(By Lucia Edafioka – Sabinews) - Something is missing from Lagos’ logo
I was playing on the internet last week when I stumbled
upon the logo for Lagos.
I have never really paid attention to it before until
then. I zoomed in. Palm trees, fishermen, yellow colour and some cowrie
like things, green grass, and the motto is Justice and Progress. Yes, that is
Lagos, more of progress, though, I don’t know about Justice (side-eyeing Delta
state with Finger of God motto).
I kept zooming in on the logo and wondering; something is
missing I thought; why isn’t there somebody preaching with a megaphone on the
logo? Isn’t that like a permanent feature of Lagos?
Have you ever gone a whole day in Lagos without seeing
somebody preaching with a megaphone? They start in the morning around 6am and
what they are saying is mostly incomprehensible, still they scream upandan.
Sometimes the person will just be walking along the road ringing a bell, just
ringing a bell not saying any words.
How about buses? You are more likely to see more
preachers at a bus stop than buses. And there are like over one million
churches and mosques in Lagos.
Everywhere, preachers
Why are they disturbing other people? Nobody should even
give me that go and preach good news story. Did Jesus tell you to use megaphone
to wake sleeping people on Saturday morning? Or that you should not let
them rest after a work day with your all-night services? I am not even going to
talk about churches who act as if God is deaf with all that shouting while using
microphones and speakers.
There is a church behind my house, actually, I live in a
witch-free zone, surrounded by 6 churches and a mosque. This particular church
behind my house is the loudest; it is one of the white garment denominations.
They usually have all night services. On one of such days, they were so loud
that my bed was vibrating to the rhythm of their music.
Jesu Oluwa wa
Amin
Amin
Amin
They did this all night. I couldn’t sleep, or read, or
watch a movie. I was just on my bed staring at my ceiling, thinking about how
to make money so that I can live alone in a beach house with coconut trees and
the only noise will be chirping birds and the sound of water slapping
rocks.
Anyway, they finally closed around 5am. I was so tired.
It was as if I had been the lead dancer and preacher at the all-night. Just
when I was about to sleep, the morning breeze singing a soft lullaby in my
ears. I heard a small static. Hay God
Call for prayers from the mosque.
Sigh.
I waited. The good thing about the mosque is that you can
tell when they will be done.
After the Muslim morning prayers finished I hugged my
pillow, determined to get a little shut eye, and then I heard another static, Brothers
and sisters repent! Jesus is coming soon.
Arrrgh
I looked out the window and it was a young man who was
already dressed for the day. He was carrying a huge bible in one hand and a
megaphone in the other.
What kind of rubbish is this?
I endured him for a while, thinking he would soon go away
or walk further down the street, but no, he continued screaming outside my
house. Around 7am I went out and told him to shut up. Of course, he ignored me.
The Bible says where two/three are gathered God is there.
Please, you people should tell your pastors to stop shouting into microphones. God
is already in the church, he can hear you.
The same for choir members, praise and worship is not
carnival session, and also for the street preachers.
One of the first rules of Christianity is to love your
neighbour as you love yourselves. If you do not care about all those living in
houses around your church, do you not care that you are disturbing sleeping
people on a Saturday morning.
This is Lagos, people are out of their houses before 5am
during the week, and the only day they have time to sleep until 7am you are
disturbing them in the name of preaching?
How are you causing another fellow human being so much
pain and expect God to hear your prayers?
Meanwhile, Lagos can consider putting speakers on the
logo, you know, to acknowledge the religious noise this city is wrapped in.
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