Unraveling Monday sit-at-home quagmire in Enugu State

Unraveling the ‘Monday sit-at-home’ in Enugu is a classic leadership quagmire. It mimics the dilemma of the tsetse fly perched on the scrotum – swatting the fly without due care may crush the testicles. Doing nothing does not preserve the twin balls, either.

Yet, something must be done.

The sit-at-home order by renegades is destructive. It undermines the rights of citizens to free movement and pursuit of their social and economic endeavors. No benefit can come out of this obnoxious imposition. Government is right in working to end it.

Sealing businesses, however, for not opening to business further compels the shop owners to ‘sit at home’. Just, what you don’t want.

Our people sit at home on Mondays out of fear for dear life. Businesses are set up for profit. No benefit, therefore, accrues in the owners shutting their businesses. Each day that owners sit at home undermines their business and profit and survival. However, it is only someone who is alive that can open a business to make a profit. There are genuine reasons to be fearful.

The ongoing efforts by the government are commendable. In addition to mobilizing the security services, the government must work to earn the trust of citizens. Trust cannot be earned by force. It cannot be decreed. Overturning these two years of fear will require some level of patience.

Government should not be baited by non-state actors into coercive actions that may be counterproductive.

I urge empathy, constructive engagement, and demonstrable efforts to protect citizens in a way that they can see and feel, in order to progressively restore normalcy to the state.

Frank Nweke Jr
July 24, 2023