By Austen Akhagbeme
In Nigeria, indolence in public service by some elected and appointed public servants is gradually becoming a favourite pastime; the reason we seem to be running in cyclical disorder since the advent of majoritarian rule in Nigeria in 1999.
Of all the myriad of problems bedevilling us as a nation, we have chosen to focus on the trivial and the mundane by making a back trip to reenacting a flawed old national anthem to divert our attention from the biting challenges of the dwindling economy, as it were.
In my early introductory days to the social sciences at Ahmadu Bello University, with the benefit of liberal and radical lecturers around, we were told that words like “Native”, “Tribes”, “Sub-Sahara Africa” and so many others, as ascribed to African nationalities, was a racial slur by colonialism to denigrate the rest of us.
The old national anthem contains such “abusive” expressions which must be discarded, the reason the new but recently changed anthem was birthed by a Nigerian Police musicologist, in the first place. But those who have little sense of history but a high dose of political power, do not mind.
The importance of giving such priority to changing “a song” and the alacrity of approval it attracted from Mr President, makes us wonder if it couldn’t have been more beneficial if weightier matters of the economy and our daily survival as citizens, were treated with such a similar despatch and avidity.
There are many things I could have wished we returned to with this newfound zeal at looking at the rear mirror. One of them is the old price of petroleum products and other essential commodities needed for our daily survival.
Going back to the old national anthem that could not prevent the needless Nigerian civil war nor address the problems caused by the war till date and has never helped in stabilizing our national currency in the world market, only goes to show our error of judgment in prioritization and the disdain for what is needful at a particular point in our national journey. The desire for the past is often an indication of hopelessness in the present. Let our drivers sit up.
- Austen Akhagbeme is a Columnist with Blank NEWS Online
