“Anthems are ideological recitations that help the people to be more focused. It was an unfortunate development for the military to have changed the anthem.”

-Frank Tietie
(In an earlier interview)

Nigeria's new anthem, written by a Briton, sparks criticism after a contentious law is passed https://ca.news.yahoo.com/nigerias-anthem-written-briton-sparks-194844367.html

If the Star Spangled Banner and 'God Save the King' would remain for centuries in the USA and UK, respectively, on what basis did the military government have to change the National Anthem that was associated with Nigeria's independence?

The choice of the military government of General Olusegun Obasanjo to change the independence national anthem was an attempt to distort the history and emerging ethos of the new nation, Nigeria, in 1960. It didn't matter whether the original (now new) anthem was composed by a Briton. It is the same reason that laws that were in England as of 1st January 1900 are still applicable in Nigeria today. That's how you trace national foundations.

The original national anthem, which the regime of President Bola Tinubu has now restored, naturally speaks more to the foundational challenges of the true federation that Nigeria was at independence and the resolve of the Nigerian people to exalt the new state above the centrifugal forces of ethnicity and other primordial aspirations.

The Military replacement national anthem, on the contrary, was a bundle of contradictions and highly unrealistic recitations that remained unattainable.

An anthem that acknowledges the reality of the divisions among Nigerians is better than the one based on lies.

Such lies as follows :
Nigerians are compatriots who have a love for their country and do want to serve it with their strength as an expression of faith that it would be a great country which the labours of its past heroes (like our former leaders) shouldn't be in vain. And so serve the country with their heart and might to build a country whose unity and peace are defined by freedom.- What a lie!

The entire 1st stanza of the now discarded national anthem was a cluster of lies. The experience of the last 45 years of its adoption can attest that it was. Nigerians never believed in it because they unconsciously regarded it as a mockery of reality.

Therefore, it is little wonder why the 2nd stanza of the now scrapped anthem, though a prayer, has remained unanswered after nearly 50 years because the God of creation hates lies, especially foundational lies that people knowingly and collectively hold out. Such cannot engender answered prayer from the Almighty God of creation.

Frank Tietie
Lawyer and Public Affairs Analyst writes from Abuja.