Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mallam Lanre-Issa Onilu has again reiterated the commitment of the federal government to change the melody of the newly reintroduced national anthem.
NaijaOnPoint.com.ng (NOP) reports Mallam Onilu made this known on Tuesday while stressing that there is a disparity in the usage of the newly reintroduced national anthem.
“If you go to events today and you see the military band there, the way they play the national anthem is different from when you see the police band, and it is also different from when you see the civil defence band.
“It is not done that way. There must be an official melody, which we are working towards,” the NOA DG said when he featured in Your View TVC television programme on Tuesday.
According to Onilu, the melody of the newly reintroduced national anthem would be fine-tuned from the official melody of 1960 to reflect contemporary Nigerian music of today.
“When this particular anthem was done, they called for entries. During the entries, somebody emerged. The entry was opened to anybody. It just happened by accident that it was a foreigner’s own that was picked. Many Nigerians also submitted entries.
“So, after you have the lyrics, you now create the official melody for it. There was an official melody that was created for it during independence. But this time around we have brought back the lyrics. Are we going to still use the official melody of 1960? No. Because Nigeria has moved.
“If you look at our music these days, you will see that Nigeria is a leading light all over the world. Our music is defined by certain compositions in terms of percussion. So, we are going to call for entries for a national melody for the new national anthem. We are going to have a national melody,” he said.
Speaking on when the new melody would be introduced, Onilu said: “We have produced the national anthem in handheld copies that we will distribute all over the nation. In the coming weeks and months, you will begin to see this. After that, we will then come out with the new melody”.