From Aloysius Attah (Onitsha), Ogbonnaya Ndukwe (Aba), Obinna Odogwu (Awka) and Jude Chinedu (Enugu)
The “Holy Monday” started on August 9, 2021, when the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) declared sit-at-home on every Monday in the Southeast, saying that the order would subsist until its leader, Nnamdi Kanu is released from the custody of the Department of State Service (DSS). The Federal Government had in June this year intercepted the IPOB leader from Kenya after he fled the country following military attacks on his Afaraukwu home in Abia State as he was standing trial on treason charges, which started in 2015. He jumped his ball in 2017.
The pro-Biafra group termed the sit-at-home order ‘Ghost Monday’, where it directed that all schools, markets, banks, motor parks and every other social and economic activity in the region every Monday be stalled until 6:00p.m.
But, IPOB has since suspended the order, directing instead that there would only be sit-at-home on any day its leader would be appearing in court.
Yet, despite its counter-directive, the Monday sit-at-home is still being enforced in the region by people who claimed to also be in the hierarchy of the pro-Biafra group. 
In fact, many have lost their lives for merely ‘disobeying’ the purported suspended sit-at-home call by the IPOB.
The ensuing scenario has for over eight weeks and still counting wasted Mondays, ordinarily regarded as a prime work, school and business day in the Southeast.
Thus these Mondays have been sacrificed in adherence to the forced directive of some uncontrollable forces within IPOB or some fifth columnists masquerading as enforcers of the order.
Monday is the first work day of the week after rest on Sunday and attending to other social engagements on Saturday.
Traders in Onitsha in Anambra State and Aba in Abia State, look forward to Mondays for bumper sales as most customers from outside the states come to the various markets in the two cities to purchase their goods in bulk.
Workers also go to work on Mondays with full vigour and predetermined tasks and targets for the week which they lay out modalities of achieving in their offices on Mondays.
Even school children and their teachers also look forward to Mondays for school curricular work, assessments and other activities lined up for the week.
But today, the story has changed. Since August 9, Mondays have literary turned to an extension of the weekends. The situation is such that the IPOB-induced ‘Ghost Mondays’ have become ‘Holy Mondays’ because no activities now take place on Mondays in the region.
Those who had dared to challenge the prevailing situation by venturing out early morning on Mondays are living to regret their actions while the unlucky ones had lost their lives.
But the Igbo man in his ingenuity and innovative mind is trying to find a way round this ugly situation.
And today, in Onitsha and its environs, people are devising strategies to cope with the forced Monday sit-at-home.
This in a bid to make up for the lost Mondays, some banks and schools are already extending their operations to Saturday; while markets and others businesses now open on Sunday in the Southeast.
Also, in Onitsha, Monday mornings have been converted to meeting days within the church circle and other groups living within the vicinity, while others also try to outwit the enforcers of the sit-at-home order to still maneuver and do some businesses to survive.
For instance, at Old Motor spare parts market (Mgbuka), Obosi, Monday used to be for opening and offloading of various containers by importers who bring in goods from Belgium, China, Senegal, Hong Kong , Dubai and the rest.
Traders normally rushed out to the market on Monday morning to select their preferred choice goods from the importers as they unsealed their containers, but today, this all-important routine now takes place on Sundays.
With an in-house arrangement between the market leaders and the security personnel manning the markets, the importers now offload their goods on Sundays. Within this arrangement, commercial activities take place in a brisk form as the retailers source their products from the importers, pay for them and also waybill to their customers on Sundays.
A trader in the spare parts market, Sunday Okereke said: “We have to do this on Sundays and revert to our homes and do other things in-house on Mondays. Even in times of the civil war, there used to be what they called ahia attack while there was some form of open trading in war times. Now, we are not at war, but they said we should not venture out on Mondays. It is not fair, but we must survive.”
Our reporter gathered that similar thing happens in other major markets in Onitsha like the Onitsha Main Market, Ochanja market, Bridge Head Market and so on.
