National Orientation Agency (NOA) has instructed all community orientation and mobilisation officers in the 774 local governments to commit the newly signed National Anthem to memory by Monday, June 3, 2024.
The director-general (DG) of the NOA, in a statement issued to newsmen yesterday in Abuja, said this directive is part of the agency’s efforts to ensure a seamless transition to the new National Anthem, which is part of the national identity project being pursued to promote national cohesion, unity, and a sense of patriotism.
He said the community orientation and mobilisation officers (COMOs) are the agency‘s lead officers in the local governments, whose roles are primarily to enlighten citizens at the grassroots level about government policies, programmes, and activities.
He reiterated that the NOA is also working closely with the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) to ensure that schools nationwide are mobilised to start using the current National Anthem.
„We are excited to embark on this new chapter in our national history. We believe that this new National Anthem will inspire a sense of pride and unity among Nigerians, and we are committed to ensuring that every citizen has access to it,“ he said.
He also recalled that President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday assented to the bill that restored Nigerians to using „Nigeria, We Hail Thee,“ the former national anthem.
In the circular, the NOA DG urged all community officers to take this directive seriously and to make every effort to learn the new National Anthem by the specified deadline, „as you would be the grassroots marshals for the implementation of this new policy of the government.“
„NOA, as the custodian of the nation‘s symbols, has the mandate to promote and preserve the integrity of all national icons, including the national anthem,“ he said.
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