The Federal Government, via the National Orientation Agency, has released the approved version of the reintroduced national anthem.
News About Nigeria reports that the approved version was released on Wednesday.
The agency also explicitly asked Nigerians to pay attention to the words in lines three and five of the national anthem that was reintroduced.
Lanre Issa-Onilu, the Director-General of the NOA, unveiled the standardised version of the anthem on Wednesday in Abuja.
He explained that the goal of the exercise was to guarantee that the lyrics remained 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.”
On May 29, President Bola Tinubu signed into law the bill to revert to the old national anthem.
A few days later, Tinubu said the reintroduction of the old national anthem had always been his priority.
He said the National Assembly made the law reverting to the old national anthem, and he does not have a choice but to obey the legislation.
The return of the old anthem had divided opinions, with some commentators criticising the move as yet another case of “misplaced priority” given the plethora of challenges confronting Nigerians.
