On Mondays, fear arrives before dawn.
Not the loud kind. Not panic. Just a quiet calculation made in thousands of homes at the same time: Is it worth the risk?
Most times, fear wins before breakfast.
We all agree on one thing now—this sit-at-home is bleeding the economy. It is draining traders, transporters, apprentices, and households. It is shrinking confidence and stretching poverty. But knowing the damage is not the same as knowing how to stop it.
Because here is the hard truth: you cannot command people out of fear; you must walk them out of it.
Right now, policy has focused too much on shops and too little on movement. Markets don’t open in isolation. They open because people can get there.
Most traders in Onitsha do not live inside the market. They come from neighbouring towns, villages, even other local governments. Their first battle on Monday is not courage—it is logistics.
If there are no buses.
If there are no tricycles.
If roads are empty and tense.
Then “open your shop” becomes an empty instruction.
So if government truly wants Mondays back, transport must come first.
Let transporters be visibly, deliberately encouraged—and protected—to operate on Mondays. When buses are on the road, fear begins to lose its grip. Movement creates confidence. Confidence creates commerce. Commerce restores normalcy.
You don’t cure fear in the market; you cure it on the road.
Then comes incentives—not as charity, but as strategy.
Imagine Mondays where government-backed buses offer free or subsidized rides into major commercial hubs. Not speeches. Not threats. Just quiet, practical support.
A trader who knows transport is free, safe, and available is already halfway out the door. The psychological barrier begins to crack.
Fear thrives in isolation. It weakens in crowds.
When people start seeing others move—neighbors, traders, transporters—the spell begins to break. Not overnight. But steadily. Confidence returns the same way fear arrived: quietly, repeatedly, collectively.
This is how fear is defeated—not by punishment, but by presence.
Governor Chukwuma Soludo has spoken often about economic revival, productivity, and restoring Anambra’s rhythm. That rhythm will not return through directives alone. It will return through thoughtful sequencing:
Movement before markets
Incentives before enforcement
Confidence before compliance
Closing markets may show authority, but it does not create courage. Courage grows when people feel supported, not cornered.
If sit-at-home is enforced by fear, then fear—not traders—must become the primary policy target. And fear responds best to visibility, reassurance, and collective movement.
Bring the buses out.
Light up the roads.
Let people move together.
When movement becomes normal again, Mondays will follow.
Linus Anagboso
#BIGPEN
National Coordinator, South East Emerging Leaders for Awakening( SELA PROJECT).
— Inspiring Impact Through Words & Innovation.
Tel: 08026387711.
