Many Igbo traders in Lagos state did not comply with the sit-at-home order of pro-Biafra groups.
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) had asked all Igbo to stay at home to observe the Biafra Remembrance Day.
While south-east residents complied with the directive, the situation in Lagos was different.
Traders in Alaba International market in Ojo local government, Trade Fair market, along the Badagary expressway and places in Ikeja dominated by the ethnic group, went about their different businesses as they would on a normal day.
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A businessman who pleaded anonymity said that if he were in his hometown in the east, he would have remained indoors today.
He added that some of his business associates in Lagos remained at home in the spirit of the commemoration of the day.
“We are foreigners in this land and we are under the federal government, so we can come out,” he said.
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“There are some of my friends who stayed at home because we understand what they are going through.
“We feel for those over there because they are suffering. There is no movement in the east. If I cross Niger to my village, I will not come out today.
“I can remember, May 30, 50 years ago, when the Biafran declaration was made.”
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Omife Sunday, a dealer in phone accessories at Trade Fair, told TheCable that they were celebrating it in their own way.
“We are here celebrating it here, in our own way,” Sunday said.
“There are people that came out while there are those who stayed at home.”
Another businessman said though he did not follow the sit-at-home directive, he believes in the Biafran ideology, adding that if the opportunity came, he would secede with the Biafrans.
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“If everyone is asked to leave, I’ll leave too. The directive is for only those in the village, not for Lagos. That is where Igbo people are based,” he said.
“This is a general place, it is no man’s land. We have other tribes here.”
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But there is a total lockdown in Onitsha and Awka in Anambra state as most residents are indoors in compliance with the sit-at-home order.
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In Enugu, major roads in the state were deserted, just as motor parks and markets were shut down.
Security operatives were also seen patrolling the roads.
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While some of the residents who spoke to TheCable lamented over the development, others believe “Biafran heroes are worth it”.
Some of the major roads in the city which, hitherto had always been busy, are currently deserted include Ogui, Abakpa, Old Park, Abakiliki, as well as Holy Ghost roads.
Major markets in the city are also scanty.
Some schools are also not left out as Government Secondary School in GRA as well as Government Technical College situated along Abakiliki Road – among others – are under lock and key.
In Nsukka, one of the most popular local government areas in the state, the situation is also similar as few people are seen along major roads.
At the ever-busy Peace Mass Transit Park located in the state capital, few buses seen inside were not loading even as some passengers were seen lurking around.
Speaking with TheCable, a passenger, who gave his name simply as Ebuka, said he was only able to get to Nsukka from Enugu through the help of an available taxi.
“I waited for about one hour at the park (Peace park) before I went to find a taxi going to Nsukka. I am not even sure they will be loading today,” he said.
He, however, said he still identified with Biafra, adding that “the measure isn’t that bad since it is aimed at honouring Biafran heroes.”
“I think they are worth it,” he added.
Also, Linus Nnaji, another resident, complained that the order should have been made optional for residents.
“What of some of us that don’t want to identify with Biafra,” he asked.
“I was supposed to go for a programme in school in Kogi but I can’t even go again because finding buses na wahala.”
A motorcyclist – Okafor Virginius – who spoke to TheCable on phone said he had gone out for work but saw no passengers.
Scared of the unknown, he had to return home and keep his ears to the ground.
“I went out very early like I used to but there were no passengers, just a few persons. And people are saying there may be fight. I had to go home and wait and see what happens. I will still go out in the afternoon,” he said.
Security operatives had attempted to stop pro-Biafra agitators from halting commercial activities in any part of the country.
Additional reports by Chinedu Asadu
2 comments
Why are you more concerned with where there is partial compliance? Why is your headline riddled with bad faith? Is it more news worthy to report that the entire South East is under lock down or to report that lagos didn’t comply?
Why is Nigeria media complicit in making Nigeria a fiefdom?
Please can someone Kindly go through this below piece? Heart-rending, to say the least.
*I was speaking to a very young pharmacist from the South East yesterday. I advanced the restructuring/true Fiscal Federalism as what I believe is the way out of Nigeria’s muddle. He would not buy it.
“Forget it ma’am. It’s better we just go. Give us ten-fifteen years and see how Biafra would be transformed.” He spoke with conviction. His eyes shone with what I thought was longing. “Just forget it. There is no need dragging this thing with them,” he concluded.
