A severe showdown between the state government and defiant traders is paralyzing the commercial heart of southeastern Nigeria, exposing the limits of Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s authority and sparking a rebellion that is bleeding the regional economy of billions.
A Week of Tension Leading to a Sudden Shutdown
The crisis escalated rapidly over a single, tense week. On Wednesday, January 21, Anambra’s State Executive Council held a retreat and formally declared an end to the long-standing Monday “sit-at-home” order across the state, which had been enforced by fear. All markets, including Onitsha Main Market, were directed to resume full operations on Mondays.
However, on Monday, January 26, Governor Soludo visited the market and found shops still closed. In a dramatic, on-the-spot decision criticized as impulsive and heavy-handed, he ordered the immediate, one-week closure of the market and deployed security forces to seal it. The shutdown was to last until Saturday, January 31, with a warning that failure to fully reopen on Monday, February 2, could result in a one-month closure.
Soludo’s Collective Punishment and the Real Trader Grievances
Governor Soludo’s administration frames the traders’ defiance as “economic sabotage” and “wilful defiance,” claiming the state loses ₦8 billion every Monday in market activity. The state’s response, however, has been to enact what critics call collective punishment. Beyond the market closure, the government has also banned Monday school closures and will enforce pro-rata salary payments for civil servants from February, meaning they will lose pay for missing Mondays.
For the traders, the government’s response ignores the core of the problem. Their protest is not just disobedience; it’s driven by a complex web of grievances.
Some of which include a lack of security, which traders argue the government has not addressed the fundamental issue of security on the routes to the market on Mondays, leaving them vulnerable.
There’s also the issue of a broader shutdown, where authorities argued that the continued closure of banks on Mondays halts the flow of cash and customers, making commerce nearly impossible even if shops were open.
Additionally, the “sit-at-home” is deeply intertwined with support for the detained IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu. Videos from the protest show traders chanting in his support, indicating Soludo’s orders cannot erase a potent political sentiment.
Some legal analysts are now questioning the constitutionality of Soludo’s “collective punishment,” arguing the move may be on shaky legal ground.
What This Means
The standoff asks a fundamental question: who truly controls Onitsha? The government’s power is being tested not by a rival political party, but by a deep-seated climate of fear and a trader community pushed to its limit.
The Anambra House of Assembly has backed the governor, arguing the shutdown is for “the common good.” However, lawmakers’ own broader figures reveal an even more staggering cost: the state loses N19.6 billion every single Monday, with the broader Southeast region hemorrhaging nearly N88 billion weekly. By closing the market, Soludo has effectively chosen to halt all trade rather than solve the underlying crisis.
For small business owners, this is an existential threat. Lawmakers admit that SMEs bear 60% of the financial losses, with micro-businesses losing an estimated N4.6 trillion annually.
Governor Soludo has chosen confrontation over addressing the complex realities of fear and logistics. The result is a lose-lose scenario: traders feel targeted and unsafe, the state bleeds revenue, and the governor’s authority appears more fragile than ever. Until the government addresses the real grievances over security, banking, and political sentiment, its threats only deepen the very crisis it claims to be solving.
