The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, says about N4 trillion had been lost to the sit-at-home order in the South-East region of the country in the past two years.
Kalu said the sit-at-home observed every Monday in the five states of Imo, Enugu, Abia, Anambra, and Ebonyi crippled businesses and stifled opportunities for economic growth in the South-East.
The Deputy Speaker stressed that the order, which has led to the killing of some people in the region, has also forced potential investors out of the South-East.
He said this while speaking at the ‘All Markets Conference 2023’ in Lagos on Friday, July 14, 2023.
Kalu, who called for an end to the crisis bewildering the region, said: “The existential threat to Igbo entrepreneurship and businesses now is the insecurity and sit-at-home problem in the South-East.
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“The mutation of this problem is largely unfathomable. It is becoming a cankerworm that is eating deep into our collective fortune as a people.
“We have to rise up to nip the problem in the bud. The first wave of the migration of Igbo businesses post-civil war was in the late 1980s and the 1990s, when, due to incessant kidnappings, thievery and a rise in occultism, Igbo businesses domiciled in Igboland moved en masse to other parts of Nigeria and the west and central African region to thrive.
“We are currently witnessing the second wave of such migration of Igbos businesses, this time around, due to the insecurity and the sit-at-home problem in our beloved region. Ummunnem, this is not us. We are not known for these. If I do not tell you these truths as your son, then it will be difficult for anyone in governance from Ala-Igbo to tell you.”
The Deputy Speaker, however, called for the revival of the Igbo apprenticeship system, adding that he would work with lawmakers from the South-East in the National Assembly to reinvigorate the region.
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