By Nudoiba Ojen
President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday signed the National Anthem Bill 2024 into law.
The bill seeks to reinstate the old anthem, “Nigeria, We Hail Thee.”
A final assent to the passage of the bill will bring about a shift from the now-recognised, “Arise O Compatriots.”
The bill was rapidly cleared by both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Below is the old, now new National Anthem:
NIGERIA WE HAIL THEE
“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”.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio told a joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday, “This morning, Mr President signed into an Act of Parliament, the newly passed National Anthem 2024″.
Tinubu, who later joined the joint session, confirmed ‘Nigeria, we hail thee’ as the “latest national anthem”.
Akpabio said the sitting was primarily to launch the new national anthem, explaining that the President would not be making a speech because he has to leave to launch the Abuja metro line.
The Senate and the House of Representatives had previously passed the legislation to swap the national anthem from “Arise, O Compatriots” to “Nigeria, We Hail Thee” at separate sittings.
Following the signing of the bill by the President to reintroduce the old national anthem, the joint sitting jettisoned what has been in existence since 1978, to adopt the former (and newly signed) national anthem ‘Nigeria, we hail thee’.
The old anthem, “Nigeria, we hail thee”, composed when Nigeria gained independence on October 1, 1960, has replaced the “Arise, O Compatriots” anthem.
