By Ibrahim Hassan-Wuyo

The leader of Rescue Movement For New Nigeria aka Rescue The Vulnerable Initiative and a Presidential Aspirant under Labour Party, Comrade Faduri Oluwadare Joseph aka Fadojoe has condemned in strong term the idea of returning to the old National Anthem, asserting that it’s tantamount to reimposing on Nigerians the mindset of colonialism.

Fadojoe spoke on a live broadcast on Thursday 30th May, 2024, from USA on RESCUE TV, the online television station of the group, Rescue Movement For New Nigeria, monitored online

While expressing his sadness over the misplaced priority by the lawmakers that despite the various serious problems bedeviling the country; their concern was now the changing to the old National Anthem.

“It is with a saddened heart I come to you today as Nigerian lawmakers out of a series of crises rocking our nation see no reason to handle them head-on, but to waste our country’s resources to revert to our old national anthem, (Nigeria We Hail Thee) that was given to us in 1960 by a foreigner, a British expatriate Miss Lilian Williams.”

” The anthem borne out of Miss Lilian’s experience of Nigeria as a colonized state in 1959 and it was in use in Nigeria until 1978 when some Nigerians came together in a national competition to change the course of history and to give Nigeria a National Anthem that represents its people, old compatriot.”

‘For those of who may not know the history of our nation, in 1978 during the regime of General Olusegun Obasanjo, a new National Anthem (Arise O Compatriots) was adopted to replace (Nigeria We Hail Thee). This new national anthem truly “captures the Heritage of Nigeria, values, Nigerian culture and identity; to reflect Nigerian belief aspirations cultural heritage unity and above all pride and to show a nation that has gone through a lot to reflect our nation’s past including battles for Independence, national Heroes like Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe, and Tafawa Balewa are but a few and many Nigerians who fought to see us free from white oppression and colonization. In addition to that, the lyrics were composed and written by five eminent and able Nigerians P. O. Aderibigbe, John Illechukwu, Doctor Sota, and Emem T Apa.”

“After these were written these great Nigerians put together the best of what we have as, Arise O Compatriots. Further more, the music for this national anthem was composed by the best of Nigerian Police, put it together on October 1st, 1978 when we celebrated Nigerian Independence. This National Anthem was first sung in 1978 October 1st. And since 1978 fast forward to 2024 we have been using this National Anthem because it truly reflects and represents the 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria.”

” This is a National Anthem that was put together by the West, the South, the North, and the East. This is a National Anthem that was put together by Nigerians for Nigerians. But our present lawmakers decided that it’s better to return the country to the memory of our Colonial Masters so that in our mindset we can go back to colonialism. What an irony!”

The activist raised some questions that he insisted are begging for answer: “Does it mean that all that is important to our lawmakers is a national anthem that Colonial Master gave to us? My questions to the lawmakers are that.. what makes that old National Anthem more important than all the crisis rocking our nation? What makes National Anthem given to us by foreigners better than the one created and composed by our own people?”

“So it means that we are saying that everything made or done by Nigerians is not useful. We should continue to promote things that are done by foreigners. We cannot get a new Nigeria with this. We cannot make a country where all we do is to promote things abroad that are given to us by white people by foreigners and not things that are done by our own people at home. I appeal and I call on Mr President to return and to send that National Anthem back to lawmakers to revert back to our National Anthem, Arise O Compatriots, because that is a National Anthem that represents people, that reflects our culture and who we are as a people. That is the National Anthem that we want to see us sing. That is the National Anthem that comes from Nigeria composed by Nigerians made by Nigerians.”

“But as patriotic Nigerians we are confident that someday we’re going to fix our country. Someday we’re going to have a new Nigeria where we have lawmakers and people in government who will think and prioritize what is important and not what is unimportant in our nation. May God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria. May God bless Rescue Movement For New Nigeria,’ he said.