Change Nigeria’s name, anthem, symbols –Ex-VC

A former Vice- Chancellor, VC, of the University of Ado-Ekiti and ex-Dean of Law at the University of Lagos, UNILAG, Prof. Akin Oyebode, has recommended that Nigeria should change its current name to something more African.


The don also advocated the changing of the current national flag, national symbols, as well as the national anthem, on the ground that they do not truly reflect the peculiar identity of the country, and that majority of the people do not identify with them.

Oyebode, who made these recommendations in an exclusive interview with National Mirror, added that Nigeria should have copied Ghana, which changed her name from Gold Coast to a purely African name ‘Ghana’ upon the attainment of independence.

The ex-VC, who served as a member of the justconcluded National Conference, said he made the suggestion even at the conference, that Nigeria’s name should be changed to “United Republic of Songhai,” after a great ancient African kingdom of that name, but his colleagues laughed at him.

Oyebode said: “Our name, Nigeria is inapt, why Nigeria? The name as we know came from ‘Niger Area’, which was the suggestion of the girlfriend of Lord Lugard, Flora Shaw, in 1898.

“During the confab, I suggested that we should adopt the name of ‘United Republic of Songhai’ and people laughed at me; they laughed me to scorn.

“They did not recognise that in 1960, Dr. Kalu Ezera, who was a member of the House, had made that suggestion before.

“Kalu Ezera came brandishing degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, as well as Oxford. The genius of Nkrumah in focusing the attention of Ghanaians to a new country called Ghana, instead of Gold Coast, unified the otherwise disparaged ethnic groups that constituted that country.

“I said it was better late than never and made the suggestion: Let us bear ‘United Republic of Songhai’, but they kept laughing at me. When we created a new country, with a new allegiance and new awareness, that would have been a masterstroke.

“Nigeria as we have it now is not a federal country, but a unitary state pretending to be a federal country.

“Even, let us look at our flag; it is Green-White- Green, is that not insipid? There is nothing there to inspire anybody in that flag. I remember that the original design of the flag had a sun shining in the middle of it. But the government rejected it.

“Now when you look at that flag, who does it inspire? Nigeria has the largest concentration of black people in the world. I think the flag should have some black in it. But just Green-White-Green for me is almost meaningless. You would notice too that whenever we are angry about what is happening here, Nigerians would sing ‘Nigeria We Hail Thee’, the old national anthem which, to me, has more meaning and made more sense than the current one.

“What I am saying is that the national symbols that we have have not resonated with the consciousness of the ordinary Nigerians. So, we have our job cut out for us in terms of nation- building. This lack of direction on national symbols and identity is also having negative impact on our citizens.

“At the just concluded Commonwealth Games, we all saw Blessing Okagbare putting on some blonde white wig! That was a misnomer. It was self-debasing. She won gold, I am glad for that, but she had very poor consciousness in terms of her values and identity as an African.

“How sweet would it have been if she had worn her natural hair…but a blonde wig on a black skin? That should not have been, and it is regrettable,”