Youths across social media platforms, musical artists can unite the society through music.
The appeal was made at Nigerian Navy Band conference: “Fostering a peaceful society through the power of music.”
The conference, at Nigerian Navy Music School, Ota, Ogun State, gathered musicologists from Armed Forces, other security agencies and academia.
Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, noted the need for the naval directorate of music to establish steel bands in more schools for pupils to develop interest in to become patriotic musical artists as they grow up.
Ogalla, represented by Chief of Administration, Rear Admiral Kennedy Ezete, noted that music can be used to tell unifying stories and history and keep young ones busy.
Calling for restraint and self-discipline among Nigerians, Ogalla said: “We have to be self-disciplined because the kind of music they play today is different from the past.34
“This is the Gen Z era. I think there is a disconnect between them and how our society will be better. So, we can still use music to send out the real message of how a society should be in a way to appeal to them.
In his paper, Associate Professor of Music at University of Lagos, John Olugbenga, noted our complex, with over 400 ethnic groups and 500 indigenous languages.
“With these diversities; music can bring us together. Every diverse cultures, groups will understand…’’
“All musicians – academia, non-academia, military, paramilitary and celebrities – it is ] a combined work. We must use music as a unifying factor, now everything is just going in a different direction…’’
’’ Let us use music to gather everybody together by bringing peace, unity, solidarity, harmony in our nation. “We need government support to achieve this.
We need to continue to have different musical conferences towards bringing communities and individuals together to educate them on how music can be used positively to bring peace in our nation,” he concluded.
Similarly, a music lecturer at the Federal College of Education, Abeokuta, Dr. Debora Temisan-Lawal, said research have shown music was a powerfulnon-violent tool to solve several issues in the country and across the world. “Music is a form of identity.
It exemplifies our values, it shows what we stand for, what we fall for and what we desire. If you can touch the hearts of these issues; if you use that to speak to the person, you are speaking to his inner being, to his emotions and so that person is more likely to listen to you than when you back orders at that person. “So when you have ethnic issues and you go to that place, speak their language with music. If you watch any music performance, you will see there is an embodiment of culture.
You see their dressing, you see their gestures, you see their dance steps, you see their language. So music embodies all of these things. “So the moment you are appealing to them using music, they identify with what other people are going through.&dtd=59009
“It’s a collective effort to ensure that the right kind of music is heard by the population. We have to push out the right kind of music as an agenda. Once we are able to do that more people will listen to it and they will listen in their language.
“They will begin to accept and tolerate other people. So, it is an agenda that everyone has to be involved in so that music that unifies us in terms of language, lyrics…are celebrated and broadcast,” she stated. In his welcome address, the acting Director of Music, Captain Simon Ubandoma, said the conference was designed to leverage on the power of music to foster sustainable peace in the community and country.