DOES ANYBODY HAVE THE COURAGE TO DO WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE AT THE NDDC?!

With the brouhaha going on in Minneapolis and the riots across America over the shocking murder of a black man named George Floyd by some rogue white police officers, it is so easy not to focus on what is happening at home.  Or is it that nothing shocks us anymore?

I have been incredibly traumatized at the crazy news coming out during the week from the NDDC. It is most frightening. There are now allegations that a very senior official of the commission may have been murdered to cover up the stench and sleaze in the place. How can?

The voraciousness of the greed that seems to have gripped our countrymen cannot be explained. Everybody knows that there is serious corruption in Nigeria but this is no longer corruption. This is brazen daylight robbery never seen anywhere before. The schemes involved! The amount being revealed, in the midst of so much poverty?! I am dazed at the extent to which some people have taken the worship of money and I ask: What do these people need all this money for? Do they expect to live forever?

For the Nigerian nation to have any chance of survival, the NDDC matter must be dealt with in a different manner. The interests and money involved are so much that the usual processes will not do. Does anybody have the courage to do what needs to be done?

See you next week.

YOU WANT TO BE RICH? PLEASE DON’T SET UP A CMO!

This week, on the 20^th of May 2020, we celebrated the 10^th anniversary of the official take-off of the operations of COSON which has become Nigeria's must successful and most admired copyright Collective Management Organization (CMO).

On the same 20^th of May, we marked the 3^rd anniversary of the commissioning of the COSON House in Ikeja which continues to sparkle and which my communications team does not talk about without prefixing with the adjective, "magnificent".

Yes, we always wish to remind everyone that there is not one Naira of government money in the acquisition and construction of the "magnificent COSON House", no donor dollar or pound came from anywhere and that we acquired, built and equipped COSON House with no bank loan and no debt of any type. The sparkling national green colour of COSON House tends to suggest to some people that it is federal government property. No! COSON has never received any type of money from the government.

Fired up by our exhilarating slogan, "let the music pay!", COSON has in its ten years of operation, distributed hundreds of millions of Naira as royalties to its members and affiliates. Just recently in April 2020, even with the major bank accounts of COSON frozen and the issues in court, COSON in a responsive and responsible manner reacted to the suffering of its thousands of members across the country under the pressure of the COVID 19 lockdown. The society became the first Nigerian institution to provide anti Coronavirus palliatives to its members at a time of great need. At first, =N=50 million was approved by the COSON Board for this purpose. An additional =N=22.5 million was later approved. The distribution has been done in a very structured, professional and transparent manner which has been widely celebrated by members of COSON and others.

You know what? Now, everybody wants to set up a CMO! In the typical Nigerian fashion, all the people who want to make quick money think that they can replicate COSON. They want to turn the very complex system of collective management of copyright into their new "pure water" business in which everyone has his own cheap cellophane designs littering the streets.

Not too long ago, I was President of PMAN. With a driven team, clear vision and never-say-die passion, I worked 25 hours every day, eight days a week, to make PMAN a glorious national brand. Everyone across the world, from the President of the Federal Republic, governors, ambassadors and stars of all colours wanted to associate and rub shoulders with PMAN. PMAN became a much-admired name and the toast of the nation. And the dam broke!

Every musician in Nigeria who could afford a tokunbo SUV began to see himself as President of PMAN. To be PMAN President became the burning ambition of a lot. At some point, there were four people simultaneously calling themselves PMAN President! With all due respect, none of them understood the vision or the mission. PMAN is a registered trade union but none of the 'Presidents' had ever read the Trade Union Act or even the PMAN constitution. We all can see where it has led PMAN.

In my service to the creative industry in our nation, I have always been driven by those almost forgotten words, "together we stand, divided we fall". The strength of PMAN came from the bringing together of diverse people across Nigeria to share in one vision. I toured nearly every nook and cranny of Nigeria to make that possible. It required an incredible amount of work, loads and loads of battles and heaps and heaps of personal sacrifice. Everywhere, I had to know what I was talking about. So, I had to study everyday and study very hard. Take it from me, there is nothing worse than an ignorant leader.

