Senate President Godswill Akpabio has suggested that the old national anthem of Nigeria, which was re-introduced earlier this year as the new anthem, could have prevented issues of banditry and insecurity in Nigeria.
According to Akpabio, if Nigeria had retained the anthem, it would have taught citizens patriotism and taking your neighbour as your brother would mean you would not want to kill such a person.
He further stated that those labelling the re-introduced anthem as an element of colonialism don’t understand Nigeria’s history because a panel made up of Nigerians was set up in 1959, which received inputs from all over the world regarding the anthem.
The Senate President made the submissions on Tuesday during his visit to the Nigeria Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies in Abuja.
He said: “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 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 kill him.”
Recall that both the House of Representatives and the Senate speedily passed a bill to return to the old national anthem, “Nigeria, we hail thee”, that was abolished in 1978.
President Bola Tinubu also signed the bill in May, after it was passed by the National Assembly, making the old anthem the new anthem of the country.
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