ON Friday November 18, 2011, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former Lagos State Governor and National Leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, called for a referendum to gauge the preference of Nigerians on the two national anthems that the country has had since independence.
Tinubu, however, explained that the pogrom in the mid-60s in some parts of the country and the attendant civil war showed that as a people, we have failed to live up to the spirit of that anthem. “It was an example of the inconsistency in government thinking; moments when our leaders make unjustifiable about turns as Fela, the afro-beat musician, would have put it,” he stated.
While marking his first anniversary as President of the nation on Wednesday May 29, 2024 President Bola Tinubu signed a Private Member Bill on National Anthem. With the signing of the Bill, he turned the old anthem to a new one and the new one to an old one.