By Mary Onyia
A reported truce between Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo and representatives of Onitsha Main Market traders appears to have eased tensions over the closure of the market, although the agreement has not been officially confirmed. The reporter gathered from unofficial quarters that dialogue facilitated by stakeholders has led to a tentative understanding to end the Monday sit-at-home observance and reopen the market for normal business.
The crisis began last Monday, January 26, 2026, when Governor Soludo ordered the indefinite closure of the market, citing traders’ resistance to abandoning the long-standing Monday shutdown. The governor said the action was necessary to protect the state economy from what he described as enforced paralysis.
“The continued observance of Monday sit-at-home is killing businesses and undermining public authority. Government cannot watch while fear is allowed to dictate how our people live and trade,” Soludo was quoted as saying.
He further explained that the closure would remain until traders committed to full commercial activities throughout the week.
“There is no law in Anambra that says markets must close on Mondays. Until traders are ready to open every day without exception, the government will take firm measures to restore normalcy,” the governor added.
The directive immediately triggered protests across Onitsha, with traders accusing the government of punishing victims rather than addressing the root of the insecurity. Many shut major roads around the market while chanting solidarity songs.
“We are traders, not criminals. Closing our shops for a whole week is like sentencing our families to hunger,” one protest leader told journalists during the demonstration.
Another trader lamented that the decision ignored the fears that had sustained the sit-at-home over the years.
“The government should protect us first before forcing us to open. We only stayed at home because we wanted to be safe,” she said as the crowd surged toward the market gate.
While the protests threatened public peace, sources said intervention from Abuja encouraged Governor Soludo to open discussions with market leaders. Though no official communiqué has been issued, insiders claim both sides have agreed in principle to end hostilities and gradually restore normal trading.
Signs of a possible resolution were noticed in the education sector. Students in Anambra who had been attending classes on Saturdays to make up for Mondays were surprisingly at home this weekend, saying their schools had informed them that Monday would henceforth be a normal school day.
Ebele Obike, a 12-year-old JSS III pupil of a private school in Amawbia, Awka, told FP that her school administrator circulated a memo cancelling Saturday lessons.
“We got a message from the school authority that we are no longer required to attend school on Saturdays, because Mondays are now school days,” she said excitedly.
The sit-at-home crisis has for years disrupted commerce, education, and public life in Anambra, particularly in Onitsha, the commercial nerve centre of the South-East. Residents hope that the emerging peace, if formally confirmed, will finally return the state to a full working week and end a chapter of uncertainty for traders and students alike.
Efforts to reach the spokesman of the governor have proved abortive.