By Ebuka Onyekwelu, Ph.D
The Deputy Governorship candidate of the YPP in the November 8, 2025, Anambra State Governorship Election, Uzu Okagbue, took people by surprise when he gave a resounding support to Governor Soludo’s effort to assert the authority of the government of Anambra State and put an end to the regular Monday sit-at-home. Uzu, known for his calm and effective lifestyle, gave his full support to Governor Soludo’s decision to lock down Onitsha Main Market for one week till the traders comply with trading on Mondays in a piece he entitled, “Reclaiming Mondays: Leadership, Commerce and the End of Anambra’s most Expensive Delusion.” This piece, which has received hundreds of comments on his social media, among which included a response from Nnamdi Kanu’s brother, is Okagbue’s first comment since last November’s election.
Importantly, Okagbue’s piece is coming in an environment where politicians play it safe to avoid bad publicity and possible rejection at the ballot. Sadly, this attitude of safe play by policymakers and leaders has fed IPOB agitation and has forced many people into silence because they do not want to be profiled, resisted, or harmed. As stakeholders and policy makers continue to avoid taking a stand in the contemporary IPOB agitation, the group has continued to arm-twist and blackmail the government, while building on its presumed popularity. On Monday, Uzu Okagbue was not only the first to raise a voice of reason in support of Governor Soludo, when he should not have bordered, but by doing so, he demonstrated that opposition has a higher calling beyond the mundane or ultimate ambition of taking over government.
Uzu’s call should resonate among Anambra’s elites. It should be replicated across the Southeast. Our leaders must begin to assert their competent and informed opinions on State, regional, and national issues, not only for political reasons, but as a patriotic duty. The time for playing safe must be confined to the dustbin of history because, ultimately, no one is safe in a troubled society where the legitimacy of the government has been withered by agitators. It is a duty for all sons and daughters of the Southeast, irrespective of political affiliation or other considerations, to stand firm and end these creeping and nebulous assumptions by non-state actors that they can compete with a legitimate government.
It must be noted that the effort to restore law and order in Anambra State and put an end to the last vestiges of illegality by agitators in the state is not about Governor Soludo, as he has nothing to lose. In or out of government, Soludo can afford to live in any part of the world, safely tucked in the comfort earned through years of his knowledge-entrepreneurship.
Therefore, Southeast stakeholders and political leaders must emphatically put an end to this menace to curb the chances of dragging us back to the state of governmentlessness, where anarchy and raw force prevail. Uzu Okagbues’s example should be sustained as a duty we owe ourselves.
