Babatunde Ogunnaike, co-author of the national anthem, is dead.
He reportedly died on Sunday February 20 at the age of 65.
He became a co-author of the national anthem after his submission for a competition organised by the federal government, calling for entries for lyrics for the new national anthem, was chosen.
Ogunnaike’s entry and that of four others — P.O. Aderibigbe, John Ilechukwu, Sota Omoigui, and Eme Etim Akpan — were combined to form the new national anthem which was adopted in 1978.
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Ogunnaike, who was born on March 26, 1956, in Ogun state, attended the University of Lagos (UNILAG) for his bachelor’s degree, graduating with first-class honours in chemical engineering in 1976.
He later earned a master’s degree in statistics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1981 and also graduated with a PhD in chemical engineering from the same university in 1981.
He was a research engineer with the Shell Development Corporation in Houston, Texas, between 1981 and 1982, and was also a professor in UNILAG between 1982 and 1988, during which he held appointments in two departments — chemical engineering and statistics.
