Video: There won’t be banditry in Nigeria, if we had kept to ‘Nigeria we Hail Thee’ anthem – Akpabio

Senate President Godswill Akpabio said the new National Anthem will build patriotism and help the country resolve insecurity.

Akpabio stated this while addressing the plenary in Abuja on Wednesday.

He said, “The bill sent to us by President Bola Tinubu on student loan and scholarship programmes will enable vulnerable Nigerian students who are less privileged to obtain higher education…

“…and as I speak to you now, over 30,000 have been selected to benefit from it. That’s one of the bills that appeals to me the most,” he added.

The Senate President further stated, “A lot of people are now aware that there was a panel set up in 1959 made up of Nigerians to receive input from all over the world. 

“So, when people say we’re bringing a colonial anthem, please look into the history of ‘Nigeria we hail thee’. If we kept to that national anthem, we probably wouldn’t have banditry today in Nigeria, because if you take your neighbour as your brother, you won’t want to kill him or go to the farm to behead your brother,” he said. 

Recall that the Federal Government unveiled the approved version of Nigeria’s reintroduced national anthem.

The Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Lanre Issa-Onilu, unveiled the standardised version of the anthem on Wednesday in Abuja.

He urged Nigerians to pay close attention to the words in lines three and five of the national anthem that was reintroduced.

On May 29, 2024, on the one-year anniversary of the current government, President Bola Tinubu signed the National Anthem Bill 2024 reverting to the old national anthem, “Nigeria, we hail thee” from “Arise, O Compatriots”.

The President said the latest national anthem, ‘Nigeria, we hail thee’ “is our diversity, representing all characters and how we blend to be brothers and sisters”.