Is Nigeria's national anthem switch a distraction?

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00:00 At a school in Lagos, pupils are practising the new national anthem, though it's also

00:09 an old one.

00:13 Nigeria's government has replaced Arise O' Compatriots with We Hail Thee, composed

00:19 by a British expatriate and adopted at independence.

00:23 It was repealed by military head of state Olusegun Abesanjo in 1978, without an official

00:28 reason, though it was understood to be because it was written by a Briton during colonial

00:33 rule.

00:34 For some, like Chemezi Uwoma, the new anthem means trying to recall lyrics he hasn't

00:41 sung in more than four decades.

00:54 Uwoma says the problem is whether or not Nigerians can implement what is written in the lyrics,

00:59 i.e. "Can we be brothers?"

01:03 But others, like stylist Clement Ahizawa, have dismissed the new move as a cynical distraction

01:08 from an escalating economic crisis.

01:22 Nigeria's economy has plunged in President Bola Tenubu's first year in office.

01:26 That's after he introduced a series of economic reforms, including removing a popular but

01:32 costly fuel subsidy.

01:35 On Wednesday, Tenubu said the reforms would continue.

01:39 "There is no doubt that the reform has occasioned hardship.

01:46 I feel your pain.

01:48 Yet the unnecessary repairs required to fix the economy over the long run."

01:56 In April, inflation soared to 33.69 percent, its highest level in nearly three decades.

02:05 That's eroding incomes and contributing to Nigeria's worst cost-of-living crisis in

02:10 decades.

02:11 ♪♪