INDEED, EFE DIED THE DAY KIMONO DIED!

INDEED, EFE DIED THE DAY KIMONO DIED!

Yesterday, with my COSON brethren, family, friends and fans of the beautiful Efemena Okedi, we all came together at Atan Cemetery in Yaba to lay to rest the unforgettable love of my friend, brother and colleague, Ras Kimono who has buried in his home town Onicha Olona, about two months ago. There was uncontrolled crying as the white casket bearing the body of Efe Kimono was lowered into the grave. All around us at Atan, left and right, people were being buried, young and old. If that does not teach you that life is a gas, nothing else will.

Three weeks ago, I shared with some of my readers how I learnt of the passing on of the lovely Efe and the incredible love story of Kimono and his heartthrob, Efe whom I believe are having a good time in heaven. Please read on:  

It was very early Sunday morning. I was still in bed. I was in that stage when you are not sure whether you want to get up or you want to sleep some more. My phone rang. Oh no, who would be calling me this early? It probably would be one my COSON members needing some help. I checked. The name on the phone was Oge. Oge is the first daughter of my recently departed dear friend and colleague, Ras Kimono.

I speak with Oge quite a lot. She is so pleasant but it is unusual for Oge to call me so early. I did not answer because I thought it was a mistake. The phone rang again. I picked up the phone and once again, it was Oge. I took the phone to the bathroom and tried the usual chit-chat with someone I am growing to admire quite a bit.

Oge asked me how I was and I replied that I was ok. She asked me whether I was relaxed and I thought that was odd. How could this young lady be asking this old man these many JAMB questions this early in the morning, did she have too much to drink? Then, she said that she had news that was not so good. I asked her where she was and she said that she was in Abuja. My mind started racing… Did this have anything to do with Nigeria's crazy political situation? Like most Nigerians, I had been informed that President Buhari was on his way to New York on one of his many foreign trips. Something funny seems to happen each time he travels…

"Oge, what is the matter", I asked? I heard her breath on the phone. Then she spat it out, "Efe is dead!" "What do you mean Efe is dead?" She said slowly, "Efe died this morning. Her body is at the Teaching Hospital mortuary in Lagos" My head exploded. I am supposed to be a strong man but this was too much for me to handle. I started weeping. No one told me Efe had a headache or tooth ache. How could Efe suddenly die? None of it made sense. Maybe, someone had played an expensive prank on Oge.

I called Phil Ehizibue, Ras Kimono's brother-in-law who liaised with me through the celebrated burial of Kimono just four weeks earlier. Phil who is usually a rock was crying uncontrollably on the phone. I did not need any further proof that something horribly wrong had happened. When Phil got some control of himself, he told me that Efe was with him at his birthday party up to about 10.00 pm the night before and she appeared ok.

I had seen Efemena Okedi around the creative industry a few times before but my first real discussion with her was the day she walked into the Board room of the former COSON office in Opebi with Ras Kimono about seven years ago. Kimono had issues with his recording contracts and ownership of his intellectual property which he wanted me to help him resolve. Efe was part of the discussion and I was thrilled by her firm grasp of the issues. To most people, copyright is too complicated and just a lot of jargon and Greek. To my surprise, Copyright was not complicated to this beautiful lady. She had intellectual depth. We instantly became friends. Between me and Kimono, we constantly teased each other about who liked Efe more.

Friday, the 8^th of June, Kimono and I spoke on the phone for a long period. He had planned to travel that evening to Atlanta. We spoke the way boys do. Once more, I teased him about Efe, mother of Dimma, his beautiful daughter. He chuckled and said that with the rainy season, it was getting quite cold in Lagos. He joked that he was handing over Efe to me and that I should take care of her and make sure that she remained warm while he was away.

Of course, Kimono never made the trip to Atlanta. He passed on Sunday, the 10^th of June. I was at the Airport in Ikeja to board an Air Peace flight to Owerri. Just before boarding, I called Efe and she kept muttering "we lost him".

Efe was a key driver of the much talked about burial of Ras Kimono. She thought the world of Kimono and was 100% in love with the guy. She wanted Kimono properly celebrated. After watching a video documentary I had done on the life and times of the late Christy Essien Igbokwe, she pleaded with me to do "Good Bye Ras Kimono" the documentary which I shot and edited in two weeks In the documentary, Efe spoke in an uncommon way of her love for Ras Kimono.

