Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has said the reintroduced national anthem, “Nigeria, We Hail Thee”, could have prevented banditry and insecurity if the country had retained it.
Recall that the Senate and the House of Representatives passed the National Anthem Bill 2024 to revert to the old national anthem, “Nigeria, we hail thee”, which was abolished in 1978.
The National Assembly passed the bill to swap the national anthem from “Arise, O Compatriots” to “Nigeria, We Hail Thee.”
The bill, which speedily passed first and second readings on the same day, was assented to by President Bola Tinubu, making it the new anthem of the country
During a visit to the Nigeria Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies in Abuja on Tuesday, Akpabio said the reintroduced anthem would foster unity, patriotism and love among Nigerians.
Akpabio said 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.
