SATURDAY BREAKFAST with TONY OKOROJI IT IS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME

Since Monday, January 15, 2018, members of Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) across the country have been protesting at different Federal High Court locations in Nigeria.

We are protesting what is a frightening new assault on the Nigerian Judiciary and an attempt to turn the Nigeria music industry into a gold mine belonging to no one, from where those who have made no investments nor contributions can cart away illicit billions while the true creators and investors in the industry languish in penury.

We will continue to protest until the arm twisting and blackmailing of Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court, Lagos is brought to an end, the Federal High Court of Nigeria is left free to do justice to all men as the judges deem fit and the Attorney–General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami is stopped from further meddling in the affairs of the Nigerian music industry.

We will deploy our voices, drums, cymbals, trumpets, guitars and every other musical instrument available to us and we will employ our talents in our protest until the whole world hears us.
We will continue this indefinite protest until the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) is returned to the supervision of the Minister charged with the responsibility for culture as expressly provided in Section 51 of the Nigerian Copyright Act.

At the time we began our protest, a syndicate in the Nigerian music industry called Musical Copyright Society Nigeria (MCSN) together with its henchman, one Mayowa Ayilaran who is neither a musician nor an investor in the Nigerian music industry and six other operatives of this syndicate, were facing seven different criminal cases before different judges of the Federal High Court.

This syndicate is so notorious that Justice Biobele Abraham Deorgewill of the Court of Appeal, Lagos in CA/L/925/2011, a matter brought by the NCC, an agency of the Federal Government of Nigeria, against MCSN used the following damning words to describe the MCSN cabal:
“I used to think that impunity was only a function of civil irresponsibility until I went through the evidence in the record of this appeal wherein the Respondents (MCSN) boldly and without any fear for the law brandished their avowed criminal breaches of the penal provisions of the Copyright Act 2004 with so much impunity with no qualms at all, and with outrageous and criminal conducts…”

The schemes of the MCSN syndicate to manipulate justice know no bounds. As I have earlier written in this column, not long ago, the cabal quietly began to trail the movement of Justice Ibrahim Buba before whom seven of their officials were facing criminal trials. Eventually, they discovered the Lagos residence of the judge who had no idea that his life may in fact be in danger. Quietly, they got one Louis Udoh, the second in command to Mayowa Ayilaran, the MCSN henchman, to infiltrate the residence of Justice Buba. Craftily, Louis Udoh began to make friends with everyone in the judge’s residence. Udoh showed up regularly for meals and watched football on TV with the unsuspecting family. On one occasion, when Buba’s driver did not show up, Udoh offered to drive Justice Buba before whose court he was personally facing a criminal trial!

Is this story made up? No! A very alarmed Justice Buba disclosed this in open court upon recognizing Lous Udoh in the dock in his court!

This is the syndicate that the Attorney-General of the Federation & Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, has forced the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) to purportedly approve as a collecting society to collect copyright royalties on behalf of innocent Nigerian musicians despite the strong protestations of the NCC.

This is the syndicate that Mr. Malami is using every trick in the book to stop their trial for alleged crimes against the Federal Republic. Why is AGF Malami bent on making sure that members of the MCSN syndicate are not tried after they lost at the Court of Appeal their attempt to avoid trial?

I am not unaware that the NCC is being pressured to find a reason to subjugate me and COSON because of our resolve to bring this evil scheme to an end. The conspirators have their sights at the upcoming Private Copy Levy in which they believe that they can make billions, one of the key reasons for the rushed purported approval of the MCSN syndicate which is the vehicle they have planned to deploy to shaft the music industry.

With the jumbo award of close to 6 billion Naira recently reported to have been given to the MCSN syndicate against Multichoice Nigeria by a Nigerian judge, the shake down has begun!

If Multichoice Nigeria, a single Nigerian company providing employment to thousands of our citizens can be said to be liable up to the whopping sum of 6 billion Naira for copyright infringement in the broadcast of 18 songs as reported by some newspapers, then it will require the entire national budget of Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt to pay for the entire Multichoice content. This is simply crazy.

Where is the precedent for this kind of horrendous award? For a nation that continuously says that it badly wants direct foreign investment, which rational person would want to come and invest his money in Nigeria and expose himself to this kind of frightful shake down? There can be no worse killer of the economy than this kind of blatant conspiracy against the Nigerian nation using the MCSN syndicate.

I have spent practically my entire adult life campaigning for the respect for intellectual property rights in our continent. My campaign has been for a responsible intellectual property system. Rather than help the collective management of copyright in Nigeria, the kind of shake down being faced by Multichoice which will ruin entire companies will turn decent people against the collective management of copyright and hurt our industry and our country. After Mutichoice, who will be next?

Man proposes but God disposes. Evil men might build their castles in the sky and keep dreaming of the loot with which they will own the world but evil thrives when decent people refuse or are too afraid to take on evil. History tells me that one day soon, this crazy scheme erected by man, will crumble. It is only a matter of time.

See you next week.