Either as President of PMAN or Chairman of COSON, I have never gone into a meeting or discussions without first getting a good grasp of the relevant laws, the rules, the issues, the statistics or the trends. I believe that every great leader must remain a student through his tenure with the appetite to learn as much as possible. I wish to repeat that there is nothing worse than an ignorant leader.

I have repeatedly told people that you can never become rich by doing the kind of work that I do. What drives you must be the genuine love of people and not the love of self. You can never build a great trade union or an outstanding CMO if you are driven by self interest or the interest of you and your handful of friends. When you lead a CMO, you work for others and not for self.

I see all the people positioning themselves to launch new CMOs in Nigeria and ask myself whether they truly understand what it takes to make a CMO work. Do they know how many years of study, work and patience it has taken COSON to be where it is? Do they have the requisite technical knowledge? Do they know how many court cases that litter the road COSON has had to travel? Do they think that there is anyone out there with bags of money waiting to give to them just upon their asking? Do they think that there would be no new arguments, quarrels or disagreements within whatever contraptions they have in mind?

I look around and I see all the people who not long ago thought they would become super rich by becoming PMAN President and I ask, "how did it pan out guys?"

That is why I say that setting up a CMO is not pure water business. If you want to be rich?... Please, don't set up a CMO!

See you next week.

MY FRIEND, PROF EGERTON UVIEGHARA IS 84!

Professor Egerton Uvieghara, outstanding intellectual, retired erudite Professor of Law at the University of Lagos, former Chairman of the Governing Board of the Nigerian Copyright Commission, former Commissioner at the Nigerian Law Reform Commission, detribalized Nigerian and man of great character and unquestionable integrity, celebrates his 84^th birthday today.

In January 2020, I made a promise to Prof Uvieghara who played a frontline role at the commissioning of what is now referred to as the "magnificent" COSON House in Ikeja. I told him that on the 9^th day of May 2020, which is today, I would host a significant red-carpet birthday bash in his honour at COSON House to thank him for his indelible gift to the Nigerian creative community.

I had started conceptualizing the event. I had started making plans for what I had hoped would be a talk-of-the city occasion. OMG! COVID 19 came from wherever to scatter the world and make nonsense of our plans.   

If you know Professor Egerton Uvieghara well, you might be offended and ask who gave me the audacity to refer to him as my friend. I will not be surprised if somebody even accuses me of name dropping.

Before you get angry, let me say that I did not on my own decide to call this extra-ordinary Nigerian my friend. His repeated and consistent behavior towards me which has lasted decades assures me that Prof will take no offence with my reference to him as my friend.

Prof Uvieghara is one Nigerian who has fully supported the work that I do and understands my dream for the Nigerian creative family and shares the value of giving one's all to what one believes in.

When I became President of PMAN at the age of 29, I had announced that the struggle for a more meaningful copyright regime in Nigeria would be the work of my life and so began a campaign driven by all the passion I could muster.

I had just turned thirty when I met Professor Uvieghara at what used to be called Durbar Hotel in Lagos during a massive copyright seminar floated by the Federal Government following the agitation which I led. Prof Uvieghara was a key resource person at the seminar at which I presented a paper. After the seminar, a committee was set up to draft a new copyright law for the country. Prof Uvieghara was chairman of the committee in which I served with the late great Professor Vincent Chukwuemeka Ike as rapporteur. For weeks, we were locked down at Durbar Hotel as we argued about every 'is' and 'was' and crafted what ultimately became the Nigerian Copyright Law. During that lock down, a relationship developed.

When the Nigerian Copyright Council, as it then was called, was set up, Prof Uvieghara was appointed first Chairman of the Governing Board. I was also appointed to the board as was the late Prof. Chukwuemeka Ike.  It was decided that a first amendment needed to be made to the Copyright Law, Prof Uvieghara and myself were given the marching order by the NCC Board to draft the amendment. Once again, we were locked down, this time at Gateway Hotel Otta with one Bayo Ayegbusi, a member of staff of the commission as our secretary. As we argued and worked on the document, what once was admiration became a friendship. The story of how I ended up as Prof. Uvieghara's student at the University of Lagos is one I will tell some other day.

