. . . Asks IPOB to nullify sit-at-home orders

Provoked by the anxiety brewing in the South Eastern region of Nigeria over the controversies surrounding the sit-at-home order in solidarity with leader of the now proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOV), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, coupled with the economic destabilising tendencies it has induced, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has harped on the need to immediately put an end to all forms of economic self-extermination programmes by groups in the South East.

HUURIWA in a statement signed by the National Coordinator; Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the National Media Adviser, Miss Zainab Yusuf, condemned the economic destabilisation and the constant paralysis of commercial and public activities in the South East on Mondays and any other day whatsoever, whether sanctioned or not by IPOB, which has been the norm since Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was arrested in Kenya and brought back to Abuja to face trial.

HURIWA noted that it was sad that Igbo youths have capitulated to the temptation by President Muhammadu Buhari to instigate the demolition of the economy of South East of Nigeria by the Federal Government’s deliberate dehumanisation of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, waging of destructive military-led actions against South East of Nigeria.

The group said that said that it amounts to self inflicted-economic sabotage of the south east region for IPOB and other groups to use the force of arms and violence to force traders, teachers, students, artisans, farmers, and public servants to stay at home at huge and negative costs to their economic wellbeing.”

“In response to Kanu’s extraordinary rendition, IPOB had declared a sit-at-home every Monday in protest. The group assumed the sit-at-home would continue until Kanu regains freedom. However, IPOB has had to cancel the sit-at-home, with a caveat that it would only be observed on days Kanu appears in court. Despite this, the South East is shut down every Monday, as people stay at home out of fear and anxiety”, HURIWA said.

HURIWA challenged IPOB and residents of south east to rein in the extremist using violence to enforce these illegal sit-at-home orders which even the mainstream IPOB had denied making that order for Mondays sit-at-home.

The rights group further recounted that from June 29, when Kanu was taken to court in Abuja, after being forcefully brought back to the country, the South East has been shut down several times in observance of the sit-at-home order, adding that on those days, the South East suffers economic and social losses which magnitude may not rightly be quantified but has hit about N700 billion since June last year.

“The fact is that the South East is draining and its economy dying away as a result of the sit-at-home order. When markets, banks, supermarkets, schools and others are locked down on days they are supposed to be open, money is lost. When commercial vehicles are forced not to operate, money is lost and people’s sources of livelihood are affected. Residents have moved their businesses to places outside of South East thereby impoverishing the populace.

“Beyond this, when schools are shut, South East students and pupils lose out as their counterparts in other geopolitical zones in the country are at school. At this rate, the South East is gradually dying.

“In whose interest is the sit-at-home in the South East then? Asking people not to go about their business, as a mark of protest, is a wrong strategy to get Mazi Nnamdi Kanu out of detention. Sit-at-home can never be in the interest of the South East and would not bring Kanu out of the current predicament. From whichever angle it is looked at, the South East is the loser in the sit-at-home mess; the zone will continue to lose as long as this continues.

“By forcing people to stay at home, their businesses and sources of income are indirectly being frozen. Therefore, the South East loses billions of naira everyday people are forced to stay at home. Apart from the question of morality, this does not, in any way, affect the Federal Government or President Buhari, who are supposed to be the targets,” HURIWA lamented.

Canvassing the adoption of other proactive advocacy measures such as increased media advocacy and instituting legal matters in and out of Nigeria to challenge the human rights abuses against peaceful agitators for self-determination, including but not limited to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, Sunday Igboho and other self-determination crusaders, HURIWA emphasized that Sit-at-home, no matter the good intention those sustaining it claim it was meant for, was destroying the South East, which by providence and dint of hard work, rose from the ashes of the civil war to become an economic power house reckoned with in Nigeria and the West Coast.

“Even in the face of suppression and political disregard, the South East’s economy looked good, with an impressive per capita income. Taking actions that would reverse this trend would amount to the South East shooting itself on the foot. The people living in the South East and the companies and organisations in the zone are the ones suffering. At a time of economic hardship, people are forced not to go to their business to eke out a living,” HURIWA cautioned.

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