Bustling Lagos turns ghost town under virus lockdown

LAGOS: Lagos, Nigeria’s seething economic hub of 20 million that residents say never sleeps — was silenced on Tuesday as Africa’s largest city went into lockdown to stave off the coronavirus.

Gone were the traffic jams that snarl bumperto-bumper out to the suburbs, gone was the hustle, the noise and the sweat that usually fills the crowded streets with endless life.

After President Muhammadu Buhari ordered residents to stay indoors and all movement to cease from Monday evening, the singing of birds and the hum of generators were the only sounds to be heard on the first morning of the shutdown.

The waters of the lagoon were still, bridges that are normally impassable at rush hour were empty, and the vendors that sell their wares to passing traffic had vanished.

On a key highway leading to the capital, a group of boys playing football had replaced the usual mass of cars, buses and lorries.

Police dressed in protective gear stopped vehicles coming into or leaving Lagos state and refused to let any deemed non-essential pass.

A hundred trucks carrying cement from the company of Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote stood motionless in a line at one checkpoint.

“We received instructions not to allow any vehicle to pass except those on essential services,” a masked officer told AFP.

Police backed up by personnel from the city’s myriad of other security agencies checked identity cards of drivers before determining whether to let them by.

The Lagos state governor has urged security forces to be “friendly and civil” but officers have also been licensed to use force on those who do not comply.

Officials insist the draconian measures are needed to halt the spread of a virus after 135 cases and two deaths were confirmed across Nigeria.

Lagos is the hotspot with 81 infections detected so far.

Along the main road through the middle class neighbourhood of Lekki, betting shops, mattress stores, churches, florists and scrap metal dealers had all closed their doors.