BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
The Osun State House of Assembly on Monday declared that the state anthem remains valid and acceptable for use at public functions.
This was stated as the house finally passed the ‘establishment of State of Osun, State of Osun House of Assembly, Crest and Flag bill 2023’ into law.
The bill had in the last few weeks undergone legislative rites before it was eventually passed into law at plenary on Monday.
The Speaker, Adewale Egbedun said the passage of the bill became imperative in accordance with the provision of law and for the sake of clarity as well to obey the verdict of High Court which had since 2017 pronounced the State of Osun and its title as null and void.
He said, henceforth, Osun State shall no longer be regarded as the ‘State of Osun’, just like the ‘State of the Virtuous’ slogan of the state has been replaced with the ‘State of the Living Spring’ as initiated by state founding fathers.
Egbedun said the amended law also adopted the national flag in place of the state flag, a feat which the speaker said is aimed at upholding the national unity as a federating unit.
The speaker also explained that the amended law and clauses that have overtimes created bottleneck have been addressed.
He said the law recognizes the state anthem and hence, it is mandatory for people by law to be rendering the anthem alongside the national anthem in public and official functions.
Earlier, the majority leader of the house, Kofoworola Adewunmi had moved for the passage of the bill and it was seconded by Abiola Awoyeye, representing Ife central state constituency.
