One year after assumption of office by Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it is highly expected that so much attention will be on the performance of the administration so far. It has become the culture or convention for individuals and institutions to evaluate or critically assess the impact of governments at various levels after specific periods of occupation of office.
With the numerous developments in the country since the ascension of President Tinubu to office, most of which are extremely unpalatable and distressing, it is obvious that his performance in his first year in office are bound to attract extensive harsh reviews and comments. Granted such wide expectations, the government decided to craftily reintroduce the abandoned first National Anthem to mark its first year’s anniversary. Perhaps, the calculation might have been to deploy this as a strategic tool to divert the attention of Nigerians from more important issues and real indices for measuring the performance of the government of the day. Once the distractive issue of National Anthem is preoccupying public attention, all other vitriolic remarks about the extremely poor performance of the government would be doused or simply pale into insignificance.
Little wonder the reintroduction of the old National Anthem was exclusively reserved for the first anniversary of the government. The ease with which the law was promulgated in the National Assembly and the dispatch in appending the President’s assent, can only suggest one thing. That it’s most likely intended to serve the overriding interests of the ruling class. Never in recent history have the political class accorded such preeminence to issues that border on the welfare or needs of the common people. That only happens when the interests and wellbeing of the political leaders are at stake.
So, bringing the old National Anthem to the front burner at such a critical time, in just a jiffy, cannot but be construed as a ploy to serve the ultimate ulterior motive of our political leaders. One thing is certain: it’s not totally going to distract us from focusing on the staggering real issues of governance failures which abound in all facets of national life. We’ll realign ourselves to the current National Anthem, even as that does not in any way reflect an iota of our present collective challenges as a nation. All the same, discerning Nigerians will not hesitate to spare significant thoughts about the substantial degree of failures and inadequacies bedevilling the present administration.
One must categorically affirm a preference for the reintroduced anthem. The letters and lines of the three stanzas are quite profound and they overtly and covertly portray the genuine intentions of the framers to convert our diversities and differences into strength towards a greater and more fulfilling society. The wordings were appropriately captured in our description as a people and nation. The anthem depicts the vision and mission of our illustrious founding fathers; their genuine sense and spirit of love, patriotism and sincerity of purpose and commitment to the task of nation-building.
As a Nigerian who was born barely two years after independence, I am wondering how this government that has just reintroduced the then National Anthem will be able to convince me that the Nigeria of today stands anywhere close to those lofty words and spirits embedded in the anthem. It’s absolutely impossible for anyone to tell me to sing and believe that; “Though tribe and tongue may differ, In brotherhood we stand.” Or, “To hand on to our children A banner without stain.” Or further still, “Help us to build a nation, where no man is oppressed.”
One has been in this country for decades enough to know for certainty that those lofty lines and statements captured in the anthem are grossly unattainable in the present-day Nigeria. We must stop deceiving ourselves and begin to thrive in achievable reality. The Federal Government of Nigeria under the All Progressive Congress (APC) of former president Muhammadu Buhari polarized this country so much that it would be extremely difficult for any ethnic group or tribe to trust or wholly embrace each other. The present APC government of Bola Ahmed Tinubu has literally followed the path of divisiveness laid by his predecessor. This is not in contention.
The anthem talks about handing over a banner without stain to our children. Come on, can this be real? Which banner are we talking of? Banner of corruption. Banner of police brutality and abuse of civilians by uniformed operatives. Banner of unmitigated mass murder at Lekki Toll Gate, Odi, Zaki Biam, Okuama and Egbema. Banner of unemployment. Banner of hopelessness and shattered dreams. Banner of leadership (of tomorrow) that we hardly ever relinquish. This great banner for children who are all caught in the web of abandoning the country that is promising them heaven on earth to migrate to foreign lands with greater prospects. You can call it the “Japa” banner. Perhaps, not many of our children believe that the banner is without stain. The vast majority perceive that what is left to be handed over to them is only a badly tainted banner.
Singing the anthem wholeheartedly maybe a daunting challenge to so many. Can you imagine a victim of oppressive leadership saying from the bottom of his heart that he should be helped to build a nation where no man is oppressed? What about a victim of judicial rascality robbed of justice because he does not have wads of money to grease palms of judicial officials? A victim of police brutality and the excessive high-handedness of the military singing such lines with total commitment is a complete mirage. It’s just a mere wishful statement. There’s no reality in the Nigeria of today of the existence of those high commitments and expectations embodied in the National Anthem. Also, there’s the absence of the will to commit to those magnificent words.
