WHEN it became public knowledge that the National Assembly was working on a bill that will make us revert to the old national anthem, what came to my mind was that it was not possible, forgetting that in my country, anything is possible, especially when a lot of magicians are in high places.

Is it not in this country that a minister/magician tried to conjure a national carrier for us out of the rarefied air in Ethiopia, with billions spent on the venture? Is it also not in this country that another minister/magician spent more than N500 million to feed schoolchildren during the COVID-19 lock-down,and spent billions to train youths in smartphone repairs? I forget!

There are many issues that beg for attention, given the speed with which passage of the bill bringing back the old national anthem was passed. In fact, it could be said that the bill was railroaded through the Senate and the House of Representatives. Readers will be reminded that two ministers cautioned NASS on passage of the bill at a public hearing penultimate Monday.

At the hearing, Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, suggested that the scope of the bill should be expanded to include a robust issue of national identity rather than limiting it to a change of national anthem, while Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN urged the lawmakers to subject the bill to wider consultations before passing it.

Water on the back of the calabash, it would seem, as the lawmakers ignored both ministers and went ahead to pass the bill into law. It is this that seems to lend credence to suspicions in some quarters that there is “more than meets the eyes” with regards to dropping the anthem that had been in use since 1978, when General Olusegun Obasanjo was military Head of State. The anthem now brought back was the one in use since October 1, 1960, when our country gained flag independence from Great Britain.

I have my own questions for the NASS members. What national issues prompted their action? Of all the problems in our country today, how come reverting to the old national anthem is the one that commands their attention to the extent that a bill to bring back the old anthem could be railroaded through both chambers of the National Assembly the way it was done? There is agreement that the issues we have to find solutions to border on insecurity, unemployment, high cost of food items, high cost of transportation, hiked tariffs on electricity, unaffordable drugs and medicaments, and a legion of other problems that is making the pursuit of happiness in Nigeria an impossible task.

I ask all members of the National Assembly: How will reversion to the old national anthem help solve these problems? How will it bring down the cost of petrol and diesel? How will it make the GENCOs generate more electricity and the DISCOs distribute them efficiently? Will the old national anthem make the Organised Labour, the Federal and state governments and the Organised Private Sector give workers an acceptable minimum wage and avert looming industrial unrest?

Will the old national anthem make Boko Haram vanish, and will it make the bandits and kidnappers, and cultists repent and lay down their arms? Will it make our roads safer? Will it stop the menace of fake drugs? Will it also stop our living space — the environment, from decaying? I can go on and on, for the problems here are legion, and only focused leadership can tackle them. If that anthem was there from 1960 to 1978 and we incubated these problems, what is the guarantee that reverting to it will not make us incubate more problems?

I am of the opinion that our lawmakers are simply over-pampered, and like the spoilt children of wealthy people, do not know what to do at the right time. There are a lot of issues that need legislative attention for resolution. Another look at the exclusive and concurrent lists in our Constitution, for instance, should provide enough legislative assignments for our law-makers. There are 109 senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives, a total of 469 lawmakers. Appropriation for the salaries and allowances of these 469 people is about N120 billion annually.

If you split that sum among 469 people, each gets N255,863,539.445. If you get that kind of money for which you are required to work only 181 days in one year, it is not likely that you want to think hard and deep about anything, especially problems that do not affect you directly, since the state has taken care of those for you. I am waiting to see how the old national anthem will solve the problems that is making our youths “Ja pa”.

I am also waiting to see how multinationals that have been exiting our country with resulting job losses will come back. However at the moment, since I have mouths to feed like most other responsible Nigerians, I am waiting to see how reversion to the old anthem will bring down the price of a bag of rice to N7,000, from the current N76,000, which is what it was before the APC happened on us in 2015. TGIF.