National anthem change will address banditry – Akpabio

• Akpabio urged Nigerians to inculcate the lessons in the newly reintroduced old national anthem

Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, says changing of Nigeria’s old national anthem contributed to the growth of banditry and other criminal activities in the country.

Recall that the national assembly last month changed Nigeria’s national from the one written and composed by Nigerians to the one bequeathed to the country by the British after independence.

Speaking on the anthem change, Akpabio urged Nigerians to inculcate the lessons in the newly reintroduced old national anthem for doing so will help to end banditry in the country.

He spoke on Tuesday when he visited the National Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies, in Abuja.

Akpabio said that the country wouldn’t have experienced the menace if the old national anthem wasn’t changed in 1978.

He said, “The other one of social impact is reverting to our old national anthem. A lot of people are not aware that there was a panel set up, made up of Nigerians to receive input from all over the world in 1959.”

“When the people say we are bringing in the colonial anthem, we look into the history of the ‘Nigeria we hail thee.’ If we had kept to that national anthem, we probably would not have banditry in Nigeria. If you take your neighbour as your brother, you wouldn’t want to kill your brother or go into the farm to behead your brother.’’

Recall that President Bola Tinubu in May signed the bill to reintroduce the old national anthem which was first introduced during independence in 1960 before the Olusegun Obasanjo military administration replaced it with the proscribed ”Arise, O Compatriots.”