President of the Nigerian Senate, Godswill Akpabio has revealed that the country is experiencing banditry today because the national anthem was changed from “Nigeria We Hail Thee” to “Arise O Compatriots”.
The former Akwa-Ibom governor said this on Tuesday during his visit to the Nigeria Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
Recall that President Tinubu recently signed a bill into law reverting to the old national anthem.
Akpabio asserted that if Nigeria had not abolished the old-new anthem in 1978, its message could have helped prevent social issues like banditry and insecurity.
“The other impactful bill signed by the National Assembly is the reverting to our old national anthem.
“A lot of people are not aware that there was a panel set up and made up of Nigerians to receive input from all over the world in 1959.
“So when people are saying we’re bringing in colonial anthem, they need to look into the history of “Nigeria, we hail thee”.”
“If we had kept to that anthem, we probably would not have banditry today in Nigeria because if you take your neighbour as your brother, you will not want to kill him,” Akpabio said.
