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President Bola Tinubu
By Our Reporter, Lafia
Stakeholders in Nasarawa State have expressed divergent views over the reintroduced old National Anthem “Nigeria we hail Thee”
Some stakeholders who spoke in Lafia said reverting to the old national anthem could not possibly offer a solution to the current economic reality Nigerians are being faced.
Mr Matthew Odoh, a civil servant, said the Presidency and the National Assembly should give accelerated attention it had given to the reintroduced Natoinal Anthem bill to the lingering High National Diploma (HND) and Bachelor of Science (BSc) dichotomy.
He asserted that the Nigeria and Nigerians current challenges have nothing to do with National Anthem, therefore the change of the Anthem was of no important at the moment to him.
“Just within days we heard that the bill was passed and speedily assented to by Mr President.
“As I said earlier, the passage of the bill is too sudden, I could remember vividly during Buhari’s presidency, there’s this bill that stagnated at the national assembly up to 5 years, talking about local government autonomy, HND and BSc dichotomy bills.
” I think these kind of bills are supposed to be considered now but not the national anthem bill that
from nowhere out of the blue and received accelerated passage and assent,” he said.
Odoh said learning to recite the reintroduced Anthem would be difficult, given too many problems especially hunger and astronomic inflation where civil servants earning hardly had purchasing power.
Mr Dashe Joseph, a civil servant described the reintroduced Natoinal Anthem by Nigerian leaders as a misplaced priority, he liken it to having a headache and treating stomach pain.
According to him, all Nigerians must be patriotic if the economic and standard of living is favourable, a hungry man cannot recite the national anthem whether the new or old.
“I really don’t know the importance of reverting to old National Anthem, the situation in the country has nothing to do with the anthem, problem of Nigeria or Nigerians is not the national anthem.
“They are not looking at the cost of living, this is misplaced priority because there are many important many bills that will benefit citizenry and yet they haven’t assented to them.
“It is when one is okay, your security is guaranteed, your food shelters are guaranteed that is when you will be more patriotic because the government in place is properly taking of you,” he said.
He urged the federal government to go back to the drawing board to address fundamental problem of Nigeria in order to improve economy, reduce inflation and high cost of living.
On his part, Dr Kassim, Special Adviser on Political Affairs to the Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, applauded the President for signing the reintroduced anthem into law.
According to him, the lyrics of of the reintroduced old Anthem “Nigeria we Hail Thee’ is more encompassing and make more meaning than the discarded one, Arise o compatriots.
“However , as leaders of tomorrow, we strongly appeal that the last sentence of the Anthem, “Nigeria may be blessed” be changed to either Nigeria shall be blessed or Nigeria must be blessed.
“Nigeria may be blessed did not give the youths or Nigerians an assured hope but a conditional hope. We should be certain about the future of our dear country,” he said.
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