The Nigerian national anthem has been replaced with an almost half-a-century-old national anthem “Nigeria, We Hail Thee,” which was first sung in 1960 when Nigeria became independent from the British. It was written by Lillian Jean Williams, a British expatriate who was staying in Nigeria at the time. It was later changed to a military anthem “Arise O Compatriots ” during the Olusegun Obasanjo military regime in 1978, which has been in use since 1978, hence, making the old anthem the new.
The new anthem was adopted on 29th of May after a hasty decision from the lawmakers. The new development has received a lot of backlash from the public on how the public opinion on the matter was not sought for before the passing of the law.
President Bola Tinubu appended his signature to the bill, thereby making it a law a day after it won the majority’s approval from both chambers of Nigeria’s National Assembly, which is dominated by the governing party. The federal lawmakers introduced and passed the bill in less than a week, a hasty process for such a bill holding the public interest which normally takes weeks or months to be regarded as law.
The new anthem took immediate effect when it was first played publicly at a legislative session attended by President Tinubu, as he commemorated his one year in office as president on Wednesday, 29th May 2024.
Majority of the Nigerian population protested on social media to say they won’t be singing the new national anthem. The former education minister and presidential aspirant, Oby Ezekwesili was among the protestors when he said that the new law shows that the country’s political class doesn’t care about the public interest.”In a 21st Century Nigeria, the country’s political class found a colonial National Anthem that has pejorative words like “Native Land” and “Tribes” to be admirable enough to foist on our Citizens without their consent,” he posted on X.
Others approving of the new law supported it by claiming it was wrong to be using a military anthem when the country in under a civilian rule.”Anthems are ideological recitations that help the people to be more focused. It was a very sad development for the military to have changed the anthem,” public affairs analyst Frank Tietie said.
