Saturday-for Monday School Day: Southeast Governors Endorse Sit-at-home?

IN curious deference to the IPOB ordered sit-at-home on Mondays in the Southeast region, the Anambra State government officially declared Saturdays as school days. For a while, the weekend rules seemed to have been rewritten as several schools in Enugu State have adopted the same style of using Saturdays to make up for Mondays.

The verdict: Saturday is now the new Monday for school children in the Southeast.

With schools still reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 on the academic calendar, the deduction of one day from a week in observance of sit-at-home adversely affects pupils and students alike.

Hence, the action taken by the Anambra State government is commendable as it will check the pressure, which fewer days of learning put on educational institutions.

Despite enormous attempts by some state actors, groups, and individuals to resist the sit-at-home directive, adherence to the order has significantly increased.

Violent confrontations between suspected IPOB members and individuals who dared to disregard the directive have further instilled fear into members of society, and have forced more people into compliance.

With government and schools now officially adopting Saturdays as school days, IPOB seems to be successful in being recognized officially. The implications to security and the position of governors as chief security officers of their states are embarrassing.

In many parts of the Southeast, economic activities have considerably declined following the sit-at-home order. Business organizations like banks, petrol stations, and even markets are completely closed on Mondays.

It would be recalled that on September 15, 2021, Ebonyi State governor and chairman, Southeast Governors’ Forum, Engr. Dave Umahi, stated that the Southeast cumulatively loses N10 billion for every sit-at-home Monday enforced by the Pro Biafran Movement.

With Saturdays now school days, school activities have joined many other social activities that take place on Saturdays in the Southeast. Expenses which accompany a typical school day will occur on Saturdays. The disruption to leisure and other private businesses of parents and traders will soon start to unravel.

Recall that, on September 12, 2021, Governor Obiano in a meeting with stakeholders threatened to seal up businesses which remained closed to customers on Mondays. He was promptly confronted with questions about freedom to open one’s place of business at will. Enforcement was also going to be a different question given the fate of security agencies in the hands of unknown gunmen and bandits – another shaming of Nigeria’s collective security architecture.

The question is whether the approval of Saturday school by Anambra State government is a show of solidarity and acceptance of the IPOB sit-at-home order. The answer is in the affirmative, if we take it that government appears helpless.

For pupils and students who have been accustomed to Monday-Friday school rule, readjusting to the new schedule won’t be so rapid. If Saturdays now replace Mondays in the academic calendar of primary and post-primary schools, then IPOB Sit-at-home may have come to stay in the foreseeable future.

Prime Business Africa Editorial

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