Reno Omokri, a Nigerian author and social media influencer, the Special Assistant to President Goodluck, had said the government should focus on reducing the cost of food, goods, and utility instead of reverting to an old anthem written by a foreigner.
Reno took to his social media handle ”X,” formally called Twitter, on Wednesday, May 29th, 2024, to decry the nation’s state.
‘’ If I look sad in the attached photo, it is for a reason. My heart is very heavy about Nigeria right now because, in my opinion, we just took a giant step backward in our national journey.;’’
‘’As a nation, our focus should be to revert as much as possible to lower prices of foods, goods and utilities and services for our people instead of reverting to an old national anthem written by an English woman, Lillian Jean Williams.
I support President Tinubu on nearly everything he has done, but not on this one.
‘’ Now, do not get me wrong, I support the current economic policies of my country. Fuel subsidy removal and Naira flotation are necessary policies that any lover of Nigeria should adhere to regardless of party affiliation.
One of the most unnecessary acts of governance in Nigeria in recent times is the law returning the old National Anthem.’’
It is a distraction. The President should focus on delivering a new and better minimum wage for Nigerians, not a new National Anthem written by a foreigner.
We already import much of our food, fuel, pharmaceuticals, and even our Super Eagles Senior Coaches We are the land of song and dance. We do not also need to import a National Anthem.
You can imagine the land of such music icons, like Fela Kuti, Osita Osadebe, Dan Maraya Jos, and contemporary stars, like Sade Adu, Burna Boy, Davido and Wizkid, importing music of national significance from Britain. As my Yoruba brethren will say, ‘O wrong now!’
‘’First of all, there was nothing wrong with the existing anthem. Secondly, with all of the multifaceted issues we face, it seems like we have a lack of priorities, when we major on such a settled issue as an anthem.
Already, the name Nigeria was given to us by another English lady, Flora Shaw. And she named us in 1897 in much the same way you name a dog. She did it tongue in cheek, for an article she wrote for The Times of London.
We ought to have even changed that name to something indigenous, such as the Republic of Wazobia, as Ghana did in 1957 when she changed from Gold Coast to Ghana at Independence in 1957.
We should also have reverted to the original name for Lagos, Eko. Lagos is an imposed Portuguese name.
The annoying thing is that the Portuguese who renamed Eko as Lagos were just opportunistic slave traders who did not set up any viable administrative structure.
Instead of undertaking these name changes, we are rather doubling down on another colonial relic by discarding the anthem written by our own citizens for one written by a foreigner.
