Soludo Vows to End Sit-at-Home with Salary Cuts

The Anambra State Government has officially declared war on the long-standing Monday “sit-at-home” culture, announcing a transition to pro-rata salary payments for all civil servants effective February 2026. Speaking at a press briefing in Awka on Saturday, January 24, 2026, the Commissioner for Information, Dr. Law Mefor, revealed that the decision was the centerpiece of a high-level retreat held by the Anambra State Executive Council (ANSEC) to set the agenda for Governor Charles Soludo’s second term.

Mefor was blunt in his assessment of the current situation, suggesting that many workers had begun to “enjoy” the forced holiday because their pay remained intact regardless of their presence. He noted that while security and transportation were legitimate concerns in the early days of the IPOB-led directive in 2021, those hurdles have largely been cleared. According to the government, continuing to stay home on Mondays is now a choice of convenience rather than a necessity of safety.

Under the new “no work, no pay” framework, each month is designated as having 24 official working days. Workers who fail to report for duty on Mondays will have their salaries mathematically slashed to reflect their actual attendance. To ensure strict compliance, the state is deploying a rigorous clock-in and clock-out system across all ministries, departments, and agencies. This move aims to recover the “trillions of naira” in economic productivity that a recent international report suggests the South-East has lost over the last four years.

Governor Soludo’s administration firmly rejected the popular suggestion of swapping Mondays for Saturdays as a way to circumvent the sit-at-home threat. Mefor dismissed the idea as a form of “surrender” to non-state actors, arguing that it would make Anambra an outlier in the Nigerian federation. “We cannot give up Monday and take Saturday as a working day,” the Commissioner stated, emphasizing that yielding to such a change would signal that the state government is no longer in control of its own schedule.

The government is also taking this fight to the private sector, engaging in deep negotiations with market leaders and transport unions to ensure a synchronized reopening of the economy. The administration acknowledged that it cannot realistically expect traders and students to return to the streets if its own workforce remains indoors. To facilitate this, security patrols are being intensified in commercial hubs like Onitsha and Nnewi to provide a visible shield against potential harassment.

The policy shift has already been formalized through an Executive Order targeting the education sector specifically. Teachers and non-tutorial staff have been warned that missing a Monday will result in an immediate 20% deduction from their monthly take-home pay. While some labor groups have expressed concern about the safety of their members in more volatile rural areas, the government maintains that “four years is enough” and that the cycle of fear must be broken by collective action.

Beyond the immediate financial penalties, the Soludo administration views this as a vital step toward restoring the state’s revenue-generating capacity. Agencies like the Anambra Internal Revenue Service (AIRS) are expected to lead by example, as their absence on the first day of the working week reportedly cripples the state’s ability to fund critical infrastructure projects. The message from Awka is clear: the era of “automatic” full salaries for incomplete work weeks is over.

As the February implementation date approaches, the eyes of the entire South-East are on Anambra to see if financial leverage can achieve what security operations alone could not. For Governor Soludo, this is not just an administrative adjustment but a psychological battle to reclaim the productivity and sovereignty of the “Light of the Nation.”