Another trader dealing in sports materials at Onitsha main market, Stephen Eze said that the internal arrangement has been working even during the time of lockdown occasioned by COVID-19.
He said that the reigning pattern now is business by phone calls and waybills.
“The incessant closure of markets and other hazards have made most of our customers to stop coming to Onitsha physically to buy goods. They just call on phone and give you the list of what they need. You then source the goods and send them to the motor park as waybill. So, if it becomes expedient that the person needs it like on Tuesday morning unfailingly, you can go on Sunday, settle the security people in the market and you enter, pack the goods and send to your customer. Even on Mondays, some people do enter the market, but many are afraid for their lives and that’s why they chose to stay indoors on such days,” he said.
Chairman of Onitsha main market, Kenneth Onyeka in a chat with our reporter said that the traders are only looking out for government intervention to address the situation so that normal business activities could take place on Mondays as it used to be.
He said that the mad rush often experienced on Tuesdays owing to the influx of travellers, traders and other road users normally creates another chaotic situation that sometimes one can even spend half of the day or a larger part of Tuesdays in traffic gridlock.
Sunday Sun also learnt that some banks in Onitsha now do Saturday banking services, but these have been on skeletal arrangements.
Teachers in both private and government-owned schools who spoke on condition of anonymity said they even enjoy the Monday sit-at-home since it gives them extra one day to plan themselves and their families.
Chairman of Association of Private School Proprietors in Anambra State, Success Akawor declined comments when contacted.
Other market leaders also approached for comments politely declined, citing security reasons.
“Do you know that my opponents reported me to IPOB and falsely said I ordered traders to open their shops on Mondays which I never did. I received so many threat calls and I have been very careful since then. Life has no duplicate so I don’t want to talk anymore before they will twist my statement again,” a market leader, who pleaded not to be named, said.
In Awka, though Sunday Sun was told that the banks do not operate on Saturdays, it gathered that some schools in the capital city now operate on Saturdays.
A resident said in his neighbourhood the schools operate on Saturdays to make up for Mondays.
He said: “Yes, some private schools now open on Saturdays. They no longer operate on Mondays because of this sit-at-home of a thing. Most of them wear school uniforms on Saturdays.”
Some parents who spoke with the reporter in Awka, expressed mixed views about the schools opening on Saturday.
The majority of the respondents argued that it was good since it is targeted at making up for Monday, which has, for now, been lost to the sit-at-home order.
Aba traders, school managers adopt new strategies
Residents of Aba, the commercial city of Abia State have been adversely affected by the intractable issue of Monday sit-at-home.
In fact, it is not the best of time for business establishments, educational institutions and traders in the commercial city, to continuously be forced to stay away from conducting the activities through which they feed and take care of other responsibilities.
Our investigation showed that as a way out, many of the traders who hitherto stayed at home on Saturdays and Sundays, are resorting to adjusting their business hours to make up for the Monday losses.
This is, against any official proclamation by the state government, that the weekends become days of business in order to allow access into locked gates of the major markets, government and public buildings for official transactions.
A rights activist and clergyman, Rev. Celestine Odogwu told Sunday Sun, that though there was no official directive on the adjustments, many traders now carry out business on Saturdays and Sundays to make up for the Monday sit-at-home loss.
Odogwu, who lives along the Chief Sam Mbakwe Avenue (former Faulks Road) area, close to Ariaria International Market, said that despite the locking of entrance gates into the market, the traders display their wares on access roads and open spaces to attract customers.
“The effect of the Monday sit-at-home, is biting hard on the people, especially the traders, so they devised ways of using Saturdays and Sundays, to do business,” he said.
Odogwu said that the continued harassment of Aba residents by hoodlums using the name of IPOB, to forcefully comply with the order, was not in the best interest of the people, stressing that so much has been lost in terms of cash and labour.
Speaking in the same vein, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Chuks Muoma, said the sit-at-home issue has been mishandled as its negative effect has begun to create fear among the people.
