…it’s a lacuna we’re trying to fill

A music professional, educationist and researcher, Dr. kayode Morohunfola, has disclosed that music in Nigeria is not where it is supposed to be.

Morohunfola made the revelation at the Stagecoach Nigeria music presentation at Ijeshatedo Children’s Christmas Community Concert Edition which featured Christmas Joy by Pam Andrews, Carol Africana, and Instrumental/Orchestra presentations and training which took place on December 20, 2025.

He stated, “The music level in churches today is far far below expectations, so this kind of training will help the church.

“Some of these children, we are training them towards so many things, some of them will go to the popular space, some of them will go to the sacred place, while some of them will like to combine the two.

“So, this is what we are trying to do. Musical training will go a long way even in shaping the popular music space, a lot of music in Nigeria is not where it supposed to be. It is not the fault of the musicians but lack of training. So these are some of the lacuna we are trying to fill,” the musical professional disclosed.

Speaking about his personal life and what he does, Morohunfola said, “I am a music professional, and in addition to music, I studied some other courses, economics, education, and even I still do some other things before I studied music up to doctorate level. My wife Adetoun Morohunfola, is also a music graduate, she has been involved in a lot of productions.

” She has been working with children, and working with teenagers, she is a teacher at Queens College and at the same time she has also worked with adults. Working with adults is at church level.

“Apart from all of my studies, I have so many years of experience as a church pianist and church choir master. I have taught in primary school, secondary school, and I have taught at university level too. I was the former Head of Department, Music Department, Bowen University and currently, I serve as a lecturer at the Mountain Top Conservatory of Music, Yaba, Lagos. “Apart from these, I am also into research, Musicological Research, I have a lot of publications to my credit and I have presented paper both locally and internationally, I have also been involved in music performances both locally and internationally,” he stated.

On the evolution of Music in Nigeria and contributions of the church in music development, the Music expert said, “In the 50s, 40s, 60s, and up till the 70s, churches were not as much as this, and much of the churches were the conventional churches, such as the Methodist, Catholic, Anglican, most of them, at that point, trained teachers, and part of the vital trainings they gave to teachers through their teachers training colleges was music then.

“So, most of them ended up becoming organists, pianists and choir masters in most churches. But even most of their music teachers then, they were the Europeans and Americans missionaries, who used their influence to bring in a lot of instruments to Nigeria,” he disclosed.

Speaking also was his wife who studied Music, Adetoun Morohunfola, she said, “As much as we want to thank God for the success of the just concluded Community concert with regard to Ijeshatedo Community, we are highly motivated by all we have been doing from time past knowing that this area of expertise lies around music.

“Now what we are all doing is just to make an impact in our environment. I must tell you, we started from the church ourselves because we are musicians, not just musicians in the church, we are actually learned people who went to school and acquired this knowledge in this area of expertise as we have been able to combine it with our talent and seeing it as a calling.”

She said the focus of the training they were giving are the young ones “Of course, the people that are benefiting from that are the middle age people, young people who are either children or early teenagers.

“Really before now, we operated in the secular space and we have also operated in the sacred space, why because when we go to church, we have the opportunity to work with little children, we take them on concert and our concerts are not mere concerts, they are concerts that tell stories. So, they are not like classical presentations.

“Now in the secular we have also done this outside of the church because if you are looking at presentations, yes the presentations are actually inside of the church, but there are times we have gone outside of the church organising just what you saw on Saturday.

“And we have to rent a hall to be able to make our presentations even when they are related to bible stories.

“Now outside of the Bible stories, there are other stories that are presented in songs and in drama that we have, those are called non-seasonal presentations, so, non-seasonal presentations can actually be either sacred or secular musicals,” she stated.