Nigeria: the streets of Lagos almost deserted with containment

Text by: RFI Follow

Quarantining the boiling Nigerian megalopolis is quite a challenge. Many observers feared that the rebel Lagos would mutine because millions of inhabitants survive there day by day. It has not happened.

Publicity

With our correspondent in Abuja, Moïse Gomis

Posted on a social network, a video shot on the cell phone, and dating from Tuesday, March 31, perfectly sums up the first day of confinement in Lagos. The cameraman is the front passenger of a vehicle traveling in Ogba / Ojodu and Agidingbi, in the northern districts of Lagos. This 11-minute amateur video shows deserted streets, closed shops, stationary cars and people outside their homes.

One detail is striking: the low intensity of sound in the streets. We hear some rare sounds of horns, but without any possible comparison with the legendary and usual cacophony. As if Lagos, the vibrant city, had become mute.

Containment generally respected

We can see that in certain sectors of the megalopolis, a few yellow mini-buses are still playing overtime. At the edge of certain sidewalks, traders sell fruit and vegetables while they do not in principle belong to supermarkets, considered as "essential activity". But 95% of this road movie shows respect by the vast majority of the population of Lagos for the first day of confinement.

► Read also: Coronavirus: Africa facing the pandemic Tuesday March 31

Besides, Hakeem Odusomu, the boss of the Lagos police, was on the ground to supervise. Some of his teams were deployed to the four corners of the sprawling city. Apart from a few recalcitrant motorists at checkpoints, or moments of tension in certain sectors when stopping football games on the asphalt, no major incident to report.

The governor of Lagos, Babjide Sanwo-Olu, says he is satisfied with the respect of the instructions by the population. According to him, the residents sent a positive signal of understanding of the containment order " to combat the potential threat of the spread of the Covid-19 on Lagos ".

Our selection on SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus

• Doctors' answers to your questions about the Covid-19

• Listen to Infos coronavirus , our daily chronicle on the pandemic

• Practical questions:
→ What is the lifespan of the virus?
→ Who are the vulnerable people ?
→ What should you do when you think you are contaminated ?
→ Quarantine, what are we talking about ?
→ What treatments ? The effectiveness of an antimalarial drug in question
→ The advice of a psychiatrist to live well the confinement

Find all our articles, reports, chronicles and programs on the coronavirus by clicking here .

See also our contents on containment .

Newsletter With the Daily Newsletter, find the headlines directly in your mailbox

Follow all international news by downloading the RFI application

• Nigeria
• Containment
• Coronavirus
• Africa
• Health and Medicine

On the same subject

Report

Nigeria: Lagos population prepares for containment