Who can recite Nigeria’s old national anthem lyrics without feeling divided?
Having scaled through the House of Representatives, the next trajectory of the bill is bound to be the Nigeria Senate where it has already passed a second reading as of Friday 24 May.
To heighten citizen patriotism for the foreseeable future, Nigeria’s House of Representatives yesterday passed the Bill For An Act to Provide for the National Anthem of Nigeria, and for Matters Related Thereto, which subsequently set the motion for a return back to the 1959 recital written by Lillian Jean Williams but young Nigerians are opposed to the change.
The year British colonialist Williams produced the lyrics of the old anthem Nigeria, We Hail Thee, the country was gearing up for a post-independence life after at least 60 years of colonial control.
With the lower chamber of the National Assembly favouring a switch-to-factory mode, there have been questions about the uneven representation that Nigeria’s first national anthem seems to be projecting.
Making it a law had gone through remarkable speed the way Thursday, 23 May went. The House Leader Honourable Julius Ihonvbere of the Owan West/East Federal Constituency of Edo State had initiated the bill to revive the spirit of Nigerians seeing themselves as one.
Nigeria House of Representatives, National Assembly
OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE
House of Representatives deliberates and passes National Anthem Bill
A Thread🧵#HouseNGR #HousePlenary #NationalAnthemBill #TodayAtPlenary pic.twitter.com/A1FheZlE2u
— Nigeria House of Representatives (@HouseNGR) May 23, 2024
According to the 68-year-old lawmaker while making a presentation, passing the bill must be seen as a stitch in time before the country degrades any further.
Mr Speaker a time comes in the life of every organisation or a nation when the people must sit down [and] look at the past, the present, the future and have the courage, the sense of a nation to define, design the way forward. I believe that Nigeria is at that stage and momentum.
Great men have changed history. Mr Speaker, this bill is straightforward. It is a bill that seeks to enjoin us to [view] our Anthem as a national symbol and sign of authority. One that will pull us together, will give us hope and courage a sense of duty to the nation.
That does not necessarily deny the reality and that is the mainstay of contemporary societies. They deny reality, they pretend racism doesn’t exist; ethnicity doesn’t exist, poverty doesn’t exist. They rationalise this by looking at GMP, GDP and the reality stares people in the face and that is when you are faced with the realities then you can attack and deal with it frontally.
So it seeks to say that as a people, as Nigerians fronting a new renewed hope moving forward, tackling the [rotting] decay, dislocation and distortion of the past. We should go back to our old national anthem which gives us that energy, that sense of commitment, [a] sense of dedication and a desire to move Nigeria forward.
Not every lower chamber member supported the bill being entertained, talk less of passing it. Such as Hon. Kingsley Chinda of the Obio/Akpor Federal Constituency, and likewise Hon. Satomi Alhaji Ahmad from Jere Federal Constituency in Borno.
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But having scaled through the House of Representatives, the next trajectory of the bill is bound to be the Nigeria Senate where it has already passed a second reading as of Friday 24 May. Noticeably in the upper house, the piece of legislation is getting the same urgent attention it received from the lower chamber and would now be moving to a Senate committee review.
When the bill eventually becomes law, there is something the younger generation would like changed to truly bring about unity. It ties in with the third line opening the first stanza of the old anthem that reads, Though tribes and tongue may differ.
On X, the user Michael Nwaehiodo thinks a tweak is necessary to invite a balanced representation of the 1959 tune. Yesterday, he wrote: 🎵”Though tribe and tongue may differ.” In his 1983 book, “The Trouble with Nigeria,” Chinua Achebe pointed this out and criticised it. He also criticised the idea of putting “state of origin” on official forms & documents. He argues that these things divide us.
🎵 "Though tribe and tongue may differ…"
In his 1983 book, "The Trouble with Nigeria," Chinua Achebe pointed this out and criticized it.
He also criticized the idea of putting "state of origin" on official forms & documents.
He argues that these things divide us. https://t.co/JderN8F8ye
— Michael Nwaehiodo (@michaelmeon_) May 23, 2024
Women going through a transition and seeking more space to thrive in society also want to be heard in the tweet of vascular health specialist, Modele Olowoyeye writing, while making amendments to the anthem, perhaps Brotherhood should also be changed to Siblinghood and Motherland changed to Parentland so that women and fathers respectively are not marginalised. The current anthem says Fatherland.
Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.
