Protecting national symbols
Abill for a law to provide N100,000 fine for people who distort Nigeria’s national flag recently passed second reading at the House of Representatives. Sponsor of the bill Sam Onuigbo [Abia-PDP] said the bill sought to amend Flag and Coat of Arms Act 2004 and would make further provisions to preserve Nigeria’s national heritage. He said the bill aims to amend Section 7 of the principal Act by inserting new paragraphs to provide for stiffer penalties for offenders.
Section 10 of the principal Act at present provides a paltry fine of N100 for those who by omission or commission desecrate the national flag. It is therefore proper that the bill’s sponsor recommended an upward to N100, 000 even though it is one thing to have the laws and entirely a different thing to implement them. Everyone knows that there have been surreptitious efforts to change the national flag from its greenwhile-green colours as seen in many public and private offices. It is very common to see some offices superimposing official photographs of governors, ministers, and national assembly members in the designs of the national flag. “It is important to declare that any addition, subtraction or superimposition outside the version designed by Pa Michael Akinkunmi in 1959 is not the Nigerian flag,” Rep Onuigbo said.
The bill also laudably proposed that any person who flies or exhibits the national flag which is deconstructed, shall be guilty of an offence against the Act. “Similarly, any person who uses the national coat of arms and inserts same into the national flag thereby creating an illegal form of our national flag shall be guilty of an offence against this act,’’ Rep Onuigbo said.
The abuse of not only the national flag but almost all of Nigeria’s ordinances is commonplace in public institutions such as schools, secretariats, barracks, courts, police stations among others that are supposed to lead by example. With the exception of military barracks which are punctilious about flags, most other public institutions ignore basic etiquette of preserving the national flag, such as hoisting it at 6am and bringing it down at 6pm. In many places, the Nigerian flag and Coat of Arms are faded and torn beyond recognition, a clear case of violating their sanctity and an infringement on what they were originally set to achieve. This is despite the fact that they represent our sovereignty, serve as reminder for us to be patriotic and play the vital role of reducing ethnic parochialism.
The National Anthem and the National Pledge, which also form parts of our national heritage, are also victims of violations because most of our elite could be found guilty of reciting them wrongly. The culpability is the same in primary and secondary schools where most students and pupils see them as songs meant to be sang in strange languages. Already, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) has commended the National Assembly for initiating the review of the Ordinance Act to make it more effective. NOA’s Director-General Dr Garba Abari said the commitment of the House of Representatives would ensure stiffer sanctions against abuse of national symbols. He commended the National Assembly for giving legal recognition to the agency’s advocacy for the amendment of relevant but obsolete sections of the Ordinance Act.
Abari said that the obsolete state of sections of the Ordinance Act made it difficult to appropriately sanction defaulters. NOA had previously set the ground for revamping the image of Nigeria’s symbols by presenting the correct Nigerian National Flag to the Senate and House of Representatives’ heads of committees overseeing the agency. We strongly commend the commitment of the House of Representatives in this direction and NOA’s commitment to raise the consciousness of Nigerians toward protecting the country’s national pride. We also wish to recommend that Civic Education being taught in schools should encapsulate sections that teach the importance of our national symbols.
Governments at federal, state and local government levels should also print posters, fliers and sponsor jingles in radio and television stations on the importance of these heritages.