This week, Nigeria marked 18 years of civil rule. Yes, we all woke up to see the flag of our nation set on another significant threshold of sovereignty. Despite all odds, we’ve managed to survive, crossing dangerous roads even in the face of often foretold revelations that we would disintegrate. We have managed to maintain the brotherhood bound, singing our common anthem of freedom and patriotism from the bottom-line of River Niger to the pinnacle of Zuma Rock.
While we are still celebrating a fundamental landmark of national history, looking back from where we’re coming from is imperative, our robust feats as a nation and our general weak points, especially those frameworks of synchronised obstacles hampering our progressive spirit, with a view to taking right baton back at the right track. Realising our dream, first, we need to go back to our old national anthem, Lillian Jean Williams’s “Nigeria we Hail Thee.”
This may sound uncritical, for someone will ask what does freedom mean if we are still adopting the anthem gifted to us by our colonial masters. But for anybody who understands what Nigeria stands for, and what it’s built upon will never dispute the fact that, though from the onset of our independence, we have been battling barrels of challenges, changing our anthem seems to be a turning point of our collective misery.
We may further claim that it does not make any meaning of ideal common sense, because even prior to 1978 when we changed our anthem to “Arise O Compatriots”, our country had gone through turbulent times from distortion of civilian rule by recurring military coups, civil war and other banes arising from both personal and regional interests. But it must be said that that moment we changed our anthem is a defining point of miserable reflection of bad luck against building a desirable post-modern Nigeria.
Going by analysts, first, we should admit that our present anthem cannot compete with the previous one in terms of artistic uniqueness, meaning and message. Many Nigerians who have read and paid attention to every wording of both anthems will affirm to this. Second, the projection of the mandatory need for patriotism, sensitivity to national harmony, collective civic responsibility required of a submissive citizen is more concrete, strongly entrenched and clearly defined in the first anthem.
Imagine where Nigeria would have been if everybody, irrespective of “tribe and tongue”, “is proud to serve” and pays their widow’s mite to the country because of the belief that it’s “our dear native land.” How will our children grow pursuing regional and personal agenda rather than fighting a cause towards the national interest if Nigeria-We-Hail-Thee anthem is what they sing every morning on the assembly ground? Why will an Hausa man fight his Yoruba Nigerian brother? And how will some Igbo youths who may be ignorant of the dark memories of the Civil War wake up one morning craving for secession?
Another mistake which is a significant marker of negative turning point for modern Nigeria is replacing our country’s title, ‘Motherland’ (in Nigeria We Hail Thee), with ‘Fatherland’ as reflected in our present anthem. We all know Nigeria is a nation built on British’s interest – a country of many countries! Immediately after the amalgamation of 1914 by Lord Lugard, we’ve assumed that one nation wombs us together irrespective of our cultural backgrounds and political exposure –and that’s Nigeria, our mother. The wisdom here is that since the inception of the world, one of the undisputed facts is that there is usually a stronger bound among children of the same mother than different fathers. In 1978, that year we removed the word ‘Motherland’ from our anthem, and replaced it with ‘Fatherland’, unknowingly, we set a trajectory of gradual disintegration for ourselves. This is partially responsible for the current agitation for Biafra.
And quite unfortunately, our political leaders have capitalised on this through religion and ethnic borderline. In 1993, when this malady had not deeply burrowed into our bloodstream, Nigeria freely voted for the Muslim-Muslim ticket of Abiola-Kingibe rather than the “balanced” Muslim-Christian ticket of Tofa-Ugoh ticket in an election that stands first in our history. But in the 2015 election, Nigeria witnessed arguably the worst campaign of religious bigotry and ethnic cynicism. President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress, were targets of religious and ethnic attacks and defamation by the now opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, and some blindly misled partisans and self-styled religious propagandists. How can we move on?
Lastly, “Nigeria We Hail Thee” is typical of an anthem any nation can wish for. No wonder some of its lines and words are found in our present anthem. It starts with praise of the “Motherland”, then our wishes for great values that will be generationally transmittable; and lastly prayers and request to God to make Nigeria a land “where no man is oppressed.” Nigeria is a nation where oppression is another anthem. Everywhere, we sing of oppression and marginalisation. If every leader and office holder believe that no one should be oppressed, with our potential and huge endowments, we will fly far.
- Rahaman Abiola Toheeb, Iseyin, Oyo State donrabtob@gmail.com @Donrabtob on Twitter
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