Ayobami Atanda 

On Wednesday, as announced by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed the bill for the readoption of the old national anthem into law. The Premium Times, a prominent news station at the nationals, reported last week that the Federal House of Representatives passed a bill to revert to the old anthem on May 23, 2024. Hardly had Nigerians heard about it when they began to berate any argument that facilitated its passage in the Green Chamber. However, the Senate also passed the bill on Tuesday. A lot of Nigerians inveighed against the bill’s passage. One of their arguments was about the irrelevance of the bill at a time when the economic situation of the country was at a low ebb. They saw no need for it since there were many pressing issues in the socio-political system of the most populous black nation. Nonetheless, President Tinubu signed the bill into law against the outcry of concerned Nigerians.  

Tinubu in 2022 showed his admiration for the anthem in an interview when Nigeria was celebrating its 62nd year of independence. He said he would bring it back if he had his way. Some months after his statement, he was elected as the president. Nevertheless, a year after his swearing-in, he signed the bill, which was first passed in six days, into law. Hence, the whole drama about the law, its fast and furious passage, should not be a surprise or shock, as the case may be. 

The old, but now current national anthem was first used between 1960 to 1978. Its lyrics were composed by Francis Berda and written by Lillian Jean Williams. Both of them were Brits, who were in the country when it gained independence in 1960. The pointer of the anthem was its Eurocentric disposition. It was part of the neo-colonial effects and the psychological remnant of colonialism when the nation became a sovereign state. Britain left in 1960, the queen ceased to be the nation’s ceremonial head in 1963, the first republic, but they still left Nigeria with the anthem until Major General Olusegun Obasanjo, in 1978, adopted another national anthem composed by five Nigerians namely,  P. O. Aderibigbe, John A. Ilechukwu, Dr. Sota Omoigui, Eme Etim Akpan and B.A. Ogunnaike. 

While speaking in the interview session in 2022, Tinubu stated as recalled by Sahara Reporters, “In fact, if I have my way, I would bring back our old, first national anthem. That described us much more better. I don’t know why we changed it. It is about service, it is about diversity, it is about commitment to value and nation-building, so that is my message.” 

Below is the new anthem: 

Nigeria we hail thee,

Our own dear native land,

Though tribe and tongue may differ,

In brotherhood, we stand,

Nigerians all, and proud to serve

Our sovereign Motherland.

Our flag shall be a symbol

That truth and justice reign,

In peace or battle honour’d,

And this we count as gain,

To hand on to our children

A banner without stain.

O God of all creation,

Grant this our one request,

Help us to build a nation

Where no man is oppressed,

And so with peace and plenty

Nigeria may be blessed.

However, a good student of history will know that the readopted national anthem does not describe Nigeria. Rather, it makes it and its citizens have an identity crisis. To begin with, it was composed and sung by two people who never knew what it meant to be a Nigerian. They were born and bred in a homogenous nation, not Nigeria, a uniquely heterogeneous nation of many cultures, languages, ethnicities, and beliefs compacted by the then-British government. The composer never knew the end point of the amalgamation of the Northern Protectorate and Southern Protectorate in 1914.

The country, in its 63 years of independence, still bears the identity given to it by the whites in its name and national anthem. Ghana changed its name from Gold Coast in 1957 when it gained independence. Rhodesia had its name changed to Zimbabwe as well, but Nigeria is still stuck with the descriptions given to it by the whites since 1897 when Flora Shaw, the wife of the then governor, Lord Luggard, named it by a mistake known as spoonerism.

The word “Native” in line two gives the imagery of the transatlantic slave trade, which began in the 16th century, the oppression and racial discrimination experienced by the black slaves in Europe, America, and the Caribbeans, the social stratification against the blacks in the 19th century and the evil of colonialism, which is economic expansionism, adventurism, and exploitation. No one who has never lived outside their place of birth needs to be reminded that they are native of the land; it is innate. Hence, the presence of natives in the anthem is a remembrance of history, which predated the entity called Nigeria. It highlights the woes of our countrymen and women who experienced immeasurable ordeals at the hands of the whites. 

Further, every Nigerian knows that the country is enmeshed with different tribes. No need for it to be stated again. The different parts of the country have refused to work as a team since 1960. The anthem will bring the memories of the old rivalries, which began before independence, afresh. At present, what the country needs is a non-negotiable unity of all tribes. The anthem failed to unite the nation before it was neglected in 1978. In its first stint, the country went through a Civil War, which took the lives of no fewer than 3 million people according to Chinua Achebe’s There Was A Country – a memoir of the war in 1966 – 1970. The country battled internal crises. For instance, there was a state of emergency in the western part of the country in 1962. It faced at least three coups and counter-coups during the first spell of the readopted anthem. 

At 63, Nigeria should be able to stand on its own. It should have let go of the memory paths of the colonialists, yet in 2024, the country goes back to its vomit through a dim inclination of deep-seated neo-colonialism. Once again, the country via the elected representatives who represent the majority of Nigeria, chose the anthem sung by a European to the one composed by Nigerians. What this means is that the people should forget the labour of their heroes’ past. It means that the people should forget the struggles of their patriarchs who fought for the independence tremendously and painstakingly, but celebrate their colonialists. When will Nigeria move on and attain its true independence devoid of Westernization? Without mincing words, the effect of colonialism is highly psychological and its trace is still fresh in the mind of Nigerians even after 63 years of separation between them and their colonial master. 

To conclude, concerning the interview Tinubu made in 2022, the hen has come home to roost. No one saw it coming, but it has happened. History has been rewritten to show the continuous impacts and influences of the whites on Nigeria. After many years of being a sovereign state, the nation continues plunging as a British puppet whose identity can only be determined and described by the master.