 The Igbo, a socio-cultural organization, is urging all residents of the South East to come out every Monday and go about their regular businesses. The group has declared an end to the seated home orders ordered by the Indigenous people of Biafra. IPOP had given the orders to stay indoors every Monday until their leader, Marzin Namdikano, is released from detention. But Hanez and Igbo worldwide earlier on Sunday encouraged schools and businesses to open on Mondays. Public Affairs Analyst Mr. Nick Agoulet is joining us at this time from Abuja to take a look at this very important situation. Good evening, Mr. Agoulet. Good evening and thank you for having me and good evening to all our Nigerians and all the viewers globally. You're welcome. What do you make of this situation? Well, I have not seen an official statement from Hanez, but you are breaking the news that they have ordered an end to the seated home order ordered by IPOP that subsists in the South Eastern states. And one thing is that I don't think Hanez has the capacity to end that seated home order except they get the buy-in of IPOP. If they don't get the buy-in of IPOP, I doubt the effectiveness of that seated home order. But on the other hand, if Hanez stepping in and ending that seated home order actually results in the seated home order being disrespected by people and actually coming to an end, it will be a good thing for the South East because I have always queried the value of this seated home order. Because if you look at a typical South Easterner, he is a businessman. He is a businessman by orientation such that even if he has a day job, you see him operating a business by the side. Now, if the South Easterners are businessmen by orientation, why then do you order them to sit at home on a Monday morning all through the day? Well, IPOP gave their reasons, which no one is holding brief for, but that is what it's obtaining right now. And the situation now is how to stop this, because as you have pointed out, it's affecting businesses, it's affecting schools in the East. This is not the first time. Matter of fact, just had a call with someone from Abba. He's in Abba right now, and I had asked this question to them, are you going to come out tomorrow? And they are saying they've not heard just as you've indicated from IPOP as a group telling them that they can come out. Now, what I need to know from you is as an Igbo man, why do you think it's so difficult for the leaders of the Igbo people to put an end to this? And why is it difficult for them to get the trust of their people? Because this is not the first time from what I've been told that Igbo leaders have come out to say, do not regard this seat at home order. Come out and do your businesses, but the people are not coming out out of fear. Yes, so first and foremost, before I answer your question, I want to enter a caveat here to say that I am not an Igbo man. I am a chief man from Benway State, from Vandikia Local Government of Benway State, next to Khrushcheva State. My interest here is as a public and face analyst and as a Nigerian, because Nigeria as a country, whichever part of the country is affected in any way, affects us all. We are in one boat. And if people think that, oh, my own corner of the boat is okay, I don't care what happens in the other corner of the boat. When the boat sinks, everybody is not the sink with the boat. And that is why I have interest in this matter. Before also I answer your question, let me also intervene in the last discussion we had that if you are agitating and you want to take actions to force the hands of the person that you are requesting for setting privileges or rights from. In this case, I put seeking the federal government of Nigeria to take 30 steps. When you take actions, the actions are expected to be punitive to the person that you are requesting from. You don't punish yourself because if you look at the case of the Niger data, the Niger data militants were attacking facilities. And they knew that as the attack on facilities is going to be injurious to the government on Nigeria, because that is where the government on Nigeria makes money. And so they are that kind of agitation, you understand it. But how can you be agitating from the federal government and you are telling people to sit at home. When they sit at home, how is that injurious to the federal government? How does that impact on the people in Abuja that you are demanding one thing or the other from? So for me, this kind of agitation makes no sense. People can look for something else that is going to hurt those in Abuja to pull them to the table or twist their arms into giving people what they are looking for. Now, going to your question, I will say that IPOP is a very brutal organization. When people disobey their sit-at-home orders, they have been maiming and killing people. Even though they come out to deny, which has resulted in the unknown government or unknown men. But who else can be doing this? The fingerprints of IPOP are all over these killings. Because these killings are happening when IPOP's orders are disobeyed. And if IPOP say they are not the one, who else can be doing it? Well, no one can tell for sure until there is evidence. What is true, but sometimes you are looking at circumstantial evidence, sometimes you are looking at matters more pragmatically to say who can come to the southeast, dominate the security in the southeast and be doing killings. If IPOP does not have the support of that, but we can leave that aside and we look at Ohanese. Ohanese, they want to end this sit-at-home order. They need to get IPOP on their side. They need to sit with IPOP. They need to make decisions to IPOP. They need to make offers to IPOP. Whatever they want to do, whether it's a political solution or not, they need to come to that agreement. Because Ohanese was in the villa a few days ago. And this statement that they have issued today may be as a result of the outcome of the meeting they had in the villa. Because when they were in the villa, they sought the release of the IPOP leader, Mazem Nandikano. It is possible that the villa told them that for us to release Mazem Nandikano, these sit-at-home orders must be erased. And if that is the case, then IPOP have an opportunity here. They can engage... I mean, Ohanese has an opportunity here. They can engage IPOP and say, look, we are at the verge of releasing your leader. But this is what you need to give for you to be able to get that. Because in conflict resolution, there must always be a give and take. The winner cannot take all. You just brought me to my next question, which is this meeting they had with the president regarding the release of the IPOP leader Nandikano. Do you see his release changing the situation in the East? Do you see dowsing the tensions in the South East? It depends on the negotiations that will happen prior to that release. Because I know that the federal government is empowered to release him. I mean, the attorney general of the federation can release anybody from prosecution. In fact, when people are in jail, that means convicted and jailed, the government can also grant the amnesty. So it is really the powers of the government to release Nandikano. But whether his release is going to impact positively on the situation in the South East is dependent on the negotiations that will happen prior to that release. If the federal government on Nigeria, and I know the federal government on Nigeria, will want to extract setting conditions from both Oaneze and IPOP before they release him, if they are able to get those conditions, they will release him. And I believe that those conditions will better the security situation in the South East because they will definitely have to talk about the stoppage in the Sita Home Order, the stoppage in the violence. And then you have to stop it. You have to be about stoppage of attacking of federal government, institutions like INEC offices, security formations and all of that. So if all that stops while Nandikano is a free man, then of course it's going to positively impact on the situation in the South East. All right. Thank you so much, Mr. Nick Agole. We'll just keep our fingers crossed and see how that goes, whether Nandikano will be released. We'll also see the kind of negotiations that's taking place, if at all, between IPOP and the Oaneze and Ibo. So tomorrow is Monday. We'll see what happens. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you very much. Tomorrow we hope for the best for this country. Definitely.