The Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, on Monday signed into law a bill banning the blocking of roads for any form of social or commercial activities in any part of the state.

The law, titled, “Bill on Commercial Activities and Prohibition of Obstruction of Traffic,” makes it an offence for any person or group to obstruct traffic on any road in the state as a result of social or commercial activities.

By the provision of the law, anybody that obstructs a law enforcement agent of the state in the course of enforcing compliance to this law will be liable to six-month jail term, with an option of fine of N10, 000 or both.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200805143362315

For those of us who like spraying money and showing off by blocking the streets in the name of celebration, dont you feel Fashola has gone a bit over head here.
First, it was Soludo banning spray of naira, now it's Fashola banning Owambe street parties.
These guys are killing our dirty "culture" one by one. Somebody help!!!

This guy is like the administrator ban this ban dat and forget the real problem. Maybe if they keep banning they will ban oxygen and Nigerians will forget that NEPA has not borught light.

I wonder why he did not include religious activities to the ban.

Well its good . . .i like that. . . . .why should some people block the street all in the name of celebration?
If u wanna celebrate. . . .there are tons of hall available to use. . .we have to change.

@Naijaking,
I really support you on that. Religious activities have taken over the whole place On a single street you would see like 5 churches 3 of them would have Vigils at Night and would be on Megaphone all through the night. I think govt should do something about this.

I support fashola on that If party people are agrieved they should set up in the sky

Churches and mosques are equally guilty.

We should be celebrating this decision.

naijaking1:

Churches and mosques are equally guilty.

Last i heard, there were no churches and mosques on the streets of lagos.

I grew up in lagos and street parties is like part of lagosians.

newwayz, its a good decision.

Kudos, please look into other neccesary things,

We should be celebrating this decision.

Abiooo, what other country in the world have you heard that a street will be blocked because of a freaking party? I know the likes of Okoya will soon hit the brickwall because he's the number one culprit here.

About time.

Owanbe is not our culture.

Owanbe ( it happening here)

This was a ploy by one of a former governor to bring the people to him. This was a way he used to gather local intelligence.

I thank God that it is now being fought.

texazzpete:

Last i heard, there were no churches and mosques on the streets of lagos.

Obviously you have never seen major streets taken over on Fridays and Sundays by worshippers from adjoining mosques and churches.

Whats' wrong in banning road block. Thank God its happening now. More grace to your elbow my Governor.

Good!!!!!!!

And he should not leave out Lagos Ibadan Express way.

Its not okay for any religious organisation (free from tax) to cause Hold up that made people to stay onn the express way for 14 hours 2 weekends ago

RCCG, NASFAT, MFM & co

nuzo, your sarcasm sucks

dayokanu:

@Naijaking,
I really support you on that. Religious activities have taken over the whole place On a single street you would see like 5 churches 3 of them would have Vigils at Night and would be on Megaphone all through the night. I think govt should do something about this.

I agree. They should be added as well

Why are you making it your headache? Just grab the message. Shio!

why are YOU by making this thread?

Another good move by Fashola. Who said street party is a culture? The same theory about spraying money. If you want to fight corruption, you should look beyond give and take of Naira and kobo but also, behaviours that encourage corruption through the abuse of power. This ban is well over due. Many a times, criminal will hijack such parties even charging resident fee for them to pass to go to their homes.

It encourage money spraying that had it's root in showy display of one's mean of life. As people want to show off their wealth without accounting for the source, this activities encourage criminality.

I wish Fashola will listen to me now. I had previously written a former governor in the East to introduce through the state assembly, a law to be called PRIVILEDGE TAX LAW. It means that all chieftancy titles and all other hononary titles will now be subject to an annual tax of not less than 100 thousand naira per title. If you can't afford it don't use the title of chief or internet doctorate.

It will checkmate corrupt traditional ruler that sales this titles to the highest bidders without minding if they are former armed robbers just because they had some cash to share with them and also every Dick and Harry that abuse the title of doctor today without even a 6 grade certificate to boast of. If Nigerian are serious about fighting corruption they should start tackling so many behavious that has become part of life but breed corruption. I'm waiting for the day they will ban through law, the use of siren for any reason, even for the so called president in exception of hospital ambulances/police on an emergency calls only.

When you count how many that had been killed by those their entourage were wailing siren as they push pass everything on their way.

@dayokanu
What is wrong with you people?

When will you leave religion alone.

Do these organisations have their programmes on the expressway? RCCG and MFM in particular have their auditoriums far away from the road.

Why do we like shifting blames?

