{"id":26516,"date":"2016-07-01T02:07:56","date_gmt":"2016-07-01T02:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/nigerian-city-of-lagos-shuts-noisy-churches-and\/"},"modified":"2016-07-01T02:07:53","modified_gmt":"2016-07-01T02:07:53","slug":"nigerian-city-of-lagos-shuts-noisy-churches-and","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/nigerian-city-of-lagos-shuts-noisy-churches-and\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigerian city of Lagos shuts &#8216;noisy&#8217; churches and mosques"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{Authorities in Nigeria&#8217;s Lagos State have shut 70 churches and 20 mosques in an attempt to reduce high noise levels.}<\/p>\n<p>About 10 hotels, pubs and club houses were also closed, officials said.<br \/>\nSome estimates put Lagos&#8217; population at around 20 million, creating a constant background of noise &#8211; from the blaring of car horns, to the Muslim call to prayer and loud singing in churches.<\/p>\n<p>The state government has vowed to make the city, the biggest in Africa, noise-free by 2020.<\/p>\n<p>In August, the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LEPA) closed 22 premises after residents complained about noise emanating from them.<\/p>\n<p>Following the latest crackdown, its general manager Bola Shabi said the agency would no longer allow people to pray in makeshift buildings and tents.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Shabi said noise levels had been reduced by about 35%, but this was not a &#8220;pass mark yet&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Enforcement is a continuous exercise and we have set a target for ourselves. We want to ensure that Lagos is noise-free by the year 2020,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Shabi said mosques complied with their instructions more than churches because when they are ordered to shut down, they &#8220;instantly bring down their speakers or reduce the noise they make&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Nigerians are extremely religious, with a large number of evangelical churches operating in Lagos.<\/p>\n<p>Christians form the majority in the city.<\/p>\n<p>In 2014, 116 people died when a building owned by popular televangelist TB Joshua collapsed in Lagos.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-13171 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/_90168318_gettyimages-459883823.jpg\" alt=\"Nigeria has seen a huge growth in evangelical churches\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{Authorities in Nigeria&#8217;s Lagos State have shut 70 churches and 20 mosques in an attempt to reduce high noise levels.} About 10 hotels, pubs and club houses were also closed, officials said. Some estimates put Lagos&#8217; population at around 20 million, creating a constant background of noise &#8211; from the blaring of car horns, to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-26516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26516\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26516"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=26516"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=26516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}