Adopt sit-at-home approach, Anambra industrialist tells #EndBadGovernance protesters

As the #EndBadGovernance protest across the country enters its second day, an Anambra State-based industrialist, Chief Johnson Okolo, has asked protesters to adopt the “sit-at-home” approach as a form of expressing their grievances against the Federal Government’s “unfavourable” policies.

Okolo, while addressing journalists in Onitsha, the commercial centre of Anambra State, on Friday, in reaction to the impact of the protest so far, stated that Ndigbo and the South-East did not join the protest because past protests have not been favourable to the region.

He insisted that other geopolitical regions of the country should join the South-East zone in their weekly Monday sit-at-home protest if they really regard the zone as part of Nigeria.

He further noted that another reason the South-East zone did not participate in the ongoing hunger protest is because other regions did not support the South-East in its weekly Monday sit-at-home, which he said has lasted almost two years.

Recall that the Monday sit-at-home was declared by the Indigenous People of Biafra in 2021 as a protest to press for the unconditional release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

The industrialist further contended that the South-East zone has been calling for the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, complaining of marginalisation and a shortage of states in the region, but nobody listened.

He said, “So, what are we protesting for? The South-East zone is already in protest. Doesn’t it mean that all this while they have been protesting, is not enough for them? Let Nigerians, for the first time, join the South-East to protest by observing a weekly Monday sit-at-home.

“The Ndigbos have been protesting but nobody has listened to them. The leader of the Yoruba freedom group, Sunday Igboho, was detained because he protested marginalisation against his people, but he has been released. Nnamdi Kanu has been in prison up till now because he said he doesn’t believe in one Nigeria.

“Ohanaeze Ndigbo, both individually and collectively, all ministers in the South-East, including opposition governors, have called for the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, but the Federal Government has refused. It means we are not part of Nigeria.

“If all Nigerians could join the South-East to protest by observing a weekly Monday sit-at-home, it would be more effective than a hunger protest. But, for the South-East to join the hunger protest will cripple their already existing protest because, after the hunger protest, Nigerians will go back to their businesses and we will continue Monday’s sit-at-home protest.

“What I am saying is that the South-East should not join the hunger protest because they are already protesting. If Nigerians truly believe that Igbos are part of Nigeria, let them join the Monday sit-at-home.”