President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday gave his assent to a bill adopting the old national anthem ‘Nigeria, we hail thee’ as the country’s new national anthem.
Real that the senate speedily passed the National Anthem Bill 2024 yesterday, swapping from ‘Arise, O Compatriots’ to ‘Nigeria, We Hail Thee’ that was dropped in 1978 during Olusegun Obasanjo’s military administration.
Lillian Jean Williams, a British expatriate who lived in Nigeria during its independence, wrote the lyrics for ‘Nigeria, We Hail Thee’ while Frances Berda composed the music.
Announcing the president’s assent to the bill at a joint session of the national assembly to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fourth republic in Abuja, the senate president, the senate president, Mr Godswill Akpabio said: “This morning, Mr President signed into an Act of Parliament, the newly passed National Anthem 2024.”
Akpabio said the sitting was primarily to launch the new national anthem.
He added that the old national anthem would begin from today, following the president’s assent to the bill to that effect.
Also, the speaker of the house of representatives, Mr Tajudeen Abbas, who presided over the sitting along with Akpabio, told members to Google the new anthem so they could recite it correctly.
“Those who are over 59 years old will know the wordings,” he said.
The president who later joined the joint session, confirmed ‘Nigeria, we hail thee’ as the ‘new’ national anthem.
He also led the joint sitting of the lawmakers to sing the anthem.
After signing the anthem, Akpabio said there is no better place to start the practice of the new anthem than the national assembly because it is the voice of the people.
“There is no better place to commence this revolution of going back to our genealogy than the national assembly. The voice of the national assembly is the voice of Nigeria, so we welcome you (Tinubu),” he said.
The senate president maintained that enacting the new anthem into law was one of Tinubu’s profound achievements in his (Tinubu’s) first year in office.
“You intend to celebrate Democracy Day, which is June 12, but out of love and respect for the national assembly, you said you must pass through the national assembly on your first anniversary.
“Of all the significant things you have done, I think one of the most profound is to take us back to our genealogy.
“The genealogy of our birth, though, we may belong to different tribes, though we may have different tongues in brotherhood we all stand.
“Henceforth, we will not refer to ourselves as dear compatriots, we will refer to ourselves as brothers and as we go forward in battle, whether in the field of sports, in the field of politics, we must hail Nigeria and so we are all saying today that Nigeria, we Hail thee,” Akpabio added.
Earlier, when it was put to vote, the lawmakers agreed that the band should lead the anthem.
However, Mr Bamidele Salam (PDP-Osun) said he was not too keen on the national anthem because it was delivered by the colonial master.
He added that a blend of the old and the new one would have sufficed rather than discarding the old outright.
“Since the majority agreed that we should revert, I followed what the majority said, but in my own opinion, we could have done a blend of the two.
“The new national anthem was composed by a foreigner, the old one (Arise o compatriot) was composed by a Nigerian, and some of the lyrics also invoke the spirit of nationalism.
“This is in recognition of the sacrifice of our heroes past,” he said.
In his contribution, spokesman for the house of representatives, Mr Akin Rotimi said that it was a win-win situation as the second stanza of the national anthem would now be used as the national prayer.
He said the national anthem is a source of building patriotism.
With Premium Times, NAN reports
