A FORMER minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has dared the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dr. Tajudeen Abbas, to prosecute her when the Counter-Subversion Bill 2024 is passed into law and is assented to by President Bola Tinubu.
The Bill, sponsored by Abbas and at its Second Reading in the House of Representatives, seeks to criminalise refusal or failure by Nigerians to recite the national anthem and proposes that anyone who destroys a national symbol or a place of worship shall be liable to the same punishment.
But reacting to the Bill, the former World Band executive insisted she would continue to sing the ‘Arise O Compatriots’ version, accusing the Speaker and members of the National Assembly of conspiring with Tinubu to pass the old national anthem, “Nigeria We Hail Thee, into law.
Ezekwesili via her verified X handle, wrote, on Wednesday, August 14, said the House was engaging in “irrelevancies while the country totters,” adding: “I am certain that the Speaker of the @HouseNGR @Speaker_Abbas @nassnigeria knows this for a fact.
“Surely, he must know that the so-called #CounterSubversionBill, which he introduced, and alleged to be in its Second Reading, is a silly flight of fancy that further reveals how unserious and irrelevant the lawmakers are to the Nigerian condition.
“I, for example, have kept my public statement and only stand and sing the REAL Nigerian National Anthem (Arise O Compatriots), never the colonial and ‘tribal’ one that he and his colleagues conspired with @NGRPresident and kangarooed into ‘law’ in violation of constitutional processes.
“Get ready to ‘prosecute’ me when you pass your noxious #CounterSubversionBill into an Act.
“But before then, please note that if there is any group of Nigerians that deserve a Subversion Act, it is you and your colleagues at the @nassnigeria, who consistently subvert the progress of Nigeria and her people through your legendary public misdemeanors that accumulate into Bad Governance.”
