IPOB’s sit-at-home: The self-induced devastation of the South East

On the back of Nnamdi Kanu’s extradition from Kenya, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) ordered a sit-at-home protest on Mondays until Nnamdi Kanu is released. The protest, which has since become a major pain in the South East, has divided residents in the region and Igbos in the diaspora, with the rest of Nigeria curiously watching what the exercise would ultimately achieve.

Undoubtedly, the sit-at-home has cost the residents of the South East a lot in terms of life and property. Since it started, several innocent citizens (both average and prominent) have lost their lives in the most gruesome manner, depriving families of their loved ones, who are sometimes breadwinners, and truncating the destinies of the dependants left behind while leaving scars that may never heal.

One of the most tragic episodes was the gruesome murder of Dr Chike Akunyili (late Dora Akunyili’s husband), whose face was blown off by bullets in broad daylight, and digitally recorded by onlookers, in an episode that would traumatise any decent citizen.

Since that death over a year ago, many others have lost their lives in the hands of “Unknown Gunmen” seeking to enforce this sit-at-home directive.

This protest has heavily impacted the South East’s economy and, indeed, the broader Nigerian economy. To get a full import of the economic impact in the short, medium and long terms, the DevEast Foundation and SBM Intelligence attempted to quantify the losses using facts and figures of critical parameters.

The DevEast/SBM report highlights the losses in different sectors of the region’s economy.

Transportation is an important sector in the region as the region hosts the Onitsha main market and the Aba market, some of the major markets in the country. This necessitates a huge inflow and outflow of people in the region.  However, the report states that transporters lose a huge sum of ten billion nairas (£18.5 million) for each sit-at-home day. This is a double tragedy for a country whose national economy is already on its knees, as reduced income means less purchasing power for transporters in the South East, with the attendant reduction in tax remission to the state governments.

The South East prides itself as a trading hub. Unfortunately, traders are compelled to stay home on Mondays, usually the busiest day of the week and the most productive for some. This has translated to a trading loss that amounts to something between seven hundred billion nairas (£1.3 billion) and three trillion nairas (£5.55 billion).

Consumers or dealers who order products are also affected as their goods are not delivered. This makes them lose confidence in dealing with products whose major suppliers are from the South East.

In the hospitality and tourism sector, a chain is as strong as its weakest link, as, beyond any other sector, insecurity on a Monday affects other days. This means that even though the sit-at-home is on a Monday, tourists and revellers avoid the South East altogether.

Cities like Owerri and Enugu, which used to bubble with nightlife, have become shadows of themselves as their usual patronage has dwindled. In 2021, a national conference scheduled to hold in Enugu by the National Society of Engineers (NSE) was moved to Abuja, with the organisers citing insecurity as a reason.

For several years, the South East has prided itself in its educational excellence, with all five states located among the ten best performing states in the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO) exams, and at least two states in the top five.

The current situation disrupts the academic calendar across all levels of education as the various curricula will not be completed during the allocated time. Also, the disruption of crucial exams has been reported. These can threaten the region’s rating of academic excellence. This has already started to show up in the numbers. Based on the NBS Multiple Cluster Indicator Survey for 2022, Anambra and Enugu states are beginning to show the kind of school enrolment numbers we had gotten used to seeing just in Northern Nigeria.

The South East has the largest diaspora population in Nigeria by proportion. Over the years, this population always paid home visits in large numbers, all year round, but concentrated around festive seasons.

Events like traditional weddings, new yam festivals, funerals, Christmas, and Easter celebrations are periods diaspora citizens from the South East go home, consequently boosting the local economy.

Since the sit-at-home began, these numbers have dwindled, with people prioritising their security, preferring now to hold traditional weddings in their areas of residence (previously unheard of) and staying in their areas of abode during festive seasons. A report in BusinessDay on December 21 confirmed this, as did the lead story in Daily Trust on the same day. Igbos are not going home. The effect of this is the revenue loss for the local economy, with citizens also suffering the trauma of prolonged separation from loved ones.

Since the start of the sit-at-home, several public facilities, especially those of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), have been destroyed. This has resulted in the loss of lives and the destruction of citizens’ permanent voter’s cards. This sad development seeks to create voter apathy towards local and national elections.

The effect is that eligible citizens’ ability to elect leaders close to their aspirations will come under threat, and funds that would otherwise be used elsewhere will be used to replace destroyed facilities.

Having said the above, it is clear that the sit-at-home has only compounded the region’s challenges. It is akin to slapping oneself on the face and hoping the enemy feels the pain or ingesting a potent poison and expecting the adversary to die. Not only that, it cannot be said to have achieved any tangible objective of its proponents due to the following reasons:

1. Nnamdi Kanu, whose detention necessitated the protest, is still incarcerated with his trial going on at the pace the court pleases.

2. The citizens of the South East, whom the agitators claim to be fighting for, are the most traumatised.

3. The agitators have lost control of the situation as conflicting instructions come from various factions, with criminal elements frequently hijacking the process.

4. The voter suppression occasioned by attacks on INEC headquarters and the destruction of voters’ cards disenfranchises the people the agitators seek to protect, thus reducing their bargaining power within the Nigerian federation.

Hence, it is high time the stakeholders in the South East asked themselves pertinent questions as regards the intent of the conveners of this self-destructive exercise because if it persists, the region’s competitive edge will face total obliteration.

Dr Obinna Aligwekwe is an Acute Medical Physician practising in the United Kingdom.