NO… NO… NO, MY LORD! THERE IS NO REGISTRATION OF COPYRIGHT IN NIGERIA!

I have the greatest respect for those of our judges who under the most difficult conditions still try to do justice in Nigeria. They give hope to the average Nigerian that all is not lost, at a time when hope is increasingly becoming a scarce commodity.

I truly wish I did not have to write this piece. I spent days agonizing over it. I know that judges can sometimes get it wrong because the law is so wide and no judge knows everything. That is why we have the appeal process. There are however some judicial decisions that are so wrong that they shake the very foundation of common sense and threaten the lives and livelihood of so many. I would have failed the entire creative community in Nigeria if I did not react and speak out in this case. The consequence for Nigerian copyright owners would be disastrous.

During the week, I was sent a copy of the ruling on June 25, 2021 of Hon Justice B.F.N. Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/145/2019 between Paul Allen Oche and Nigerian Breweries Plc and three others.

At the last page of the ruling, her Lordship stated thus: "I have searched the entire originating processes of the Plaintiff and I have failed to find any place where he has exhibited his registration of the said Copyright. This is what confers the locus standi on the Plaintiff to institute this suit in the first place.

"It is basic principle of law that Copyright exist by virtue of Sections 2, 3, 6, etc of the Copyright Act. However, to claim an infringement of a Copyright, the Copyright must be registered.

"In the instant case, the Plaintiff is alleging infringement of his Copyright but he has failed to exhibit his registration.

"At this stage, I cannot go into whether his Copyright has been infringed or not because he has not shown his locus standi to claim the Copyright"

In my many years of active engagement in the copyright system in Nigeria, I have seen court decisions that make me want to cry. Upon reading the said words of Hon Justice Nyako, I nearly fainted! If her decision becomes the precedent and I know that Federal High Court Judges tend to respect the decisions of their colleagues, then the entire Nigerian copyright system has collapsed because the system would be founded on nothing. By her decision, no owner of copyright in Nigeria can sue for the infringement of copyright because no one in Nigeria can show proof of any registration of copyright.   

Contrary to popular belief and that of her Lordship, there is absolutely no requirement for a work to be registered for the owner to enjoy copyright protection in Nigeria. With all due respect to her Lordship, you do not need any copyright registration to have the locus standi to claim the copyright in your work. There is no Registrar or Registry of copyright anywhere in Nigeria and no formality is necessary by law. Anyone telling you that he is registering your copyright in Nigeria is engaged in some form of 419.

It is very true that copyright is intellectual property. By some recent decisions of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, the owner of copyright clearly enjoys the proprietary rights enshrined in Section 44 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. However, the owner of copyright is not like the owner of a piece of land who may require a C of O to establish the ownership of his land. He is not like the owner of a trademark who may require a trademark registration to sue.

Believe it or not, copyright protection begins as soon as an original and eligible work is created and put in a tangible form. Full Stop!

So, why then do people troop to organizations like the NCC or COSON to 'register' their works? To my mind, such activities are merely documentation of the works in the databases of these establishments for the purpose of administering the works and not registration and they do not confer any constitutional or legal rights to the owners of the works.

Indeed, registration of copyright is contrary to the provisions of the various international copyright conventions to which Nigeria is a signatory. An example is the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary & Artistic Works administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) which Nigeria joined on September 14, 1993. Article 5 (2) of the Berne Convention makes it clear that no formality is needed to ensure protection of copyright. In other words, no registration is required, no deposit is required and no notification is required. Protection is automatic.

In fact, registration of copyright is an almost dead practice. Across the world, only the United States of America still registers copyright and only for the purpose of bringing an action and not for protection. Elsewhere in the world, copyright registries have been dismantled and the registrars sent home.

If you do not give serious thought to the issue, you may consider the absence of any statutory registration procedure for copyright as a major defect of the Nigerian Copyright law. I wish to discuss some of the many reasons why it has been widely accepted across the globe that registration of copyright is not such a good idea.

Copyright does not just protect musical works, sound recordings, books, plays, movies, computer programs, photographs, broadcasts, etc. Copyright protects an almost endless list of creative works and works of artistic craftmanship such as paintings, drawings, etchings, lithographs, woodcuts, engravings, prints, maps, plans, diagrams, works of architecture, sculptural works, etc.

It may be clear to a paper presenter at a seminar or workshop that his work enjoys copyright protection but one is not sure whether the local pastor is aware that any unauthorized reproduction of his Sunday sermon is an infringement of his copyright and that he is entitled to sue, not just before God but in a court of law.

