How prayer warriors spend environmental sanitation hours

IT is indisputable that between 7.00 a.m. and 10.00 a.m. every Thursday, an environmental sanitation exercise is observed at every market in Lagos State. No shop or company opens during these hours. Shop owners are required to clean their environment on Wednesday before closing their shops since there won’t be opening of businesses on Thursday morning. Some even do it on Thursday morning. Movement on Thursday morning is, however, not restricted, which means you can go anywhere but cannot be allowed to open your shop for business before 10.00 a.m.

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Those who own shops and companies must clean thoroughly, the whole vicinity, including the drainage. All dirt must be brought out to be collected by the Lagos Waste Management Agency (LAWMA).

Environmental sanitation began in Lagos in March 1984 as part of a larger War Against Indiscipline (WAI) law enacted by the then three-month-old regime of Major-General Muhammadu Buhari as the military head of state.

The law was enacted with the aim of instilling discipline, social order and morality among Nigerians. WAI officials were authorised to go round various communities in the country on designated days to enforce the law. Offenders were tried in mobile courts with various fines and punishments imposed on them.

In recent times, however, the law seems to have lost its efficacy. Most traders in Lagos State no longer observe the Thursday sanitation exercise despite the environmental challenges the state is currently facing.

What’s really happening?

Rather than observe the weekly environmental sanitation, traders now see it as an opportunity to gather for association meetings and religious worship. Some just loiter around waiting for their shops to be open.

Checks by Saturday Tribune in some markets within the metropolis, especially Computer Village and Ipodo Market, revealed that from 7.00 a.m. to 10.00 a.m. on Thursdays,  most shop owners would rather gather for religious activities than observe sanitation, the sight of which a first-timer to the metropolis could mistake for a conventional church.

“We are not required to clean the whole market. That is for the LAWMA guys. The essence of putting LAWMA there is to ensure that markets are clean. Ours is just to clean our stalls. And, I believe once we are through with such cleanings, we should be free to do anything with our time except opening our shops for business,” Ifeanyi said.

Another shop owner at Computer Village, Akeem Olorunda, would rather respond to Saturday Tribune’s enquiries with a query on whether it was their activities that made the whole of the metropolis dirty.

“Are you saying what we are doing here is the cause of the filth in Lagos of late. It is not only this market that is dirty. The whole of Lagos State is dirty. The LAWMA people are no longer effective. Even if you clean your environment, it would take days before the refuse is packed,” he said.

Also speaking on the Thursday church service, a salesgirl who identified herself as Emmanuela said it is not compulsory for the shop owners to attend the service. “I only attend because I am a salesgirl here in Computer Village and I live in Agbado. I leave home early and get here around 8.00 a.m. So, instead of loitering around, I join the service,” she said

Mr Kelechi Onwuka, a phone dealer at Ipodo, said locking shops for the sanitation is a waste of time and should be discontinued. He argued that the purpose of the weekly sanitation is to keep the market environment clean.

“This is the job of the LAWMA people. We keep the inside our shops clean. They should keep the environment clean. The cleaning of the market should not only be a Thursday affair. You should come here on Monday and see how dirty this place is. It is more like the LAWMA people simply abandon the market on weekends and only work on weekdays. As for the Thursday church, I believe joining in the services is voluntary. Nobody forces anybody to join. Nobody forces anybody to give offering. Some of these traders have cleaned their shops and are only waiting for LAWMA people to come and pack the dirt. So, don’t blame traders for the inefficiency of the government agency,” he said.

Mr Bathelomew Eze, a businessman, called on the government to review the policy to ensure standard environmental sanitation. “It is a waste of manpower in terms of productivity. I believe markets can open while the environment is being cleaned rather than make people lose a substantial part of the day. The government should make the time flexible for businessmen like us because, in three hours, businesses are lost and this is not good for the economy,” he said. Eze added that environmental personnel like those of LAWMA should be strengthened to enforce the law and sanction erring traders appropriately.

A motorist, Mr Wole Lawanson, supported the three-hour sanitation. He stressed the need for strong enforcement of the law to improve the conditions of the markets. He appealed to traders to comply with the sanitation law so that businesses could be done in a hygienic environment.