In the last seven years, it was rare to see Kimono without Efe. Many times, the lovebirds would stop over at my TOPS office in Ikeja or at COSON House with their effervescent daughter, Dimma who would scatter everywhere! We would banter endlessly and on their way home, they would call me on the phone and we would continue the banter. Ras Kimono Augustine Oseleke Onwubuya and Efemena Okedi were two of the best persons I have ever known. In them, I saw the true meaning of love. Efe would have given her life to Kimono and Kim would have done the same.

To tell the truth, I was worried whether Efe could continue living without the incomparable love she shared with Kimono. I thought she could, maybe because of Dimma. I was wrong. I have thought deeply about it and I now believe that  Efe did not die on September 23, 2018. She died on June 10, the day Ras Kimono, the love of her life, died.

See you next week.

PLEASE FIGHT THE PIRATES AND LEAVE COSON AND OKOROJI ALONE!!!

PLEASE FIGHT THE PIRATES AND LEAVE COSON AND OKOROJI ALONE!!!

When about eight years ago, it was announced that one Afam Ezekude had been appointed DG, Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), I was mystified. Afam Ezekude? I never heard of the guy before.

The intellectual property community is a very close group. We attend the same seminars and conferences around the world. We know each other. I called my friends in the intellectual property field and no one appeared to have heard the name, Afam Ezekude. I googled the name and there was absolutely nothing. I went to LinkedIn and found nothing. So, how did this guy with no known copyright education, no publication, no attendance of any copyright forum become Director-General of the nation's biggest copyright institution?

Ultimately, I was told that Ezekude was brought from London to become DG because of his friendship with Mohammed Adokie, at the time, Attorney-General & Minister of Justice. That is the way the system appears to work.

In my humble opinion, Nigeria has paid a huge price as result of this decision. The entire copyright infrastructure in the country which took great energy by the likes of Moses Ekpo and Egerton Uvieghara to build, has terribly broken down. Last year, I went to see the key operational office of the NCC by the Costain roundabout in Lagos. I could not understand how any human being can work in such a derelict, smelly and completely rundown environment with leaking roofs. I wept. 

I STAND WITH COSON!!!

I STAND WITH COSON!!!

During the week, the news was all over town. Chief Tony Okoroji and some officers of Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) have been charged with a crime. While this narrative is being widely promoted and spread in the media, nobody has served me with one piece of paper or any charge whatsoever.

Who did I kill? What did I steal?

Last year, we did what some may have considered very unlikely. Under my leadership, COSON, on behalf of the musicians of Nigeria commissioned the state of the art COSON House with some of the most modern facilities in Nigeria. In setting up COSON House, we did not ask nor receive one kobo from any government whether Nigerian or foreign. We did not borrow one Naira from any bank. We did not get one dollar as loan or grant from anywhere. COSON House was set up with our sweat and the deft management of our resources.

Overwhelmingly, the often-derided Nigerian musicians have shown great pride in the fact that they now own this magnificent structure. Stars of all sorts have visited COSON House. It was at COSON House that we celebrated the life of our much beloved colleague, the Rub-A-Dub Master, Ras Kimono and sent him home from Lagos in grand style.

At COSON House, we have retained the services of some young Nigerians whom we have given the best training around the world to become experts in the collective management of copyright in music. Their salaries have not once been paid out of time. What they do is to professionally ensure that people who use music in Nigeria in a public or commercial situation pay for the music. That is consistent with Nigerian law. Before COSON was set up about eight years ago, I was repeatedly told that collective management of copyright cannot work in Nigeria.

When COSON House was commissioned last year, it opened the eyes of many. Some of those who were sleeping, woke up to the fact that this thing that they thought could never work can actually produce results. Those who had no time for us or sneered at us while we labored day and night and set up the COSON structure, suddenly resolved that they ought to be the real beneficiaries of our labour. With some of their friends in the present government, they conspired and decided to hijack for themselves what belongs to the thousands of musicians of Nigeria.

To justify their greed and covetousness, they began to spread lies against me. They called press conference after press conference to promote the blatantly false narrative that I stole from those I have sworn to serve and that I own houses all over the place. They have tried to use the security agencies to harass and intimidate me.

