President Bola Tinubu has signed into law, a bill in a bid to readopt Nigeria’s old national anthem. The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, disclosed this while he was addressing lawmakers at the joint session of the National Assembly.
The President approved the bill on Wednesday morning as part of the constitutional provisions to make it a law. The bill seeks to replace the anthem, ‘Arise o compatriots’ with the old one, ‘Nigeria, We Hail Thee’, which was adopted as the country’s first national anthem on October 1, 1960. The old anthem was dropped in 1978 by Olusegun Obadanjo’s military regime.
The Senate passed the bill on Tuesday after most senators supported it through voice votes. In his remarks at the joint sitting, the Senate President urged Nigerians to familiarize themselves with the new national anthem. The new national anthem was recited upon President Tinubu’s arrival in the House chamber for the joint session.