Muoma, a former legal adviser of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, called on the appropriate authorities to protect the citizens from those he described as miscreants that have hijacked the initial directive by the IPOB.
The legal luminary said: “There is need to protect the people from hoodlums that have hijacked the original sit-at-home order.
“The present situation is that of instigating fear and destroying lives and property of those seen as not complying, despite the fact that IPOB has called off the order.”
A headmistress in a private school in Aba confirmed that many institutions have adjusted their school timetable, to make up for the Mondays.
The school head, who refused to be named, said that her management alongside others, have adjusted the time for closure upwards to 4:00p.m from the normal 2:00p.m, as well as asked pupils to come on Saturdays to make up for lost time.
“The Monday sit-at-home is affecting our school calendar seriously and may lead to our not concluding the term’s curriculum, so we need to adjust the period to make up for loss.
“Our children’s education are at stake and people are threatening us with death and destruction, for refusing to stay away from school on Mondays. It is not in our society’s interest and must be revisited”, she lamented.
Enugu schools may adjust calendar
In Enugu, it was gathered that the management of several private schools may soon review their calendar and operate on Saturdays.
One of the proprietors who spoke with Sunday Sun, Stephen Ogbondinso, said that from next week, his school, Divine Wisdom Golden School will join other schools in the state to include Saturday in their academic calendar.
Ogbondinso said: “It is impossible for any parent to release his child on Monday and you know Mondays are the days when we have all the key subjects. Nobody wants to be told stories.
“So, we are considering the Saturday option. In fact, we were supposed to start this week with other schools, but our own will be next week. You know that the five days we are supposed to be in school have been cut to four days.
“The sit-at-home has really affected our programme so we are considering that option. We want to complete it with Saturday. Some schools have even started it here in Enugu. That is the only way we can meet up with the scheme of work and the curriculum.”
But, the proprietor of Queens Model School, Enugu, Chukwuma Okenwa is of the view that the move to include Saturday in the academic calendar of school is not a smart option because, according to him, it deprives the child of the opportunity to interact with the informal environment.
He said despite the fact that the loss of Mondays takes a serious toll on the school schedule, the greater concern of his school is the safety of the child.
“The truth of the matter is that it has actually disrupted the learning objectives. You know that we work with schemes and schedules. You have a target to cover. Imagine loading out the first day of learning. Coming back on Tuesday, the children need to be re-motivated to be in the right frame of mind to learn because they are just coming back from an extended weekend. That reluctance is seen and it’s not playing well in their psychology.
“At the moment, the greater concern is that of the security of the kids. The parents as critical stakeholders are not in any way ready to release their kids except for those that were involved in external examinations.
“Whatever attempt you make to include the Monday will end up hampering the entire process of education which should give room for rest and interface with the informal environment which is the family.
“But when children are seated at home on Mondays, looking up for news online and all the shooting, you can be very sure that that Monday is wasted. So, if the Saturdays are for house chores and Sundays for religious activities, if you collapse the Saturday, if you learn everything and you don’t learn to be homely, then you’ve learnt nothing because education has to be complete. So, collapsing the Saturday to compensate for Monday will not be a smart option.”
At the popular Ogbete Market, Enugu, it was gathered that roadside commercial activities have increased lately on Sundays as people now display their wares as early as 9:00a.m.
A visitor to the place on Sunday could mistake it is a normal market day. Many of the people now attend early morning church services before coming to market or they do so in the evening, after their business at the market.
Chukwudi Okwor, who deals in unisex wears at Ogbete main market Enugu told Sunday Sun that his business was not interfering with his religious obligations.
He explained that he would attend the 6:00a.m Mass before coming to the market around 9:00a.m.
He also argued that there was nothing wrong about doing business on a Sunday.
But, our findings in Ebonyi and Imo states showed that businesses open at skeletal level on Mondays, though there were no plans by traders to open the markets on Sundays, and school proprietors to extend teaching and learning activities to Saturdays.