Following the one-week closure of Onitsha Main Market by Governor Chukwuma Soludo over traders’ compliance with the Monday sit-at-home, Prof. Itse Sagay and Chief Chekwas Okorie have condemned the action of the governor.
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In separate interviews with our correspondent on the development, they urged the governor to ensure total protection of traders if he hoped to end the Monday sit-at-home, saying there was no way traders could be forced to open shops when their safety was not guaranteed.
Prof. Sagay, former chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, said the closure of the market was a wrong move.
“He cannot order them not to sit at home on Monday when their safety is not guaranteed,” he said.
“When you cannot guarantee their safety, they have to play safe by not coming to the market, so closing the market for one week is wrong.
“They are sitting at home not because they want to but because they are afraid.
“Once you can guarantee security for them, they will gladly go out and trade on Monday.
“I’ve seen cases in the past where people came out and were later killed or attacked. So there is a need for a guarantee of protection.
“I think he should not have closed the market because the traders are not at fault here.”
Similarly, Chief Okorie, founder and former chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), criticised Governor Soludo, saying the governor got it all wrong.
“Professor Soludo has gotten it completely wrong. What he has done is to worsen an already bad situation because traders cannot open their shops when their safety is at risk,” he said.
He added that Soludo had failed to show the expected judgment for someone of his standing, education and exposure.
“We are talking about a state that is considered one large market. You cannot go one or two kilometres in Anambra without seeing a sizeable market.
“Onitsha Main Market is the biggest commercial market in West Africa and has retained that status despite the civil war.
“So for a governor who is an economist and a former Central Bank governor to shut it down raises serious questions.
“There are people who depend on the market daily for their livelihood.
“People are staying at home not by choice but out of fear of being attacked.
“So he cannot impose sanctions and keep shutting the market until they comply. Government should adopt a non-threatening approach.”
Okorie urged South-East governors to adopt dialogue-based and non-kinetic approaches similar to those used in parts of northern Nigeria to address insecurity.
He stressed that the perpetrators were not unknown and should be engaged rather than punishing innocent traders who fear for their lives.
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