President Bola Tinubu signed the national anthem bill into law on May 29, celebrating his one-year anniversary in office by changing the national anthem from “Arise O Compatriots” back to “Nigeria We Hail Thee.” This decision has received mixed reactions from Nigerians; some praised the move, while others criticized its timing given the country’s current economic challenges.
A controversial claim surfaced on RWGblog, stating that the change in the national anthem cost the federal government N814 billion, allegedly disclosed by Budget and Economic Planning Minister Atiku Bagudu. This claim has been widely circulated on social media platforms like Facebook and X (formerly Twitter).
However, Dubawa, an independent fact-checking organization, investigated the claim and found no evidence to support it on Minister Bagudu’s Facebook page or the social media pages of the Ministry of Budget and National Planning. Bolaji Adeniyi, Bagudu’s special assistant on media, confirmed that the minister did not make any such statement and was unaware of any budget allocation for the new national anthem. Adeniyi clarified, “The information is false.”
Furthermore, Lanre Issa-Onilu, the director general of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), confirmed in a report by The Cable that the agency did not receive any funds for the national anthem change.
This fact-check confirms that the claim about the N814 billion expenditure for changing the national anthem is baseless and false.