By Damilare Adeleye
Reports have indicated that the House of Representatives has passed a bill proposing that the country return back to reciting the old National Anthem.
The bill which was sponsored by the leader of the House, Hon Julius Ihonvbere was passed for second and third reading on the floor of the House during plenary in Abuja.
It was also reported that the Nigerian Senate was currently holding an executive/closed session to deliberate changing the national anthem.
The move is to replace the anthem with the former one ‘Nigeria, We Hail Thee’, which was adopted as the country’s first national anthem on October 1, 1960 but was dropped in 1978 by the Olusegun Obasanjo military regime.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio on Thursday ruled that the legislators should return to the plenary to pass the bill for 1st and 2nd reading today (Thursday).
Akpabio noted that thereafter any Nigerian interested in contributing could attend a public hearing on the matter at the Senate building, a source in the Senate disclosed this to journalists.
“The Senate President just ruled that we should go back to the plenary to pass the bill – 1st and 2nd reading today, thereafter, any Nigerian who is interested can come to the Senate building for a public hearing,” the source said.
The source privy to the discussions in the executive session said the Senate leadership “wants the bill to bring the old anthem back and wants the bill to pass first reading and second reading today.”