When I finished the manuscript of my book, "Copyright & the New Millionaires", I took it to Prof Uvieghara to edit. After several weeks, he told me that he had read the manuscript several times over and did not find the need to add a coma or a full stop. Prof. Uvieghara wrote an exhilarating forward to the book.

Two weeks ago, in Saturday Breakfast, I wrote that Nigeria's Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama is in the list of my ten favorite Nigerians. Prof Egerton E. Uvieghara who has positively touched the lives of so many Nigerians, is firmly in that list.

I recall when I hosted the Hon. Minister of Information & Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed at the "magnificent" COSON House in 2017. Prof Uvieghara also arrived for the reception in honour of the minister. I then sought to introduce the Prof to the Minister and the Minister rebuked me with the words, "the gentleman you are trying to introduce to me was my teacher at the University of Lagos" At the event, I found out that Prof Uvieghara also taught Prof Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria's Vice President, at the University of Lagos. This incredibly unassuming Nigerian has taught many senior advocates, many professors, many judges of courts across the country including judges of the Supreme Court. Some of his students include the late Supreme Court Justice Niki Tobi and Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun currently at the Supreme Court. In fact, if you are an outstanding Nigerian lawyer, chances are that you have been taught by Prof. Egerton Uvieghara or by someone taught by Prof. Uvieghara.

Prof. Egerton Uvieghara is not just the nation's foremost expert in Copyright Law, he is the doyen of Labour law in Nigeria. In fact, he is the author of the book titled "Labour Law in Nigeria" which has been read by every serious legal professional, academic and law student in Nigeria and which book defines the sensitive relationships between employers, employees and trade union officials. It is also safe to say that a lot of statutes in Nigeria will not be what they are today without the special imprint of the great Egerton Uvieghara.

At 84 years old this unmatched Nigerian still drives himself in the mad traffic of Lagos, still goes to the market and cooks his meals. If you think that is because he cannot afford a driver or a cook, you are wrong. Maybe, he is too frugal? There also you are wrong because Prof. Uvieghara remains a jolly good fellow who loves the good life and his glass of wine and a lot of laughter. His lifestyle defines the simplicity of a completely satisfied man who does not envy anyone and wants nothing from anyone and does not need any attachment to impress anyone or to make him feel like a big man as defined by many Nigerians. While I pop a pill now and again, I have never heard 'Prof' complain of any kind of illness. Every day I learn something new from this extra-ordinary Nigerian who continues to be my teacher.  

Professor Egerton Uvieghara read law at the London School of Economics (LSE) and was called to the Bar in 1964. Two years later, he joined the University of Lagos as a law teacher specializing in Labour Law, Commercial Transactions and Copyright.

Do me a favour everyone. Let's shame coronavirus. Wherever you are, please raise a toast today to this truly outstanding Nigerian, my teacher and my friend, the great Professor Egerton Uvieghara. As you do so, may God bless you with old age and good health as he has blessed Prof. Egerton Uvieghara.

See you next week.

THANK YOU, FATHER FOR PUTTING ME TO WORK

I am an unbelievably lucky guy and I thank the Almighty for the incredible protection he has given me in many trying circumstances and under conditions that would have broken many men. For a guy who goes to church only once in a while, it is in every way a miracle!

Believe me, I have repeatedly seen the treachery and betrayal of men and how people rationalize the nonsense they do. If you are not careful, you will tend to believe that there is no good man left in the world anymore and there is no reason to do good to anyone.

Then you have the experience I have had in this most trying period of the coronavirus pandemic and you realize how wrong you are.

I have written before that I was a key founding father of PMRS, the major organization that gave birth to COSON. I did much of the technical work at PMRS and could easily have become the first Chairman of PMRS if I wanted to. The first Chairperson of PMRS was not Tony Okoroji but Erelu Keji Okunowo, a beautiful lady who used to be MD of Sony Music in Nigeria. I supported her the best I could. I did not become Chairman after Okunowo. The late Christy Essien Igbokwe took over from Chief Okunowo. I also supported Christy the best I could.

When I succeeded Mrs. Igbokwe, it was clear to me that there was just too much talk in PMRS and too little action; too much planning and too little execution. In many creative industry organizations in Africa, people just squabble and squabble without producing any enduring results. I concluded that if we were to build a copyright organization that will be exemplary and stand the text of time, the driving force would be execution.

