The Monday sit-at-home in Onitsha is often presented as a voluntary act of civil obedience—but the reality tells a very different story. Traders are not closing their shops because they want to. They are doing so out of fear. Fear of reprisal, fear of unrest, and fear of stepping outside the fragile safety provided by a government that has failed to enforce law and order consistently. No Igbo trader would willingly give up a single hour of business, let alone an entire Monday, if they trusted that their safety—and that of their property—was guaranteed.
The truth is, the sit-at-home order continues to hold power because the state has yet to establish a credible monopoly of violence. When the government is reactive instead of proactive, citizens are left to make their own calculations about safety. Compliance becomes a survival strategy rather than a choice. In this context, ordinary people—the traders, families, and residents—bear the cost of political struggles they did not create.
Even after leaders like Nnamdi Kanu called off the order, some individuals continue to enforce it, prioritizing their own agendas over the well-being of the community. This raises an important question: if staying home truly is a civil right, why is it enforced on everyone? Shouldn’t traders who wish to work be free to do so, while those who prefer to stay home make that choice for themselves? Coerced compliance undermines individual rights and economic freedom.
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