A good number of Igbos, and I dare add, other young Nigerians, are totally not understanding Nigeria as it is right now. It is not enough to make dismissive remarks like “They were not even born when the war happened.” Or remarks like “They don’t understand what they’re asking for.”
Make them understand. That is, if you understand what you’re asking them to understand. If it makes sense to you. It even gets more annoying when you hear the older ones, the actors and spectators of the unfortunate war, urge the younger ones to learn from history.
According to Osibanjo, “experience is the best teacher for a fool. History is a much gentler teacher.’
I agree.
But comments like that could even draw the ire of the young ones who have today been denied history classes in school.
Who keeps a people ignorant of their history? But even more annoying is the fact that those who urge this learning have themselves not only failed to learn from experience, but have bluntly refused to learn from history, the much gentler teacher.
And what is there to learn? What is there to understand?
That a boy from Anambra State aspiring to get some education at the prestigious Unity schools has to score about 139 marks in the entrance examination while his counterpart, perhaps even his classmate or neighbour from Zamfara State would only have to score 4 marks.
And that it takes an even weirder turn when they’re done with school, at which point the Zamfara boy would have over 80% more chance at a federal job than the 80% more studious boy from Anambra. How do you explain that to a young Nigerian so that he may understand?
How can they understand that a State like Kano, created at about the same time as one like Lagos, has about 44 local govt areas while Lagos State has a paltry 20 constitutionally recognized local govt areas. Bear in mind that Kano state has long been sub divided into two states of Kano and Jigawa. Jigawa alone has 27 LGAs of its own.
You can say that the old Kano State has 71 LGAs while Lagos still lags behind with 20. And that the entire South East of five states has only about 94 local govt areas? Did it strike you that the South East is the only region still dawdling with five states? It would not have mattered of course if the National cake wasn’t shared on the basis of local governments. Only if it was baked on that same basis. How would any young person without a brain for understanding twisted things get this?
How can they understand that in the present Govt, the entire South East has no representation in the security body of the country. So when the security chiefs sit to discuss security, the primary role of any govt, there is nobody from the entire SE region in attendance. How can anyone understand this.
How can even a gentle teacher make anyone understand that a South South youth would die for daring to steal crude oil from what used to be his fertile and arable farmland, while his Northern counterpart can freely mine minerals from his backyard. We only get to hear anything about it when lead poisoning begins to ravage communities.
How do you understand that we have Petroleum Equalization Fund which ensures that petroleum products get to the people in the North at the same price at which it gets to those in the South but we do not have Tomato Equalization fund or Carrot Equalization Fund to trim the cost for people in the South? Break it down for me so that I may understand since I didn’t witness the war.
How do you break down the brazen massacres of Igbos, Christians and other innocent Nigerians any time the North wakes up from the wrong side of the Asuku Ezra:
bed? Or when an artist draws a denigrating sketch of Mohammed in countries some of the victims have never heard of? Or when a group of girls decide to bare their bodies in beauty pageants? Or when a man cannot win elections? Or when a farmer must till his farmland? Or just about when anything… Just unbelievable impunity. And no one ever gets justice.
But we can start by explaining how Katsina State alone just got allotted more slots than the entire SS, than the entire SW, than the entire SE, than the entire N.Central in the ongoing (or is it completed?) recruitment by the DSS.
And a host of flustering matters.
So what is it you want History to help you teach? That the oppressed should stay calm and “ask nicely” like Obasanjo put it? They should ask nicely for their share of a piece of cake jointly baked by all? They should treat Nigeria with love like Obasanjo again suggested. It shouldn’t matter that they get only rebuffs in return. I don’t blame Obasanjo. It’s probably the way he knows love and reconciliation…one sided. Any wonder his daughter would literally disown him publicly?
I listened to all the speeches made at the Biafra@50 event. They were all rich in flowing grammar, beaming with rhetorics but glaringly bare on commitment. Nobody but Nwodo dared point a way out. Osibanjo’s speech had no mention of restructuring, something I can bet my last finger that he believes in. It would seem like we don’t want to find a way out of our predicament yet.
Make no mistake, the clamour for Biafra is getting more tumultuous by the day that I fear that the voices of some of us preaching ‘restructure’ may soon be drowned.
And this house may come crashing on us all*
(c) Nneka Aroh
This is amazing post, I applaud you.
Hopefully our youth will awaken from their slumber.
People who don’t know their history are bound to doom.
The whole Nigeria thing is disgusting I call it flogging a dead horse.
Kudos Nneka awesome breakdown.