenting effort in ending the anathema called Monday sit-at-home in the state.
Theirs is a case of birds of the same feathers that flock together and show me your friend and I will tell who you are. Perusing through their patterns of writings and arguments on social media platforms and listening to their public discussions, one needs no soothsayer to know where they stand and why. Even though they always pretend to be neutral, altruistic and patriotic, they are not. They are the ones supporting and encouraging the non-state actors to be destabilising and destroying the economy of Enugu with illegal sit-at-home.
Not bothered by their sabotage, politics, emotions and sentiments, Mbah’s government appears determined and unstoppable in its quest to put a permanent end to sit-at-home in Enugu for the betterment of the people, the state and its economy.