If the government is honest and sincere about returning the country to those lofty heights envisioned in the National Anthem, it should really begin with purging itself of the numerous shortcomings and negative practices associated with it. Its lopsided appointments cannot be staring us in the face and you want us to believe that you are sincerely committed to building a new and better Nigeria. You cannot be promoting nepotism and ethnicity and you expect us to trust that a Nigeria that’s different from the battered country we have been contending with all these years will emerge at the end of your tenure in office.
The government cannot be serious about promoting national unity or unity in diversity as encapsulated in the National Anthem when some Nigerians are increasingly becoming unwanted in areas where they are not part of the indigenous populations. Quite recently, especially since February 2023, some state governments, especially the president’s home state of Lagos have been antagonistic to Nigerians of Igbo extraction through the execution of harsh policies deliberately designed to stifle their businesses and frustrate them from enjoying uninhibited residence. During the last general election, it was commonplace for hoodlums who were sympathisers and supporters of the present president and the incumbent governor of Lagos State to unleash mayhem on Igbo people and other non-supporters of their candidates who are not Yoruba. We have seen markets predominantly occupied by Igbo traders going up in flames under curious and mysterious circumstances. Government bulldozers have been deployed to areas of the state largely occupied by Igbo people to engage in massive demolitions of their property. This is the dear Nigeria we’ll hail and stand with pride in brotherhood! Is this not utter deceit? The anthem should not be about mere rhetoric. We must not be paying lip service to what we all know we are not and can never be. Our commitment to the wordings must come from the bottom of the heart.
Another significant step towards convincing Nigerians about the seriousness of the government in achieving the targets of the National Anthem is to embark on well-articulated national ethical revolution. Government must prove its sincerity of purpose beyond every reasonable doubt to be able to effectively mobilize the Nigerian populace to imbibe the cherished values contained in the anthem. It must not be a case of the leadership preaching to the followers what the former cannot practise. For the purpose of efficacy, it must be leadership by example. Unfortunately, many of us know very well that the present crop of leaders in the country cannot and will never achieve this. They are used to riding on the backs of the rest of us- common people.
Finally, it is of paramount importance for the Federal Government to consider as a major step towards the attainment of national rebirth and socioeconomic development by restructuring the country’s political economy. We cannot expect to achieve any tangible national development by sustaining the present system that promotes injustice, indolence, nepotism, unbridled corruption and hatred. The idea of subduing the quest for resource-control is quite unproductive and antithetical to progress. It’s absolutely against the law of equity and natural justice that some mineral/natural resources are controlled and shared by all the federating units while some state governments are discreetly mining and appropriating all the proceeds from theirs. What is good for the goose must also be good for the gander. Let the units of the federation control the greater proportions of the resources in their soils while the Federal Government gets a minority share. This implies that the Federal Government will ultimately surrender some chunks of its constitutional responsibilities and powers to the federating units.
Restructuring of the political economy should encompass the whittling down of the size of the National Assembly and slashing of the humungous emoluments and wages accruable to political office holders. This will make politics cease to be the highly lucrative, but unproductive industry it has evolved into in this country, especially in the present fourth Republic. It’ll also halt its increasing tendency towards assuming a do-or-die affair. Only then will the political sector be populated by people with the sincere desire to render service to the people and society/country.
From the foregoing, it can be glaring that the mere reintroduction of an abandoned National Anthem cannot change anything in Nigeria. There are many other measures, some of which have been captured here, through which a serious and committed government could impact the people meaningfully.
The essence of government all over the world is to promote the welfare and guarantee the wellbeing of the people. A government that cannot protect the people from marauding terrorists, bandits and criminals; that cannot guarantee the enjoyment of basic necessities of life; stimulate the growth of the economy in such a way as to attract genuine local and foreign investments, provide employment opportunities, control inflation, and generally make life meaningful and worth living should be certain that the mere gimmick of a reversal to any National Anthem will never fetch the admiration, respect, praise and support of the people. A bad or good government cannot be hidden from the consciousness of the people. No amount of distractions can shield a non-performing government from the negative lenses of the people. The truth is that there is absolutely nothing to write home about the present Federal Government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the past one year. What he has brought to Nigerians does not go beyond the boundaries of misery, hardship and dashed dreams. It’s really been a year of unmitigated disaster for the vast majority of Nigerians with hunger, starvation, diseases and deaths ravaging the people.
Nigeria we hail thee!
Joachim OLUMBA, (Retd CIS), KSJI, wrote in from Owerri.
