President Bola Tinubu signed the bill to revert to the old national anthem, ‘Nigeria We Hail Thee’, as part of the constitutional provisions to make it a law on Wednesday. The Senate and the House of Representatives previously passed the legislation to swap the national anthem from “Arise, O Compatriots” to “Nigeria, We Hail Thee” at separate sittings. ‘Nigeria We Hail Thee’ was adopted on Independence Day, 1 October 1960, but it was dropped in 1978 by the then-military administration of Olusegun Obasanjo.
“Nigeria, We Hail Thee,” adopted as the country’s first national anthem upon gaining independence from Britain in 1960, has been readopted. The younger generation may need to become more familiar with the story behind the newly readopted anthem and the women behind the lyrics and composition. Lillian Jean Williams Lillian Jean Williams, a British expatriate who lived in Nigeria when it achieved independence, wrote the anthem’s lyrics in 1959, while Frances Berda composed the music around the same period.
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