Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas has withdrawn the controversial Counter Subversion and Other Related Bills, which sought to criminalize refusal to sing Nigeria’s reintroduced national anthem. The bill had proposed a 10-year prison term for those who refused to sing the newly reintroduced anthem, “Nigeria, We Hail Thee.”

The decision came in response to intense opposition and public outcry following the introduction of the bill. In May 2024, Abbas, along with Senate President Godswill Akpabio and other federal lawmakers, had passed the National Anthem Bill 2024, which reintroduced the old national anthem, “Nigeria, We Hail Thee,” replacing “Arise, O Compatriots.”

On May 29, 2024, marking the one-year anniversary of the current administration, President Bola Tinubu signed the bill into law, officially reverting to the previous anthem. The move was met with criticism from many Nigerians, who viewed it as a misallocation of resources and not a solution to the country’s socio-economic and security issues. The public largely rejected the reintroduced anthem, expressing a preference for retaining “Arise, O Compatriots.”