Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has posited that Nigeria’s old national anthem, which was reintroduced could have prevented the current insecurity challenges.
He said if “Nigeria, We Hail Thee” was retained as the anthem, banditry, kidnapping and other forms of criminality would not be as serious as they are today.
He spoke on Tuesday, June 18 during a visit to the Nigeria Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies in Abuja.
According to the senate president, the reintroduced anthem would have fostered unity, patriotism and love among Nigerians.
Akpabio said: “The other impactful bill signed by the National Assembly is the reverting to our old national anthem. A lot of people are not aware that there was a panel set up and made up of Nigerians to receive input from all over the world in 1959.
“So when people are saying we’re bringing in colonial anthem, they need to look into the history of “Nigeria, we hail thee”. If we had kept to that anthem, we probably would not have banditry today in Nigeria because if you take your neighbour as your brother, you will not want to kill him.”
The senate president also revealed that more than 30,000 Nigerian students have been selected to benefit from the student loan scheme.
Akpabio said the Student Loan bill allows the children of the less privileged persons in the country to obtain higher education without the financial burden.
He said: “One of the most important bills for the tenth Assembly was the bill sent to us by President Bola Tinubu. The Student Loan Bill enables vulnerable Nigerian students, the less privileged, to obtain higher education.
“And as I speak to you now, over 30,000 Nigerian students have already been selected to benefit from that scheme. That is one of the bills I will say appeal to me the most.”