A market union leader at Computer village, Anthony Nwogu, also pointed out that joining the church services is not compulsory. “As you may have heard, people join the services by choice. We don’t force people to join. While some choose to sing, others use it as an opportunity to clean the inside of their shops. All dirt is packed and it is left for LAWMA people to come and pick the refuse. But one thing is sure: it is not about a refusal to observe the environmental exercise, it is about what we do with our time after ensuring that our environment is clean,” he said.

Also, a phone dealer who identified himself simply as Ekene and claimed to be the financial secretary of the market association of phone dealers said joining the Thursday church service is not by force.

“Joining the church service is voluntary. We have strict rules here. You are not required to open your shop until 10.00 a.m. and anyone caught conducting business before the stipulated time is usually sanctioned. We, as an association, do not take it lightly with shop owners who break the rules. We are all law-abiding citizens; we ensure that we follow Lagos State’s laid down rules and regulations,” he said.

Interestingly, a Lagos-based lawyer, Adeleke Oye, saw the development from an entirely different perspective. For him, outlawing business activities at such periods by the government is illegal.

“Now, you tell me where it is stated in the law that shops in Lagos State must close from 7.00 a.m. to 10.00 a.m. on Thursday. We have government agencies saddled with the responsibility of cleaning the environment. It should be a collective effort between traders and LAWMA and it should be an everyday affair,” he said.

According to the legal expert, business owners have the right to open their shops when they like. “Business owners have the right to open their shops whenever they feel like. The government has no right to dictate when businesses should open as long as they pay the statutory fee or levies to the government,” he said.

Government reacts

When contacted, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Kehinde Bamigbetan, said the clean-up exercise every Thursday across markets in the state is not under the purview of the state government but an exercise put in place by market leaders and based on agreement reached between them and their members. According to him, it has existed for a long time and predated the current administration. Enforcement, he added, lied with the market leadership.

The commissioner, while maintaining that the state government had nothing to do with the Thursday clean-up exercise, said the market leaders should be approached to know how they carry out enforcement in case some of their members violate the rules and regulations put in place.

“It is the Saturday clean-up exercise that the state government is concerned with; the Thursday exercise is something that is under the control of market leaders. They are the ones in charge because it is something they agreed upon with their members. So, the state government is not concerned with the enforcement. The exercise has been on for a long time. It predates the current administration,” Bamigbetan stated.

The frontage of most of the locked shops at Computer Village has been converted to churches. Microphone stands, musical instruments are set up under canopies and chairs are arranged as neatly as you would see on a crusade ground.

Precisely at 8.30 a.m., the shop owners begin to gather. The preacher promptly takes to the makeshift podium and begins a round of worship songs backed up by musical instruments. The choristers are shop owners who are presumably ‘workers’ for the Thursday church.

Soon after the worship session, a robust praise-and-worship session begins with the preacher speaking in tongues at intervals. A spirited sermon comes into play, followed by an altar call, after which offering is collected.

On Thursday morning, church goes on at different markets in the Balogun and Ipodo areas of Ikeja. The service ends at 9.45 a.m., allowing the shop owners open their shops in preparation for the day’s activities.

The aftermath

While the church service is going on, the environment remains dirty and LAWMA officials are saddled with the task of cleaning the environment. Mounds of refuse characterise the market with bits and pieces of dirt littering the environment. Many traders and shop owners make feeble efforts to clean their environment while the church service is going on.

“It is always a spectacle, a tradition that has been on for some time. Interestingly, it gains converts on a weekly basis,” stated Shola, a resident of the Balogun area of Ikeja.

 Speaking in favour of….

Speaking with Saturday Tribune, one of the worshippers who identified himself as Ifeanyi did not see anything wrong with the “Thursday church.” He argued that the morning service was a way of communicating with God and asking Him for better business opportunities.

He added that such service provided some of the traders, especially those who open on Sundays, the opportunity to make up for the fellowship they could have missed at the beginning of the week in church.

“Some of us come here even on Sundays. We are not able to go to church on Sundays. Since there is environmental sanitation, we would rather gather here to worship God and make up for the missed services than just sit at home till 10.00 am when shops are required to open,” he said.

When queried on why such hours are devoted to cleaning the environments as stipulated by law, Ifeanyi said that it is not the responsibility of traders to clean up the whole market. He expressed the belief that the he and his colleagues had the right to do anything within the law, including the Thursday services, once through with the cleaning of their shops, as required by the environmental sanitation rules.