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From Scholastica Hir, Makurdi
Reactions have continued to trail the reintroduction of the old national anthem with many Nigerians describing the decision as a misplaced priority.
Those who spoke to our correspondent in Makurdi, the Benue state capital, said Nigeria is currently experiencing a crisis situation that requires urgent attention and changing from new to old anthem is not one of them and should not be prioritized at the moment.
They noted that having seen Nigerians pass through serious economic hardships and heightened insecurities, the president would have used this occasion of his one year in office to revert some of the policy decisions that have caused the hardships like reversing the fuel subsidy, so that Nigerians can have a new lease of life.
Recall that last Wednesday May 29, 2024, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed the bill to reintroduce the old national anthem.
Speaking, a public analyst, Mr Austin Onuoha described the reversal to the old national anthem as a misplaced priority.
While noting that Nigerian leaders have a way of misplacing the nation’s priority wondered the relevance of the anthem hardship faced on the country.
“What is the relevance of the anthem to fuel scarcity and the escalating price of food.”
He observed that “If you go to the market, traders are changing prices everyday. What has the anthem got to do with the prices of goods in the market, what has it got to do with the massacres in Benue state. What is it got to do with the dilapidated Infrastructure all over Nigeria. We need to look at our national priority,” Onuoha said.
He also expressed worry that a country where federal higher institutions are overgrown with weeds and most often students are bitten by snake when going for lectures, leaders are rather brothered about a change of national anthem.
“In a country where federal tertiary institutions are overgrown with weeds and snakes are biting students and you are talking about old and new national anthem.
“It’s okay if that is going to be done but at we are at a crisis moment of our nation’s history, and at a crisis moment we should be solving our problems.
“Go to the car stands and see the number of registered vehicles that are on sale. People are selling their vehicles to pay rents, school fees and fend for their families and we behave as though everything is okay.
“Millions of Nigerians are very poor, how many of them have we lifted from poverty. How many of the attacks across the country have we stopped.
“Even after the attacks, the government has the responsibility of rehabilitating them and assisting them to rebuild their livelihoods. I don’t know if we have seen many of that.
“The IDP camps are like waste bins so we shouldn’t be talking about an old national anthem. That is not a priority,” Onuoha insisted.
Also speaking in the same vein, a legal practitioner in Benue state and former Chairman of Nigerian Bar Association, (NBA), Makurdi branch, Barr Justin Gbagir also agreed that the old national anthem should not preoccupy our priority for now.
According to him, “It is just like having a sick child that you are supposed to attend to his health and instead of doing so, all you are concerned about is change of name.
“We are having a situation where the cost of living is very high and the national executive arm of government should be preoccupied with how to salvage the economic situation in Nigeria that is taking a very bad toll on Nigerians.
“For me if the issue of the national anthem is anything to reconsider, it shouldn’t be at this time that the people are going about hungry because of the cost of food items, cost of transportation and high cost of everything.”
Gbagir stated further that, at the moment, going to change the national anthem was the least of the nation’s priority.
On his part, a business man, Mr Emmanuel Akor said the decision to change to the old national anthem has no bearing with the sufferings the people are experiencing.
“In the last one year, we have expected that after seeing what Nigerians are going through after the removal of the fuel subsidy, that the federal government would find a way to proper cushion the effects. We think that of there is anything to revert to, it’s to revert to the old fuel price.
“But here we are with an old anthem. Even if he finds so much meaning in the wordings, it shouldn’t be now. For things should come first, the anthem can come out any other time as his administration progress. The president should prioritize the people first because we don’t see how that normalize the cost of living in the country,” Akor said.
