President Bola Tinubu officially approved the National Anthem Bill 2024 on Wednesday, bringing back the historic anthem, ‘Nigeria, We Hail Thee’.
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, announced this on Wednesday at the National Assembly’s joint session, celebrating the 25th anniversary of Nigeria’s 4th Republic.
Tinubu, speaking during a 2022 interview marking Nigeria’s 62nd independence anniversary, disclosed his personal favouritism towards the then-former national anthem, ‘Nigeria, We Hail Thee’, rather than ‘Arise Oh Compatriots’.
According to Saharareporters, he expressed his wish to discard ‘Arise Oh Compatriots’ in favour of ‘Nigeria, We Hail Thee’ if he had the authority to do so.
Tinubu said in the interview: “In fact, if I have my way, I would bring back our old, first national anthem. That described us much more better. I don’t know why we changed it. It is about service it is about diversity, it is about commitment to value and nation-building, so that is my message.”
‘Nigeria, We Hail Thee’ is the national anthem of Nigeria, used from independence in 1960 until 1978, before the Tinubu government readopted it in May 2024.
Authored by British expatriate Lillian Jean Williams and composed by Frances Berda, “Nigeria, We Hail Thee” became Nigeria’s first national anthem on October 1, 1960.