It may also appear odd but any unauthorized copying of a letter, report or memorandum, beyond what would be deemed as fair use, is indeed an infringement of copyright. Please note that your odd letter to your sweetheart is also protected by copyright.

The truth is that it is practically impossible to register even a tiny fraction of the works eligible for copyright.  Every day, without being conscious of it, we are all creating eligible works in our letters, reports, memos, lectures, addresses, sermons, scripts, etc. Should we be required to register all of these, we will have no time to do any other work.  Should the failure to register deny us the necessary protection? There are many who do not think so. To even attempt to register a fraction of the works eligible for copyright requires a bureaucracy, the size and cost of which is not meaningful to contemplate.

Just think of it: If registration is a condition for copyright protection, it then means that anyone who registers a work may claim copyright in the work even if he is not the creator of the work. Can you imagine the commotion this is likely to cause in a semi-literate society like ours with the enormous danger of fraudulent registrations which may in fact defeat the whole purpose of copyright protection?

I know that some people will react to this piece with disbelief.  Some may even ask, "how then do I prove that I own the copyright in my work?"

In my humble view, her Lordship should have looked at Section 43 of the Copyright Act which makes provisions for presumptions in copyright infringement cases. The burden of proving ownership of copyright does not lie with the Plaintiff. It is the Defendant who must bring evidence to show that the Plaintiff is not the owner of the copyright.

With all due respect to her Lordship, her decision is dangerous and needs to be overturned. I do not know Mr. Paul Allen Oche, the Plaintiff in the matter, but I urge him, in the interest of the many thousands who depend on the copyright system for their livelihood to please appeal the decision since her Lordship has become "functus officio" in the matter.

No… No… No, my Lord! There is no registration of copyright in Nigeria!

See you next week.

ARE YOU A GIVER OR A TAKER?

I verily believe that the biggest problem we have in our nation is that we have too many takers and very few givers. Poverty and hopelessness bestride our fatherland because we give nothing and take everything.

Give a Nigerian the nation's pension fund to manage and he takes all the money and leaves the pensioners hungry on the streets. Give a Nigerian Army General money to buy arms to fight the terrorist traumatizing our people, the General will take all the money and bury it in a soak-away pit and send innocent soldiers without weapons to go and die in Sambisa Forest. Across the country, everyone is in a mad scramble to take. Very few are willing to give. Pastors are on the take, civil servants are on the take, judges are on the take and policemen are on the take. And we want to build a nation? How?

Give a Nigerian governor money to run his state and he grabs all the land across the state and builds mansions for himself, his wife, children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and generations unimagined. Meanwhile, he leaves the roads without maintenance, hospitals without drugs, government workers without pay and the citizens without hope.

In my service in different organizations in the creative industry I have witnessed a number of people fight tooth and nail to join the different boards not because they want to provide service but because they want to 'chop'. Once they find out that the board is about work and not "chop", they get frustrated and head for the exist with so much noise and nuisance.

How then can we grow when it should be clear that there is no nation, no state, no organization and no family that can make progress when everybody is taking and nobody is giving?

Next week, in Anambra State, the body of a gentleman who in the Nigerian experience was truly uncommon, will be laid to rest. I can bet that John Ewelukwa Udegbunam had little money, no big house and no fancy car when he passed on about two months ago.

However, events after events are being held in different parts of the country in honour of this great Nigerian who cared deeply about everyone. Nearly every day since his death, he has been celebrated expansively on social media. Last Sunday at the Sacred Heart Catholic Parish in Onitsha, a big church service was held in his honour. Two days before, at the Chuba Ikpeazu Stadium in Onitsha, the music industry gathered, despite the heavy rain, to pay tribute to the man fondly called "Eweson". On Tuesday, there will be a first-class Red Carpet Tribute Night in Lagos to celebrate the great Udegbunam.

When Honourable Udegbunam buried his mother in Ora-Eri Anambra State about 5 years ago, over 40 catholic priests stormed Ora-Eri to perform the Requiem mass at St Mary's Catholic Church Ora-Eri, the same church where an unprecedented Requiem Mass is scheduled to hold in his honour next week. That is the kind of high esteem that this man with little money was held in the Catholic Church, a man who touched many lives.

Udegbunam was the immediate past National President of the powerful Music Label Owners & Recording Industries Association of Nigeria (MORAN), Nigeria's biggest association of owners of copyright in sound recordings. He fought music pirates with both hands and everything else he could muster. He could easily have become rich by collecting money from the pirates and looking the other way. He did not.

