Africa’s largest city may sit near the bottom of the world’s “liveability indexes” but officials in Lagos are making an ambitious attempt to curb one of its biggest nuisances: noise.
The sprawling metropolis of some 20 million people comes with a backdrop of humming generators, booming music stores and blaring car horns — the last of which seem to be used more as a language than as a last-second warning.
Yet the city’s environment protection agency has taken aim at some of Lagos’ estimated 6,000 places of worship that it believes are the prime offenders in breaching noise codes.
Dozens of churches had their doors locked last week pending the payment of a nominal fee after authorities said that they were fed up of fielding thousands of complaints over the years from residents about noise pollution.
Many of the complaints are aimed at all-night prayer vigils that can spill into the street and take on the atmosphere of a party rather than one of solemn prayer.
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“On my phone alone, I get 20 SMSs on a daily basis,” Adebola Shabi, head of the Lagos environmental watchdog, fumed.
The problem was described by one columnist in an open letter to the governor last year as bedlam, with noise pollution reaching frightening levels and contributing to a rise in heart diseases.
“I can’t find anywhere in Lagos that is quiet so I hope the government can do something about it,” Soji Obibowale, 25, who lives in the city, said.
Yet taking on places of worship in a deeply religious country — divided roughly half and half between Muslims and Christians — comes with a risk, and for now the crackdown is aimed at smaller congregations with less clout.
In a bustling side-street of Surelere, the effects of the order were already apparent after the Redeemed Christian Church of God was forced to turn down its speakers.
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“I am very happy. A week ago you could not stand here and have a conversation,” Mikala Mohammed said. “But let’s see, I don’t think this restriction will last.”
Across town, however, the blaring sermons and music from one of the biggest ministries, the Mountain of Fire and Miracles, in the Lagos surburb of Yaba, could be heard from hundreds of metres away yesterday.
“Everyone needs prayer,” Philio Gboghor, a Christian who said she was unperturbed by the volume, said. Her gripe was with a mosque much further down the street. “That is the problem. It’s like the speaker is next to my ear.”
A fellow shopkeeper, Philip Odunayo, said that faith was often the driving factor in what irked people: “This is a secular country so the issue can become just a difference in one’s religion.”
Mosques, so far, have been spared in the crackdown, helped by the call to prayer lasting only a few minutes and, unlike churches, Muslims not holding party-like vigils that go on into the early hours.
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Faiths aside, the one common objection about noise in Lagos was aimed at music stores.
“These traders seem to have a game among themselves about attracting customers with the loudest music,” Teri Wellington, 25, a law student, said. “It’s most unsavoury.”