The Senate has passed the National Anthem Bill 2024 to revert to Nigeria\u2019s old national anthem, “Nigeria, We Hail Thee.” The bill, which passed first and second readings on Thursday, now awaits President Bola Tinubu\u2019s assent to become law.<\/p>\n
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The proposed legislation seeks to replace the current anthem, “Arise, O Compatriots,” with the original anthem composed at Nigeria’s independence on October 1, 1960. The old anthem was dropped in 1978 during Olusegun Obasanjo’s military administration. Lillian Jean Williams, a British expatriate in Nigeria during its independence, wrote the lyrics, and Frances Berda composed the music. The anthem played a significant role in shaping Nigeria’s national identity and unity during the 1960s and late 1970s.<\/p>\n
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Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele emphasized the anthem’s impact: “Upon rendition, it inspired deep patriotism among Nigerians. Those who lived through that era recognize its crucial role in our nation’s history, evoking nostalgia and fond memories of our early years.”<\/p>\n
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On Monday, the Senate began a public hearing on an Act to provide for the National Anthem of Nigeria and related matters. Bamidele, representing Senate President Godswill Akpabio at the hearing, said the second stanza of the existing national anthem shall become the national prayer. He mentioned that further consultation might be necessary on the matter.<\/p>\n
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Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, stated that the amendment should not be solely by legislative fiat but should involve wider consultation to reflect the wishes of all Nigerians. Senior Advocate of Nigeria Mike Ozekhome highlighted a line from the previous anthem addressing oppression and corroborated with the Director-General of the National Orientation Agency that the change was overdue. Ozekhome recalled proposing the change at the 2014 CONFAB, where 490 delegates debated and supported it.<\/p>\n
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Last week, the bill seeking to revert to the old anthem “Nigeria, We Hail Thee” passed its second reading in the Senate before being passed on Tuesday. The House of Representatives has also passed the bill. For the return to the old anthem to take effect, the bill will need to be harmonized by both chambers and receive the President’s approval.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Senate has passed the National Anthem Bill 2024 to revert to Nigeria\u2019s old national anthem, “Nigeria, We Hail Thee.” The bill, which passed first and second readings on Thursday, now awaits President Bola Tinubu\u2019s assent to become law. The proposed legislation seeks to replace the current anthem, “Arise, O Compatriots,” with the original […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":32838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32837"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32839,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32837\/revisions\/32839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}