BY REV FR GERALD NWAFOR
This issue has been going on for a while now, but I am reading the reasons of the protagonists and the antagonists to see which side of the divide I will pinch my tent with. When I go to bed, I will forget completely about it because it’s of no national importance.
Oby Ezekwesili made a point that touched my sensibility when she said that the government of Tinubu is majoring in the minor. I could not agree less because I do not know the importance of the national anthem in the lives of ordinary Nigerians today. I know the old national anthem by heart, and I know the new national anthem too. I could have said that I know the two anthems in my memory as a student.
I was born in the 70s but I watched the national assembly screening and most of the ministers who were shouting for a change could not even sing the national anthem. The most recent shock was when the old new national anthem was reintroduced to the present crop of assembly members and the president could not sing it well.
How can you introduce something you cannot sing? On the 29th of May 2024 when the president visited the national assembly to inaugurate and sing the old-new national anthem, one should have thought that they must have practiced a little to give it a colorful rendition so that it would appeal to the Nigerian public somehow.
But no, they did not practice it and the president and the whole assembly members were mumbling out words that were not even in the anthem. Like every other thing they have done in Nigeria since May 29th, 2023. Doing things without any plan or prearrangement. They removed the subsidy without any plan. They floated the Naira without any plan.
They increased taxes without any plan. They increased tariffs without any plan. They introduced cyber taxes without any plan. In all these policies and plans they have introduced none is working because there was no plan. I can assure you that “Arise O’ compatriot” will be sung at the Paris Olympics because there was no plan. Nobody would submit the new-old one to the Olympic committee and the country would be disgraced again in the international arena.
The speed with which the anthem was passed was the only good thing about the anthem because if they could use the same speed to pass the minimum wage debacle between the labor union and the government it would be remarkable.
If they can use the same speed to pass the INEC law sitting on the table of senate president since 2019 as proposed by the government of Yar’adua it would be excellent but never, they would not pass such important legislation. The Bible says that the feet that hurry to do bad are evil and the feet that slow to do good are also evil (Isaiah 59:7). The legislator should not like to be classified as feet that hurry to do bad neither would they appreciate the second.
When the president came to ask for frivolous loans to buy SUVs (Sport Utility Vehicles) for the national assembly members the bill was passed in under one week but when it comes to the bill to help the common man get health care and education you will be hearing that the bill has not passed first and second hearing and have not had enough support from the house. What a charade. Like I said the only good thing in this national anthem imbroglio is neither the content nor the time but the speed with which it was passed.
If the 458 congressmen and women can pass a piece of legislation with this speed, I believe they can do many positive things with the same speed. On the nomenclature, I am also confused about what to say about the new anthem because it was called the old one for 46 years and Arise O’ Compatriot was called the new one. Now that the old one “Nigeria we hail thee” has been reintroduced as the new one what shall we call it? The elderly people in the village would say that confusion abounds (Konfuz dumaga).
The Nigerian state is now in the hands of confused people and when you try to challenge them on the failed KPI (Key Performance Indices) they would start to attack your personalities and not defend their positions and the reasons why they took the actions they were presenting to the Nigerian public.
I do not engage in the political diatribe to accuse APC and the like; no, I will only accuse the head of the government of APC who is President Tinubu.Finally, the national anthem of a nation should signify what the nation believes in and most of the time constructed or orchestrated by the people of that nation. Nigeria, We Hail Thee was written by a foreigner but nothing was wrong with it except the two words “Tribe and Native” which have become pejorative over time and have transformed into ethnic and nationalities respectively.
I think Adams Oshiomhole made that argument on the floor of the Senate but because they had no clue how to change it they ignored him. I think this change would not last not because I am a prophet or from the Jewish tribe but because I know the use of common sense. It was Tinubu’s hate for Obasanjo that woke up all this attempt to clean up the general’s legacy and footprint on the sand of Nigeria, but I can assure you that this one will not last. The next president after him would revert to Arise O’ Compatriot.
I have been reading and watching out to see what Obasanjo would say about the anthem change. I have not seen his comment because I know that he understands where Tinubu is coming from which is hate. I wish this anthem would put food on the table, a roof over the heads of the common man, and clothes on the bodies of Nigerians. I would be first to jump onto it. The old-new anthem is a sign of the failure of the government to care for its populace.
