“Arise O Compatriot’ Anthem, brought banditry to Nigeria – Akpabio

Godswill Akpabio, the Nigeria Senate President has said the reintroduced national anthem, “Nigeria, We Hail Thee”, could have prevented banditry and insecurity if the country had retained it.

The old National anthem ‘’Nigeria, we hail thee’’ was abolished by Obasanjo in 1978 but was reintroduced by President Tinubu in May 2024.

He said this while speaking during a visit to the Nigeria Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies in Abuja on Tuesday, 18th of June, 2024
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Akpabio said the reintroduced anthem would foster unity, patriotism and love among Nigerians. He noted that those labelling the re-introduced anthem as an element of colonialism don’t understand the country’s history and are ignorant of the law.

According to the Senate president, a panel made up of Nigerians was set up in 1959, which received inputs from all over the world regarding the anthem and approved the reintroduced anthem then.

According to him,

“The other impactful bill signed by the National Assembly is the reverting to our old national anthem. A lot of people are not aware that there was a panel set up and made up of Nigerians to receive input from all over the world in 1959. So when people are saying we’re bringing in a colonial anthem, they need to look into the history of “Nigeria, we hail thee”.

“If we had kept to that anthem, we probably would not have banditry today in Nigeria because if you take your neighbour as your brother, you will not want to k!ll him.”[CONTINUE READING HERE]>>>>>