The decision of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to return to the the colonial era national anthem, tagged ‘Nigeria, We Hail Thee’.
has generated a wild spread of reactions from many Nigerians.
The President on Wednesday appended his assent to a bill by the National Assembly for the return of the old national after the Senate had on Tuesday passed the bill, a week after it scaled through at the House of Representatives.
The old national anthem replaced the 1978 version: ‘Arise O’ Compatriots’
However this development has attracted wide condemnation by Nigerians, who described it as a misplaced priority amid gruelling economic hardship triggered by Tinubu’s twin policy of fuel subsidy removal and floating of the naira.
Rejecting the return of the old national anthem, a former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, declared she should keep singing the old national whenever required at any public function.
In a post on her X handle, Ezekwesili labelled the law signed by Tinubu to return the old national anthem as “obnoxious” and repugnant to all who are of good conscience in Nigeria.
Also reacting, Nollywood actress Kate Henshaw frowned at the decision of the current administration to reinstate the old national anthem.
She particularly faulted the timing of the change, querying how the return to the old anthem was going to tackle the hardship in the country.
The movie star lamented that the country is facing “excoriating hardship and lack of good governance on every level.”
On her X handle, she sarcastically wrote: “In the midst of excoriating hardship & lack of good governance on every level but not to worry, going back to a colonial anthem will be a soothing balm and inject patriotism back into our veins, a much needed drug.”
In another post, Henshaw wrote, “The labour of our heroes past… o ti lo [is gone].”
Nigerian singer Adekunle Gold also dropped two cents on the development stating that his colleague, Timi Dakolo’s song, ‘Great Nation’ would have made a better national anthem than the old anthem which the country returned to.
