IPOB sit at home: Only 37% of youths support sit at home – SBM

A report revealed that the sit at home order issued by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has only 37% of people aged 18-30 years support the sit at home.

This was disclosed in a report by socioeconomic research firm, SBM Intelligence on Thursday, they added that the highest support for the Sit-at-Home order comes from people older than 50, at 57%.

What the report said

“As part of its efforts to see its ambition to secede from Nigeria through, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has been employing sit-at-home protests in the South-Eastern region of the country. These have been carried out at specific times for different reasons, such as protesting the arrest of its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu by the State Security Services in 2015, or celebrating the Biafra Day, in commemoration of the declaration of the secessionist Republic of Biafra, an event which sparked off Nigeria’s civil war on 30 May 1967,” the report said.

They added that following Nnamdi Kanu’s forced return to Nigeria in the last week of June 2021, IPOB ordered a sit-at-home protest to start on Monday, 8 August 2021, and to hold every Monday in the region. The reason for this sit-at-home was to protest Kanu’s detention and to force the government to release him.

“With this level of violence, it has been unclear if the level of compliance with the sit-at-home order is a reflection of the support that IPOB enjoys within the South-East or if it was due to fear of the repercussions of disobeying the order as alleged by an increasing number of voices from the region. To this end, in the week between 20 and 26 August 2021, SBM Intel conducted a survey in the region and spoke with a few experts who have not been named for their safety,” SBM said.

The report added that the survey was held across the five states in the South-East geopolitical zone to ascertain the level of compliance of residents.

“Because of the sensitive nature of the topic, our researchers were instructed to ask respondents about their willingness to take part in a survey of this nature only once. The survey had a target of 1000 respondents in all five states, a total of 200 in each, again because of the sensitivity of the topic, and the limited time we allotted for it,” they said.

They also added that all field researchers received warnings to desist from the survey with the most severe warnings in Anambra and Enugu states. The warnings in Anambra escalated to threats to life, which was responsible for the state failing to meet its target number of respondents.

Highlights of the report from the survey

*37% of people aged 18-30 years support the sit-at-home.

*52% from ages 31-40.

*49% aged 41-50 and 57% people older than 50.

The report added that 34% of men supported the sit-at-home while only 24% of women supported it.

Ebonyi state was the most affected economically by the protest with as many as 84% of the respondents admitting so, followed by 74.42% of respondents in Enugu, they stated.

Abia state had the least disruption to economic activity with only 42% of respondents affected by the protest, they said.

On the occupation of respondents, 73.3% work in the transport sector, Hospitality (71.4%), self-employed persons (73.9%), blue-collar workers (64.5%), students (47.6%) and white-collar workers at 49.53%.

They added that the relative lack of support to the sit-at-home protests in Abia State, which is IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu’s home state, may be related to the impact of the three military exercises in the region since 2016 tagged ‘Operation Python Dance I, II and III. Operation Python Dance I was carried out mostly in Abia State in a bid to arrest Nnamdi Kanu.

(Nairametrics)