‘Wallahi what?’ Is this our birthday song?
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- Category: Philosofaith
- Written by Aisha Umar Yusuf
- Hits: 898
Weeks before our nation’s Golden Jubilee celebration, I had bombarded friends and colleagues with questions on who will sing our 50th birthday song and what it will sound like. Twenty-five years ago when our Silver Jubilee was celebrated, our very own soul crooner Bongos Ikwe gave us a birthday song that was as sweet as it was memorable. It went thus:
Nigeria is twenty fiveThe odds we did survive
Arise salute the nation
Come join the celebration
A people united will never fall
The sun will shine
And the rain will fall
On our land vast and mighty
Richly blessed by the Almighty
Like bees in a hive
We’ll work so hard
To make our honey flow
Not without the use of the hoe
Arise salute the nation
Come join the celebration...
I was a teenage undergraduate at the Bayero University Kano when this song was being played on our radio and TV networks, long before and after our Independence celebrations that year. Yes, however old I might sound today, I was actually less than twenty when Nigeria was twenty five. You can therefore imagine my excitement when it became obvious that my life had been spared to witness our Golden Jubilee.
In the weeks before the anniversary, I remained on the lookout for the golden song but none came along. Then the big day came. I woke all my children from sleep and told them that at exactly 10am they should join me in the parlour to record the day in our memory. Even while I waited for them to finish breakfast, I kept waiting for the birthday song with great anticipation. Needless to say, none came and when 30 minutes into our day vigil, the first bomb blast occurred, I was the first to dismiss it as a knockout blast. My daughter Fatima was more sceptical, ‘Can a knockout shake a building?’ For our house indeed shook at the impact. By the time the day was over, we’ve all heard how the anniversary turned bloody, recording deaths and destruction in the process.
Looking back on October 1st 2010, I dare say there was nothing in it remarkable enough to remember 25, or even 10 years from today. Considering the enormous preparations that supposedly went into it, the N7 billion budget and the endless publicity, in the final analysis it’s only the bomb blast that took the day. Without a birthday song to say we’ve come a long way since the Union Jack was lowered at the Tafawa Balewa Square at midnight on September 30th 1960, our 50th birthday really went unsung.
But while I was still mourning this missed opportunity at national glorification I heard one unmelodious tune on the NTA. Not one to watch the NTA on a regular basis, I was surprised when regular watchers told me the song wasn’t that new. It is being played as regularly as our non-existent golden anniversary song ought to be played, only this one is a praise song for a presidential aspirant with enormous state resources at his disposal. One of the singers, when the song goes vernacular, will raise his voice and say in Hausa, ‘Wallahi (insert name here) mu ke so’ to which the chorus will immediately replies by repeating what he says. I always find myself saying Mr. Zaaky, for that is the artists’ name, ‘you don’t speak for me, for wallahi that’s not the man I like’.
It is unfortunate that a chance to say ‘Nigeria well done’ has been sacrificed at the altar of the unmelodious ‘goodluck to you, goodluck to me’ jingle. I had to console my children with the sound of our very beautiful birthday song, our former national anthem. When as a primary pupil in 1975 I won my teachers 10 kobo award for being the only pupil to sing the three stanzas of the song correctly, I made a special effort to retain it in my memory. It went thus:
Nigeria we hail thee
Our own dear native land
Though tribe and tongue may differ
In brotherhood we stand
Nigerians all are proud to serve
Our sovereign motherland
Our flag shall be our symbol
That peace and justice reign
In peace and battle honour
And this we count as gain
To pass onto our children
A banner without stain
O God of all creation
Grant this our one request
Help us to build a nation
Where no man is oppressed
And so with peace and plenty
Nigeria may be blessed
I deliberately refused to crosscheck this old national anthem on the internet before reproducing it here hoping that my memory might serve me right after all these years. Therefore correction, if any, to the above wordings of our former national song is welcome.
Articles
‘Wallahi what?’ Is this our birthday song?
Category: Philosofaith Written by Aisha Umar Yusuf Hits: 898
Weeks before our nation’s Golden Jubilee celebration, I had bombarded friends and colleagues with questions on who will sing our 50th birthday song and what it will sound like. Twenty-five years ago when our Silver Jubilee was celebrated, our very own soul crooner Bongos Ikwe gave us a birthday song that was as sweet as it was memorable. It went thus:
Nigeria is twenty fiveThe odds we did survive
Arise salute the nation
Come join the celebration
A people united will never fall
The sun will shine
And the rain will fall
On our land vast and mighty
Richly blessed by the Almighty
Like bees in a hive
We’ll work so hard
To make our honey flow
Not without the use of the hoe
Arise salute the nation
Come join the celebration...
I was a teenage undergraduate at the Bayero University Kano when this song was being played on our radio and TV networks, long before and after our Independence celebrations that year. Yes, however old I might sound today, I was actually less than twenty when Nigeria was twenty five. You can therefore imagine my excitement when it became obvious that my life had been spared to witness our Golden Jubilee.
In the weeks before the anniversary, I remained on the lookout for the golden song but none came along. Then the big day came. I woke all my children from sleep and told them that at exactly 10am they should join me in the parlour to record the day in our memory. Even while I waited for them to finish breakfast, I kept waiting for the birthday song with great anticipation. Needless to say, none came and when 30 minutes into our day vigil, the first bomb blast occurred, I was the first to dismiss it as a knockout blast. My daughter Fatima was more sceptical, ‘Can a knockout shake a building?’ For our house indeed shook at the impact. By the time the day was over, we’ve all heard how the anniversary turned bloody, recording deaths and destruction in the process.
Looking back on October 1st 2010, I dare say there was nothing in it remarkable enough to remember 25, or even 10 years from today. Considering the enormous preparations that supposedly went into it, the N7 billion budget and the endless publicity, in the final analysis it’s only the bomb blast that took the day. Without a birthday song to say we’ve come a long way since the Union Jack was lowered at the Tafawa Balewa Square at midnight on September 30th 1960, our 50th birthday really went unsung.
But while I was still mourning this missed opportunity at national glorification I heard one unmelodious tune on the NTA. Not one to watch the NTA on a regular basis, I was surprised when regular watchers told me the song wasn’t that new. It is being played as regularly as our non-existent golden anniversary song ought to be played, only this one is a praise song for a presidential aspirant with enormous state resources at his disposal. One of the singers, when the song goes vernacular, will raise his voice and say in Hausa, ‘Wallahi (insert name here) mu ke so’ to which the chorus will immediately replies by repeating what he says. I always find myself saying Mr. Zaaky, for that is the artists’ name, ‘you don’t speak for me, for wallahi that’s not the man I like’.
It is unfortunate that a chance to say ‘Nigeria well done’ has been sacrificed at the altar of the unmelodious ‘goodluck to you, goodluck to me’ jingle. I had to console my children with the sound of our very beautiful birthday song, our former national anthem. When as a primary pupil in 1975 I won my teachers 10 kobo award for being the only pupil to sing the three stanzas of the song correctly, I made a special effort to retain it in my memory. It went thus:
Nigeria we hail thee
Our own dear native land
Though tribe and tongue may differ
In brotherhood we stand
Nigerians all are proud to serve
Our sovereign motherland
Our flag shall be our symbol
That peace and justice reign
In peace and battle honour
And this we count as gain
To pass onto our children
A banner without stain
O God of all creation
Grant this our one request
Help us to build a nation
Where no man is oppressed
And so with peace and plenty
Nigeria may be blessed
I deliberately refused to crosscheck this old national anthem on the internet before reproducing it here hoping that my memory might serve me right after all these years. Therefore correction, if any, to the above wordings of our former national song is welcome.