Governor Chukwuma Soludo shutting down Onitsha Main Market in Anambra State, south east Nigeria, seems tough, but this action does not fix the real problem.
Development Diaries reports that the governor, in a move to enforce compliance with the state’s directive against the controversial Monday sit-at-home order, ordered the immediate shutdown of the popular market and adjoining markets for one week, in the first instance.
He also announced that if traders failed to open at the expiration of the one-week shutdown, the market would be closed for another week and subsequently for longer periods.
But is shutting markets how the state restores security? Who bears the cost? What system failed long before the bulldozer threat?
What is clear is that security governance, economic protection and livelihoods, and crisis communication and trust in state authority are the systems failing at once.
Traders stay home on Mondays because they are afraid of violent reprisals, not because they love the sit-at-home order. And closing the market may force shops to open later, but it does not remove the threat that keeps people indoors.
Another concern is that ordinary people, not the state, bear the cost of this decision, as traders lose daily income, apprentices and loaders lose wages, and transport workers lose passengers, while women traders, who dominate retail stalls, are hit the hardest.
Low-income traders have no savings to absorb a week of closure, with people with disabilities facing more risk in insecure streets. This policy shifts the burden of insecurity onto the poorest, while those who enforce fear remain untouched.
This is also a rights issue, as Onitsha Main Market is one of West Africa’s largest commercial hubs. Now, the sit-at-home has disrupted trade, schools, transport, and state revenue, while traders now face the double risk of violence if they open and punishment if they close.
Their right to livelihood, personal security, and freedom of movement are all at stake.
The core mistake is treating compliance as the problem instead of dismantling coercion, because fear cannot be legislated away; it must be neutralised through protection, intelligence, and trust-building.
The people of Anambra State should ask about what protection is provided to traders who open and who is responsible if violence happens.
Traders’ associations should document losses, demand compensation, and petition the House of Assembly to review the legality of market shutdowns.
The Anambra State government must publish a civilian protection plan for markets, move from blanket closures to intelligence-led arrests, dismantle non-state enforcers, create compensation for forced closures, and build community policing and reconciliation with clear timelines.
Photo source: Channels TV
