FOSAD BLASTS ONITSHA MARKET SHUTDOWN: “COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT WON’T SOLVE SIT-AT-HOME CRISIS”

The debate over Anambra State’s enforcement of the Monday sit-at-home ban is growing louder and now, the academic community is stepping firmly into the conversation. On today’s discussion segment, we spotlight the strong reaction from the Forum of South-East Academic Doctors (FOSAD), which has openly criticized the temporary closure of Onitsha Main Market by the Anambra State Government.

Joining us remotely is Dr. Uzor Ngoladi, Secretary General of FOSAD, who argues that shutting down one of Africa’s largest commercial markets is not just an economic blow but a moral and governance concern. According to FOSAD, traders are not defiant actors but citizens caught in the crossfire of insecurity and fear, making the market closure feel less like policy enforcement and more like collective punishment.

The Anambra government maintains that firm action is necessary to revive economic activity and end the cycle of weekly shutdowns that have cost the state billions in lost productivity. But FOSAD sees it differently. The group warns that force cannot manufacture confidence and that coercion may deepen distrust between citizens and the government instead of restoring normalcy.

Onitsha Main Market is more than a trading hub, it is a symbol of Igbo enterprise, feeding families across the South-East and beyond. For thousands of small-scale traders, a single day without business can mean unpaid school fees, disrupted supply chains, and mounting debts. FOSAD says closing the market under these conditions ignores the real driver of compliance: fear for personal safety, not political protest.

In this conversation, Dr. Ngoladi calls on Governor Chukwuma Soludo to reconsider the shutdown and adopt dialogue-driven, non-coercive strategies that address insecurity at its root while rebuilding public trust. The group believes sustainable peace and economic revival can only come from engagement, protection, and confidence-building, not punitive measures.

As Anambra stands at a crossroads between enforcement and empathy, this discussion asks the big questions:
Can economic revival happen without first restoring a sense of safety?
Where is the line between governance and overreach?
And how should leaders respond when citizens are trapped between fear and survival?

This is more than a policy dispute, it is a conversation about rights, responsibility, and the path to stability in the South-East.


#OnitshaMarket #Anambra #FOSAD #SitAtHome #Soludo #SouthEastNigeria #EconomicRights #PublicPolicy #AfiaTV #Governance