The federal government has unveiled the approved lyrics version of the reintroduced national anthem.
This was unveiled on Wednesday, June 5 in Abuja by the National Orientation Agency.
The agency also explicitly asked Nigerians to pay attention to the words in lines three and five of the national anthem that was reintroduced.
Recall that on May 29 President Bola Tinubu signed into law the bill to revert to the old national anthem.
The Director-General of the NOA, Lanre Issa-Onilu, unveiled the standardized version of the anthem on Wednesday in Abuja.
He explained that the goal of the exercise was to guarantee that the lyrics remain consistent.
He said: “Today’s event is to present the official version which will clear all doubts about the correct lyrics as contained in the Act signed by the President.
“We call the attention of Nigerians to line three of the first stanza, which reads: Though tribes and tongues may differ. Note that the words “tribes” and “tongues” are in plural. We want you to also note that line five of the first stanza reads: Nigerians all, are proud to serve”. The word ”are”, not ”and” is correct.”
He said: “Today’s event is to present the official version which will clear all doubts about the correct lyrics as contained in the Act signed by the President.
“We call the attention of Nigerians to line three of the first stanza, which reads: Though tribes and tongues may differ. Note that the words “tribes” and “tongues” are in plural. We want you to also note that line five of the first stanza reads: Nigerians all, are proud to serve”. The word ”are”, not ”and” is correct.”
On the official instrumental and audio rendition, Issa-Onilu said the NOA “will call for entries for the production of an authentic Nigerian melody, taking into cognisance the indigenous instrumentation of the Nigerian people.”.
