National anthem: Only irresponsible Nigerians will vote for NDC — Keyamo

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has mentioned solely irresponsible Nigerians will vote for the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, over what he described because the social gathering’s defiance of nationwide symbols.

Keyamo spoke on Friday throughout an interview on Eagle 102.5 FM, Ilese-Ijebu, monitored by DAILY POST in Abeokuta.

His feedback adopted the controversy over the refusal of some NDC supporters, together with the social gathering’s presidential hopeful, Peter Obi, to sing the newly adopted nationwide anthem at a political gathering in Lagos on Thursday.

Instead, Obi, alongside the social gathering’s Lagos governorship candidate, Funso Doherty, and different attendees, sang the previous nationwide anthem, Nigeria, We Hail Thee, which was changed in 1978.

“Like they say of APC, they say it’s only mad men that will vote for APC. So let me return the campaign slogan, it’s only irresponsible people that will vote for that type of party called NDC that defy national symbols, it’s only irresponsible that will vote for them,” Keyamo mentioned.

He argued that disregarding nationwide symbols, disrespecting the legislation and exhibiting disregard for the workplace of the President have been points Nigerians ought to take into account when assessing the social gathering’s suitability for management.

“For me, it is left for the Nigerian people to decide whether these human beings you have now seen disregarding national symbols, disrespecting the law and disrespecting the office of the president that they so crave whether they are responsible enough to aspire to that office,” he mentioned.

The minister mentioned whereas some Nigerians may applaud the motion as political defiance, the social gathering might lose the help of voters he described as cerebral and average.

“They have lost the cerebral and the in-betweens. They have lost them by that action. Maybe those who are downright irresponsible, they will hail them and they will vote for them. But we’ll see on election day how many Nigerians are irresponsible,” he mentioned.

However, when requested whether or not singing the outdated nationwide anthem amounted to a violation of the legislation, Keyamo clarified that he was unaware of any particular authorized penalty hooked up to the motion.

He defined that though the present nationwide anthem had been adopted by legislation, the absence of a prescribed penalty meant the motion didn’t routinely represent a punishable offence.

“There’s no penalty that is prescribed by law. No penalty. The law just says this is our new national anthem and then you should think we should all abide by it. It becomes a crime when there’s a penalty attached to it,” he mentioned.

He added that the motion was, in his evaluation, an act of political defiance, leaving Nigerians to find out whether or not it mirrored the form of management the nation required.