I remember very well as student in the 80's when the RCCG auditorium was by the road traffic was good on these roads.

Will the Pastors and Imams stand by the road with whips to make sure the members park well?

For your information there is ample parking space at the RCCG camp for all to park their vehicles. I am sure the others too have this.

Nigerians (You and I) are very heady people. They always want to do what they want.

Look at what happens at junctions.

WE ALL NEED TO BE DISCIPLINED!

@ nuzo so its becos u like spraying money and showing off that this is bitting you.

The issues are clear why cant you rent a hall and have the party and spray (hopefully that will be a crime soon) and not dirty and litter the streets with your annoying parties.

The menace of the street parties is well known and this is long over due, the decision should be applauded. Seems Fashola want to convert lagos to a World Class City, the work is still plenty but this is a wellcome development

Very good decision. Some people just block the roads regardless of how busy the road is, quite annoying really.

Its not all bad, you can still have parties in your compound, hall or field.

Fashola next thing is to ban noise pollution please especially in the mornings and nights.

I hope this law also cover vehicles abandoned by their owners on our streets.

Some of them have narrowed the streets to a single lane. Imagine a street of about 4 lanes being narrowed to 1 because people have parked 3 vehicles deep.

There is so much selfishness.

About "owambe's", some 2 years ago some NURTW guy on my street blocked the street to bury his mother. He stays about 5 houses away from mine and they extended the canopies to my gate.

So I confronted him that I wanted passage in front of my house. His answer? "shebi I do pay for kansu"

Lagos Na wah!

This man can not be a Yoruba man. How could he tamper with such an age long culture? Afenifere will soon disown him. OPC will soon disown him. Oduduwa will soon call him a prodigal son. No, he can't be a Yoruba man!!! When his kinds are 'Yorubanizing' everything, he's busy 'deYorubanizing' things? This must be a Jesus from Nazareth.

I commend this active Governor for taking such a huge initiative to change this stupid culture.

Why should anyone have the right to block a street and impede traffic just because they want to party? this act is not tolerated in civilized nation and Lagos its on its way to civilization

correct. i co-sign this action

he should also look into banning mosques and churches from making all that early morning and late night noises.

When you are stuck in Traffic for 14 hours. In the 80's maybe the the number of worshippers and cars were not this much
But the various religious organisations should not make us to suffer because they have one programm or the other

They can construct a detour from the main road from their Heavy income they make so that road users can make use
of the road while they worship and not let their activity disrupt public activities

fashola is the man. can he move to benin to help after he finishes his term?

winnteam:


Will the Pastors and Imams stand by the road with whips to make sure the members park well?

if thats what it will take to keep them in check then YES! afterall worshippers are known to hang on their leaders every word. they should at least mention it in their sermon. or surely they can hire traffic controllers. no excuses at all.

true.

members of my friend's church in the US used to park everywhere until police officers started hanging around on sundays in order to give them parking tickets. This situation created a lot of revenue for the police department every Sunday until the church decided to make special announcements before the sermon, for members to park in the designated proper parking lot across the street.

I'm sure they reduced the police officers' joy by encouraging people to park in the right place. Before then, people would come out of church to find parking tickets on their windshields. And over there, if you don't pay the fine, it keeps doubling until you decide to pay it. So a $50 parking ticket can become $100 if you want to prove stubborn. And keep increasing for as long as you want it to.

You guys are talking as if you are not all Nigerians.

I worship in CanaanLand Otta. For as far back as I can rememer, Bishop Oyedepo has preached about and appealed to members to exercise good behavior on the roads.

The various churches have secured the services of FRSC, they even have traffic departments to which they have deployed a lot of members and even resorces. But,

The same church members and other road users will not do the needful. Everybody is in a hurry.

Like I said in my last post there is more than enough space to park inside RCCG camp. Road have been provided inside to cut off a long stretch of the express.

Then again we also have to look at the other road users also.

I remember leaving Ibadan on a Saturday evening by 6pm with the hope of getting to Lagos by 7.30 at most. I go to Lagos at 3.00 am on Sunday morning.

What happened? THERE WAS NO PROGRAMME IN ANY OF THE CHURCHES ALONG THE EXPRESS. NOT EVEN NASFAT.

People just drove the wy they liked and the whole place became a mess.

Let us not heap all the blame on the religious bodies.

Again I ask. HOW DO WE BEHAVE ON THE ROADS?

the people that should regulate noise and religious worship are local government councils, that's not fashola's job. complain to your local government chairman or councilman about noise. this is great news. public roads are for the PUBLIC and not your private owanbe.