Leveraging Popular Frustration and Split in IPOB Halting the Persistent Sit-at-home in South-East Nigeria

It is tempting to view South Eastern Nigeria, which comprises Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States, as a model of anarchy. The reason for this is not the absence of governments in the states but the authorities’ seeming powerlessness in the face of a clear existential danger to the people posed by those who pretend to be Biafran secessionist agitators. Following the arrest of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the proscribed the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), his members ordered that a ‘ghost town’ protest, commonly called sit-at-home, must occur every Monday with effect from August 9 2021. This form of non-violent civil disobedience warrants a total shutdown of all economic, political and administrative activities within the South East geopolitical zone.

Thus, this edition of Nextier SPD Policy Weekly focuses on leveraging stakeholders’ demonstrated willingness to collaborate in ending the recurrent imposition of sit-at-home in the South East.

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