To that extent, the recent return to the old national anthem, which President Bola Tinubu considered desirable for the country currently under his charge, is not a bad development. As an encapsulation of both the vision and the mission of a nation, ‘a national anthem is one of the instruments of modern government’, according to Professor Dan Izevbaye et al. This may explain Tinubu’s long expressed interest in the content of Nigeria’s national anthem. To that extent, we agree with the president’s position, but we do not agree with the process by which he achieved the return to the old anthem. Akinwale lamented that for the second time in Nigeria’s history, a few persons changed the national anthem without carrying the people along.

Source: The Guardian June 24, 2024 15:59 UTC