The shutting down of the gates of Onitsha Main Market, the largest market in West Africa, by the state Governor of Anambra, Prof Soludo, is ...
The shutting down of the gates of Onitsha Main Market, the largest market in West Africa, by the state Governor of Anambra, Prof Soludo, is an open exhibition of a Dictator who did not just shut down the market but attempted to seal the breath of his people. A market is not merely a place of trade. It is the village square of survival, the heartbeat of families, the university of enterprise, the altar where dignity is earned through honest sweat. When you lock such a place, you do not punish buildings, you punish stomachs.
From January 26th 2026, to February 1st 2026, the popular Onitsha Main Market was under lock and key by the direct order of Governor Soludo.
The reason is as stark as it is troubling. In the past 4 years, The Traders of the market have refused to open the market on Mondays in protest over the continued detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). This is not a riot; it is a ritual of conscience. It is the quiet language of civil resistance. A day of stillness to speak louder than noise. It is their constitutional Right to stage a peaceful protest by observing a Sit at Home every Monday.
We must recall what happened in 2023 shortly after this same Governor Soludo was sworn into office. He immediately ordered the people to end the Sit at Home and resume Monday trading, promising to ensure the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. The Traders, trusting his words, complied, but the Governor did nothing. Shortly after, the chairman of Mgbuka Market was abducted. To this day, his whereabouts remain unknown. The silence that followed was louder than any speech. No decisive action. No accountability. No investigation to date. And now, instead of addressing the root cause of the protest, the government has chosen to fight the symptom by strangling livelihoods.
Across the streets of Anambra, youths have risen not with arms, but with voices. Yet security operatives clamp down on them as though dissent itself were a crime. The state appears to be treating fever with chains rather than curing the infection. You cannot heal a wound by bandaging the surface.
In developed democracies, the playbook is different. When workers in France protest, the government negotiates. When farmers block highways in Germany, leaders sit down with them. In the United States, when citizens protest, courts protect the right to assemble, while authorities seek to engage in dialogue. The mature state understands that disagreement is not treason; it is the oxygen of democracy. They address causes, not merely consequences.
But here, the market, the people's own personal properties, have been turned into a pawn. These shops belong to citizens, not the government. The traders pay taxes faithfully. They build the economy brick by brick. Yet, in one sweep of executive anger, their livelihoods are suspended as military men surround them with armoured tanks.
Shakespeare captured this tragedy centuries ago: "The poor are as well pleased as the rich, when they see the ruin of their enemies; but the envious man cannot rejoice, though he sees the downfall of his foe." (Julius Caesar). Power that delights in punishment forgets that governance is stewardship, not vengeance.
The deeper crisis is that the government has refused to confront the real question: Why are people protesting? Why does the detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu still echo in the streets? Why do citizens feel unheard? Closing a market does not answer these questions. It only multiplies them. As the Bard wrote, "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." (Henry IV, Part 2). Authority without empathy becomes a crown of thorns.
We, the lovers of freedom, therefore call on the international community, the United Nations, and the United States to pay attention. Anambra is at a crossroads. There is a dangerous drift from dialogue to repression, from governance to coercion. The fear on the streets is that the Governor is preparing to sacrifice the youth to political loyalty, having already declared open support for President Bola Tinubu and, by extension, compelling others to follow suit.
History teaches us that when leaders choose iron over justice, the iron rusts. Markets can be rebuilt, but trust once broken takes generations to mend. Shakespeare warned us again: "This above all: to thine own self be true." (Hamlet). A government that is true to itself must be true to its people.
Anambra does not need locked gates; it needs open ears. It does not need batons; it needs bridges. It does not need to crush Monday's protests; it needs to answer Monday's question.
If you close the door on a man's livelihood, you invite him to knock on the door of history. And history, unlike markets, never closes.
By Mazi Eziokwu Bu Ndu
Edited by
Onyekachi Mboma
For
Imo State Media Team
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