Mr Peter Mbah, governor of Enugu State, Thursday, ended the Monday sit-at-home in the state. Mbah however pleaded with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra.
The sit-at-home was declared in 2021 after Kanu was redintioned from Kenya to Nigeria despite travelling to Kenya as a British citizen. He was hitherto charged with running a proscribed group, jumping bail and treason.
Kanu is however acquitted and discharged by Nigeria’s Court of Appeals. Kanu’s special counsel, Barr Aloy Ejimakor, earlier appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to release Kanu and eschew toeing the line of his predecessor, Mr Muhammadu Buhari, who sought a stay of execution order of Kanu’s release at the Supreme Court.
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Enugu governor Mbah made the order while listing out the decisions reached at the end of his first security council meeting with the heads of all the security agencies at the Government House, Enugu, on Thursday.
He said the sit-at-home order was at variance with his administration’s quest to better the welfare of the residents of the state, hence the order to halt it.
Quoting it, “There is no time to waste. The clock has started ticking on the mandate you gave me and deliverables I promised.
“A time comes in the lives of a people when they must decide whether they genuinely want to move forward or remain stuck with the conditions of their underdevelopment.
“The creativity and sense of industry of Ndi Igbo are remarkable. Our DNA is wired with commercial and entrepreneurial prowess.
“If this is what we are known by, then it becomes inconsistent with reality that the spirits of entrepreneurship, commerce and creativity are killed every Monday in our land. Our restless spirit of industry abhors laxity and indolence.
“The idea behind sitting at home on Monday, the first working and business day of the week, is abominable and antithetical to greatness and the spirit of industry we profess to have inherited from our forebears. This cannot be us. Tufiakwa (God forbid). It does colossal damage to us.”
Mbah said the order was killing the dream of his administration to move the state forward. He stated, “For us to transit from a public service economy to a private sector-driven one, we must free our markets from the shackles of restriction to commerce. If indeed we aspire and anticipate an influx of private sector practitioners and investors in Enugu State, we must know that this will not happen where the perception of us is that of unproductive people.
“Therefore, those that strike on Mondays, putting restrictions in the way of our Igbo spirit of creativity, cannot be our true representatives. In fact, they kill our spirit.
“We know that our land is a fertile ground for commerce. However, businesses, entrepreneurship and commerce require a vibrant workforce and big markets where they can flourish and make money.
“To this end, therefore, from Monday June 6, 2023, there will be no observance of any sit-at-home in all nooks and crannies of Enugu State.
“Government will enforce this with all the powers at its disposal. My charge to all of you – market men and women, the corporate world, industries, schools, civil servants, and all strata of workers in Enugu State — is for us to take back our sense of industry, pride of place and re-enact our glorious past.
“By heeding to this call, you would have set us on the path of actualising our mandate.”
Mbah therefore called on President Bola Tinubu to obey the court order and release Kanu. He said, “I call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to consciously work towards the release of MazI Nnamdi Kanu. We believe that his release will expedite the healing process Nigeria needs at this time.
“It will also be a pointer to his administration’s extension of brotherly hands of fellowship to Ndigbo.”