Meet The British Woman Who Wrote ‘Nigeria We Hail Thee’, Lillian Jean Williams

What started as a bill sponsored by the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Julius Ihonvbere, has now become a law which every Nigerian must adhere to.

President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday, assented to the bill to revert to the old national anthem, ‘Nigeria We Hail Thee’.

Osun Defender reports that despite opposition from some quarters led by the Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda, who said the old anthem had a colonial tag, which was the reason for the new anthem, the House gave the bill an expedited passage and passed it.

Chinda noted that the old anthem was authored and composed by Britons and questioned the importance of the anthem change at a time of more important challenges in the country.

READ: Nigeria We Hail Thee: Checkout the Lyrics And Meaning Of The Old National Anthem

The lyrics of the old National Anthem which has now been readopted was written by Lillian Jean Williams, composed by Frances Berda, and sung between 1960 and 1978.

Here, Osun Defender takes a look at the woman who composed the old re-adopted anthem, Lillian Jean Williams.

A British expatriate, Lillian Jean Williams, who lived in Nigeria when it achieved independence, wrote the anthem’s lyrics in 1959, while Frances Berda composed the music around the same period.

The federal government had during that time launched a contest to compose an anthem, offering a prize of £1,000, which Ms Berda, a ballet musician, won.

Also, Ms Willians won a separate prize for writing the anthem lyrics.

Ezekiel Mphahlele, the late famous South African literary icon, while detailing the intrigues behind the adoption of ‘Nigeria We Hail Thee’ as an anthem in an article titled ‘Nigeria on the Eve of Independence in Africa Today’ published in September 1960, revealed that Nigerians criticised the choice of both women as the authors and composers of the anthems.

Mr Mphahlele’s article partly said, “In the name of independence, the winning entries should have been chosen from the 500 entries that came from Nigerians themselves. Others again argued that the music should have been composed first and then the lyrics fitted to it instead of the other way round.”

The anthem was eventually adopted and used on 1 October 1960 to celebrate Nigeria’s independence.

‘Nigeria, We Hail Thee” only survived 18 years as it was abandoned in 1978 and ceased to be Nigeria’s official national anthem before its re-adoption on Wednesday, May 29, 2024, by President Bola Tinubu.