The National Orientation Agency (NOA) has released new directives on how Nigeria’s national anthem should be recited at official functions.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the agency outlined a four-point guideline regulating when and how the anthem’s stanzas should be used.
According to the statement, only the first stanza of the anthem should be sung or recited at official events. The third stanza, it added, should be rendered as the National Prayer at the beginning of such occasions.
The NOA further clarified that all three stanzas of the anthem are to be recited or sung only during national ceremonies such as Independence Day, the inauguration of the President, Armed Forces Remembrance Day, Democracy Day (June 12), and the inauguration of the National Assembly, among others.
The agency also directed that the National Pledge should be recited at the end of an event.
The latest directive follows the reintroduction of Nigeria’s old national anthem, “Nigeria, We Hail Thee,” after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed it into law in May. The anthem replaced “Arise, O Compatriots,” which had been in use since 1978.
