Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo has given NDC national leader Senator Seriake Dickson 48 hours to publicly state whether the party endorses Nigeria’s former national anthem.
In a Saturday post on X, Keyamo described the anthem as a national symbol representing the country’s history, values and sovereignty, meant to unite citizens. He warned that singing a different anthem from the one prescribed by law could lay the foundation for secession.
“When a group of people decide to defy it and sing something different from what others are singing as prescribed by law, that group is preparing grounds to break away from the country. It is one of the ingredients of secession,” he wrote. “And once the leader of such a group endorses the action, it means the group is then officially a secessionist movement.”
Calling Dickson his former classmate and friend, Keyamo said: “I am therefore officially calling on the original ‘Countryman’, my classmate, my friend and a man of considerable courage from our school days, Senator Seriake Dickson, the official leader of the NDC, to within 48 hours speak up as to whether the NDC officially endorses a proscribed anthem as its own national symbol. The world is waiting.”
The ultimatum follows Thursday’s NDC town hall in Oregun, Lagos, where some attendees sang “Arise, O Compatriots” instead of the current “Nigeria, We Hail Thee”. Peter Obi, the party’s presidential candidate, was seen joining in and making the NDC’s two-finger gesture.
Lagos governorship candidate Funso Doherty called the singing a spontaneous reaction in an emotional atmosphere, noting the current anthem was also performed and that Nigeria has only one recognised anthem.
The controversy traces back to May 2024, when the Federal Government reinstated “Nigeria, We Hail Thee” — first adopted at independence in 1960 and replaced in 1978 — after the National Assembly passed the National Anthem Bill, signed by President Bola Tinubu on May 29, 2024. The change drew mixed reactions, with supporters hailing a return to historical identity and critics questioning its relevance amid economic and security challenges.
In a Friday interview on Eagle 102.5 FM, Keyamo accused Obi and other NDC members of disrespecting national symbols, the law and the office of the President.
“For me, it is left for the Nigerian people to decide whether these human beings you have now seen disregarding national symbols, disrespecting the law and disrespecting the office of the President that they so crave are responsible enough to aspire to that office,” he said.
He added that supporting the party over the incident would be irresponsible and could hurt its appeal to moderate voters, but conceded no penalty is prescribed by law for singing the former anthem.
“There’s no penalty that is prescribed by law. No penalty. The law just says this is our new national anthem and then you should think we should all abide by it. It becomes a crime when there’s a penalty attached to it,” he said.
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