The Lagos State governorship candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Funso Doherty, has described the singing of Nigeria’s former national anthem at the party’s town hall meeting in Lagos as spontaneous.

Speaking on Nigeria Info 99.3FM on Friday, Doherty said the current national anthem was also sung after the crowd had recited the former version.

He explained that the event organisers could not control the spontaneous reaction of a large gathering, particularly given the emotional atmosphere surrounding the meeting.

“Well, the point to be made is that if you watched that show, you will see that the new national anthem was actually sung after that initial singing of the old national anthem, and what happened was it was a spontaneous thing by the crowd,” he said.

He added that the official anthem was eventually performed, insisting that Nigeria had only one national anthem.

“Obviously, the national anthem is the national anthem. We only have one national anthem, and ultimately that was what we sang,” he said.

Doherty’s explanation followed Thursday’s incident at the NDC town hall meeting in Lagos, where the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and other attendees reportedly declined to stand when invited to sing the current national anthem.

The event anchor subsequently switched to the former anthem, “Arise, O Compatriots”, which Obi, Doherty and other supporters sang.

Nigeria officially reverted to its former anthem, “Nigeria, We Hail Thee”, in May 2024, replacing “Arise, O Compatriots”, which had been in use since 1978.