Efe Omorogbe , CEO of
Now Muzik, is an arrowhead of the protection of intellectual property of
artistes in Nigeria. He speaks on the threat by Independent Broadcasters
Association of Nigeria (IBAN) and Broadcaster Organisation of Nigeria (BON) to
shut down some artistes on the airwaves.
Can BON/IBAN really go
through with the threat of shutdown?
If they can, I doubt
it. Obviously, as far as am concerned, this is really a gamble, a war strategy.
It’s something to put out there and hope that it will scare people enough to
react and the reaction that they want is basically from the artiste; a section
of the artiste saying we do not want to be a part of this, COSON speaks for
itself, COSON does not represent us.
Obviously, that’s
basically the idea. Unfortunately it has achieved the opposite result. Instead
of having people withdraw their membership/allegiance to COSON, they have
reaffirmed their conviction in COSON, and they are outraged and angry. It has
exposed BON/IBAN as two organizations that have been so far insecure about this
whole copyright dispute.
Artistes developing
cold feet
People will definitely
develop cold feet. Everybody has equal access to information and there are varying
degrees of knowledge of the subject matter. More importantly, everybody has
different levels of strength, moral rectitude and personal conviction. There
are always going to be people like that.
Sometimes, people call
me to say this person is saying this or sending an email to a radio station
that they should delete a song. You don’t expect that in a situation like this
there won’t be a section of the people that are rattled.
My thing is not to
focus on that because the people who are rattled and in a hurry to sell their
birthright are not as many as people that want to protect their property. So
whatever dissenting voices you hear, it’s natural.
It’s like that
everywhere from time immemorial. The slaves taken from Africa were not sold
into slavery by Americans or Europeans but by Africans, their brothers and
sisters. During the slave trade, there were black people, that’s where the
phenomenon of house and field niggers came from, who were so subservient to the
white people they the white people trusted them enough to bring them into their
homes.
Among the house Negros
there were people who treated fellow blacks worse than even the white slave
owners. So there is always going to be a sell out and spineless traitors.
Jesus Christ had 12
disciples; there was a Judas among them. So, factor that in an industry of
let’s say 1200 people. If among 12 there was one Judas so among 1200, there
will be a 100 Judases. That’s the nature of man.
Other steps COSON is
taking
We are putting our
feet down. We were in a meeting with NBC and they made two important
pronouncements. One, that it’s in d broadcast code, you cannot operate a radio
station and broadcast music without getting a license.
There is no running
away from it, you must pay royalty. So an artiste sending an email to a radio
station to use his music for free is neither here nor there, it’s invalid. The
guys are just ignorant and spineless. At the end of the day, for you to retain
your license to broadcast, you must adhere to the rule that you have to pay
royalty.
The second thing NBC
stressed was that the only registered organization in Nigeria that can collect
royalty, whether for members or non members or foreign repertoire or music from
outer space, as far as you are operating in the territory of Nigeria, is COSON.
So if you must pay and
you have only COSON to pay to, there is no argument, the issue is how much are
you paying and how much is COSON setting that you should pay.
At this point there is
nowhere to hide for IBAN or BON except they are not going to submit themselves
to their regulator which is the NBC.
Both parties were duely represented; for the board of COSON
Mr. Joel Ajayi, Hon John Ewelukwa Udegbunam, Alhaji Sikiru Agboola and General
Manager, Mr. Chinedu Chukwuji, while on the Broadcast arm was National
Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Mr. Emeka Mba; Director-General, Nigerian
Copyright Commission, Mr. Afam Ezekude; Director-General, Voice of Nigeria,
Mallam Abubakar Jijiwa who is also Chairman of the 400 member Broadcasting
Organizations of Nigeria.
