Dr. Sota Omoigui – Coauthor of the Former Nigerian National Anthem ‘ARISE’ has said the regressive reverting of our anthem to the colonial anthem as a betrayal of our independence, describing the action as a symbol of a political leadership that is clueless and crawling on its hands and knees to kiss the ring of its colonial master by re-adopting their anthem – music and lyrics.
He accused the President Bola Tinubu and members of the National Assembly for changing the National Anthem he co-Author for “Nigeria we hail thee” saying Nigeria leaders want Nigerians to hail the 53% unemployment rate of our youths and the 34% unemployment rate of our adults. They want us to hail Nigeria for the minimum monthly wage of N30, 000.00, whose earners have to work for three months to purchase a bag of rice that costs N100,000.00. They want us to hail no electricity, roads, pipe borne water, dilapidated and unsanitary schools with no roofs or windows and our children learning knee deep in flood waters under open skies, as rain beats the knowledge out of their heads, dilapidated health care systems including some of our university teaching hospitals, that are death traps, where there are limited medications, few supplies or equipment and in many cases not even running water. Is that the Nigeria they now want us to hail? He asked.
“They want to now force Nigerians to sing Nigeria, we hail thee. We should hail being terrorized by bandits and boko haram who kidnap our children from school, hijack our citizens on the highway and kill our farmers when they go to their farms. 133 million Nigerians, or 63% of the population, should hail being “multi-dimensionally poor. Our youth whose skeletons are bleached dry by the hot desert sun of the Sahara desert and whose bodies lie at the bottom of the Mediterranean sea, where they died trying to escape the hopelessness and lack of opportunity of their own not dear native land, are not alive to hail their country. Those left behind see the greed, looting and pillaging by their leaders, have no opportunities for economic empowerment and resort in internet scams, and fraud, prostitution, banditry and kidnapping to make ends meet. Thus innocent people both inside the country and globally, have life savings stolen as they are made to pay the price for the corruption of our leaders.”
He maintained that there is nothing more patriotic than Arise O Compatriots and why describing the new Anthem as hypocrisy. The first two lines of Arise O Compatriots, Nigeria’s call obey is a call to action. It calls on us to serve our fatherland with love and strength and faith. There is nothing more patriotic than that. But our leaders have not the foggiest idea of the meaning of patriotism. They are too greedy and simply incapable of living up to the creed of the Nigerian anthem. An anthem with lyrics written by Nigerians and music composed by a Nigerian. On October 7th, 2006, in her visit to Nigeria, Beyonce as never before, fell in love with a piece of music that wasn’t her composition or planned by her team.
Dr Sota Omoigui MD Who subscribed to the colonial Anthem in a Press Statement made available to news men said it was the right anthem at the right time in our history at that time not now because, our people who groan under the yoke of the endemic corruption that afflicts the land and does not allow them to breathe, are not going to hail Nigeria. Our people who suffer in poverty with a currency that has undergone a 1000% devaluation since we first wrote the anthem and a minimum monthly wage that creates food insecurity have nothing to hail Nigeria for. As I have stated in one of my prior speeches, when food prices exceed the salary of a worker, men sell their dignity and women their honor. Billions budgeted for palliatives to give the poor and needy are looted and shared among those in the political leadership.
While challenging the Federal government to come clean he said World Bank loans such as the USD $200 million for projects such as the Edo Storm Water drain, to alleviate flooding and develop the state were looted and shared by a governor who gets promoted to the senate and his accomplice who gets promoted to the governorship. The political class not content with pillaging and plundering the commonwealth expropriate the God given beauty of the land by converting public beaches to their personal property as done with Bar Beach in Lagos.
“Change your ways and not the anthem. Arise and resist this modern day slavery. Arise and resist singing this lie of a colonial anthem they want you to sing. The only people that should stand up and sing ‘Nigeria we hail thee’, are looters, thieves, bandits, kidnappers, Yahoo fraudsters and the politicians who pillage and plunder the commonwealth of our people. Otherwise if you do not belong to any of these categories and you sing it, you are a liar because nothing to hail.. The minimum wage is being negotiated from N30,000.00 while each Senator earns about N30 million every month. Changing the anthem and expecting a different result is insanity.
While recommending a solution to the myriad of challenges facing the nation the nationalist said “If you have to change the anthem, I suggest this verse for you to consider and which embodies your values that you can much more easily live up to—
Oh Nigeria Oh Nigeria
Our haven of delight
From the swamps of the Delta to the hills of Somorika
In cunning we excel
Our hands may grasp, our pockets to fill
In secret deals we find our thrill
Let no one see our secret ways
In darkness we shall stay
With every lie and every bribe, and every loot we share
We seize another day.