The truth which these people very well know is that at 60 years old, with all the positions I have held, the only house I own is an uncompleted building in my village. I do not own a hut anywhere else in the world. I do not own any big money either in a bank, hidden inside a mattress or buried in a soak-away pit. I have long decided that a good name is better than gold and not every Nigerian has to be a thief.

To defend my good name, I have filed four defamation cases against their wickedness. As I write, not one person has filed any defence to any of the cases nor put one shred of evidence before any of the courts.  

Please do not feel sorry for me. I am a very happy and proud man. I have found out that Nigerians still appreciate honest service. The members of COSON have not let me down one inch. In their thousands, they understand what is going on. They know that some people want to turn them into their "mugu" and suck them dry. The know that my "sin" is that I have stood stoutly in defence of their rights and interest and that I have not allowed the dogs of prey to hijack what belongs to them They have stood with me and repeatedly passed votes of confidence in the work which I have done over the years with all the passion and commitment I can muster.

When, with the aid of their friends in government, the coup plotters made the brazen coup attempt to foist themselves as the leaders of COSON, a 100% private sector organization with no government money, the members of COSON overwhelmingly said no.  COSON members led by the revered Prof (Sir) Victor Uwaifo one of Nigeria's most brilliant and celebrated musicians of all times, went to the Federal High Court. In court, they obtained an order compelling the gentleman falsely parading himself as the new Chairman of COSON from further doing so. The order subsists.

While the matter was in court, COSON received an incredibly funny "directive" not from a court of law but from the head of a Nigerian government agency: COSON should no longer earn any income on behalf of its members who have legally assigned their works to COSON but COSON should continue to pay the salaries of its staff who are not allowed to do any work! We were also forbidden to spend our money to buy diesel to power our generators, pay our electricity or water bills, fuel the operational motor vehicles of the organization, etc.

Nobody informed us how we were supposed to continue to pay the salaries of our staff without any income. Nobody told us whether the government has unilaterally authorized the free use of the private intellectual property of citizens in the COSON repertoire since the property is no longer supposed to be licensed. Nobody told us from where the owners of this intellectual property are supposed to earn their living. Most importantly, nobody told us under which law these bizarre directives were made.

The members of COSON, once again led by Prof (sir) Victor Uwaifo, went before the Federal High Court which on September 19 issued a very clear order suspending the purported suspension of the licence of COSON and freezing the COSON bank account. The order still subsists.

Rather than chase after pirates who are killing Nigeria's creative industries or take on the people looting our nation dry, they are busy drafting charges to jail Tony Okoroji for defying their blatantly unlawful directives. The funny thing is that I risked my life to have this government agency set up and I am one of the people who drafted the law setting up the agency.

They know that I have committed no crime neither has any officer of COSON committed a crime. This is intimidation gone crazy.

I am convinced that no great nation in human history has been built by cowards. I have therefore made up my mind that if I have to go to jail in the defence of the rights of creative people in Nigeria, I will do so with my head held high. If I have to lay down my life in the defence of the people whose rights I have sworn to defend, it will be death so sweet.

I stand with COSON!!!

See you next week.

WHICH KIND DEMOCRACY BE THIS?

WHICH KIND DEMOCRACY BE THIS?

The entire democracy project hangs on an intriguing concept: all men are born equal. In other words, the great Aliko Dangote with his zillions of Naira, many trucks and thousands of employees has the same voting power as his cook. In a democracy, the opinion of a Bill Gates whose intellect created the incredible Microsoft software that drives almost all of human activities has the same weight as his janitor. A Barack Obama with his political sagacity and deep experience in world affairs casts one vote and that vote is in no way superior to that of a homeless man begging for coins in front of Washington DC's Union Station.

I told people that the British would never vote to leave the European Union. It made no sense to me. I was wrong, terribly wrong. Please forgive me for believing that the British are a thinking people and as a thinking people, would not ignore the warning of the array of world leaders and experts that told them of the devastating effect of walking away from their kith and kin in Europe.  

I was sure that the British had a high opinion of Barack Obama and would listen to him. But, if they had suddenly changed their minds with respect to Obama who is an American, what of David Cameron who the British elected as their Prime Minister? Gordon Brown, Prime Minister before Cameron warned them not to leave and so did Tony Blair, the one before Brown. Even David Beckham, their soccer duper star begged them against Brexit yet the British voted to exit the European Union!