There are people who complain that I am 'Executive Chairman' at COSON. The truth is that when everyone else leaves the boardroom, I stay back to intensely review with management the decisions made by the board and determine how to give them feet to walk and wings to fly. I simply do not believe in talk without action. People often ask me: what is the secret of the success of COSON? If I had to answer in one word, the word would be 'execution'.

I do not consider my position as Chairman to be to sit and beautify a chair or to wear 'agbada' at big occasions and make meaningless speeches. I am the team leader. My job is to make sure that work is going on and we are executing to the benefit of our members. I am the general in front of the army and not behind. I do not ask others to work while I drink pepper soup. If need be, I get the work done. I go to court almost every other day to defend the interest of the members of COSON.

Take it from me: most people do not say what they mean. You have to read their lips. Some will tell you that Okoroji is "Executive Chairman" and is doing everything himself. Next minute, the same people will tell you that Okoroji did nothing, "we are the ones who did all the work"!

I have seen people sit in the boardroom of the beautiful COSON House with the cool air conditioner blowing them from above and a choice of tea, coffee or some other drink available to them and beat their chests at what COSON has achieved and in the same vain complain about me. They will tell you that they don't like the style that led to the achievement of the success they celebrate. You then ask yourself, "what do they really want: process or product, style or success?" 

In the last six weeks it has been reconfirmed to me that real people want products and not process. I was given reasons upon reasons why the Anti-Coronavirus relief royalty distribution undertaken by COSON could not be done. I was told to ignore the intense suffering of members of COSON across Nigeria until after the lockdown because the banks were not fully working and that the distribution could not take place. I was told to be a hostage to process even if some COSON members ended up dying of starvation. I said "No!"

One afternoon, during the lockdown, without notice, I arrived at the home of a senior official of the bank that eventually helped us set up the distribution portal through which we have been able to send money to thousands of COSON members across the country to cushion the COVID 19 hardship. The bank official was surprised and nearly refused to come to the gate to see me. I made it clear to him that many of my members were going through hell and that I would not leave the gate of his residence until he came down to attend to me. He eventually came down. I explained the situation to him and persuaded him to join me in the car and together we drove to a branch of his bank that was not attending to the public but at which we obtained the paperwork without which we could not have set up the platform.

I hope that one day I will be able to tell the full story of the many obstacles and resistance I encountered on the way to making COSON members receive the "half bread" that may have helped many manage what was an unmanageable situation. I have been informed that a few other institutions have been inspired by what has happened at COSON and have adopted the COSON model.   

My understanding of leadership is the ability to make a positive difference in the lives of the people you lead. Everything else is a scam. Leadership is not about the titles you adorn. It is not about the car you drive or the privileges you claim. Leadership is not a risk-free undertaking. It is about giving and not taking.

During the lockdown, I did several things that may be considered very risky or even suicidal. My take is that if you call yourself a leader and you are not willing to sacrifice yourself for the people you say you lead, then you are a joke. The job of a leader is to do good to as many people as possible. He always looks for a way to make the impossible possible and turn a No into a Yes.

I thank the members of the COSON Board who have the power and could easily have banged the door on my 'crazy' ideas. I thank Sir Shina Peters, Honourable John Udegbunam, Bright Chimezie, Maureen Ejezie,, Eng Sharon Esco Wilson, Richard Cole, Uche Emeka Paul  Koffi Idowu Nuel and Kenny Saint Brown. Maybe you folks do not know it but you just redefined leadership in the Nigerian creative industry. You have made history.

During the lockdown, I spoke with hundreds of COSON members on the phone. There was the serious money problem but there was also the problem of hopes dashed, plans scuttled, projections destroyed and a future blowing in the wind. In most cases, it became my duty to lift the spirit of many a downcast family. Sometimes, we prayed together on the phone, sang together or joked together but I never left anyone without a feeling that they were lifted.

Once, with tears in my eyes, I pledged to COSON members that I will never let them down. Thank you, Father, for putting me to work. Hallowed be Thy name!

See you next week.