The same traders whose shops Governor Soludo padlocked yesterday at Onitsha Main Market returned today, not in fear, but in defiance. They gathered openly in the market he tried to silence, protesting and chanting the name of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu as their saviour. The padlocks are still there, but Soludo’s authority is already broken.
This is the governor’s biggest embarrassment: after force came resistance, after intimidation came unity. Soludo thought iron chains would erase conviction. Instead, they amplified it. He locked shops, but unlocked anger. He tried to scare traders, and turned them into protesters.
Onitsha Main Market has now become a living referendum on Soludo’s leadership. The people he claims to govern are openly mocking him with songs, not violence. When citizens sing in protest, it means the governor has lost the argument and the respect.
Soludo wanted obedience. What he got was ridicule. And in politics, mockery is the loudest defeat.
Family Writers Press International