Udegbunam was a staunch member of the Board of COSON, Nigeria's most respected and successful copyright collective management organization. Do you know that nearly all COSON Board meetings are held in Lagos? In 11 years, Udegbunam who lived in Onitsha never missed one COSON Board meeting, never missed one COSON AGM and never missed one COSON Week event. Not once did he ask for a flight ticket to come to Lagos or seek accommodation in a fancy hotel as he travelled by day and by night. His 100% focus was to defend the rights of the thousands of members of COSON. He could have exploited the immense power he had on the COSON Board for personal enrichment. He did not.

The incredible guy was a university-trained musicologist, composer, music teacher, producer and label owner and National Music Director of the Praise & Worship Ministry of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal of Nigeria (CCRN) which he helped spread across the nation. If he was not on the road for CCRN, Udegbunam was on the road for MORAN or on the road for COSON amid many other responsibilities he undertook despite the fact that he had to run his own business, Eweson Communications Ltd. Udegbunam was a giver.

Udegbunam gave no excuses for not doing what he had to do. If he said he was coming, he would come. If he said he was going, he would go. He could have abused his position in CCRN to make money for himself. He did not.

I had just arrived New York when I was informed of the death of Udegbunam. I usually do not cry over the death of any man but I broke down and wept like a child. I used to call him "Madu Asaa" (7 persons in one). If you have Hon Udegbunam with you, it's like having 7 persons behind you. He was unshakable when it comes to standing with the truth, even when everyone else is telling lies. He had great strength of character. Udegbunam was a giver.

Giving is what builds nations and institutions and families. It is the giving by many of their intellect, time, love, hard work and sometimes, their lives that have created those countries that we admire and whose visas we are desperate to acquire.

Just look at the New York subway and imagine the giving that went into building that incredible network of rail lines under the dizzying skyscrapers of Manhattan. The marvelous road network in Germany, the Autobahn, is the product of giving.

Across the world, you see nations with structures and systems that work so very efficiently. Why? It is because these nations have people who are happy to give of themselves.

There is nothing wrong in making money if the objective is to try to bring happiness to the greatest number.

Considering that we come with nothing and go with nothing, is it not curious that we spend so much time acquiring, taking and taking things much of which we do not need?

Think about it, Nelson Mandela did not become great by being a taker. Martin Luther King did not become great by being a taker. Mother Theresa certainly did not become great by being a taker.

Fare thee well Honorable, my brother and friend who gave his all for the good of all.

See you next week.

MY FRIEND, PROF EGERTON UVIEGHARA DIES AT 85!

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 Council (NCC), former Commissioner at the Nigerian Law Reform Commission, detribalized Nigerian and man of great character and unquestionable integrity, has passed on, on the same day, August 28, that I lost another older friend of mine, another inellectual and staunch supporter, "Guitar Boy", Professor Victor Efosa Uwaifo.

In January 2020, I had made a promise to Prof Uvieghara who played a frontline role in the development of the copyright system in Nigeria and who cut the tape 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, 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 and his unflinching support.

I had started conceptualizing the event. Truly, I 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. I eventually took a number of my friends and colleagues and headed for the Prof's Magodo GRA home in Lagos with two cakes, bottles of wine and quite a bit of small chops and we had a great time. In May 2021, I was back in Magodo with more friends. We even took a small band with us. Of course, Prof never stopped reminding me of his 80^th birthday ceremony when I brought a big band to his home and the likes of the late Majek Fashek and Azeezat Allen practically 'scattered' Magodo. On that day, we kept Magodo singing and dancing all evening long. Professor Uvieghara was worth every note of music that was played to celebrate him.

If you knew the great Professor Egerton E. 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 lasted decades assures me that Prof would have taken no offence with my reference to him as my friend. Indeed, Professor Uvieghara who was 22 years older than me continuously referred to me as his friend everywhere and treated me as if we were age mates and equals.

Prof Uvieghara was one Nigerian who fully supported the work that I do and understood my dream for the Nigerian creative family and shared the value of giving one's all to what one believes in. Wherever and whenever I had an event, you were likely to see Prof close to me and nursing a bottle of good wine.

I recall when the Hon. Minister of Information & Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, visited the "magnificent" COSON House in 2017. Prof Uvieghara also arrived for the reception for 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. The incredibly unassuming Nigerian taught many senior advocates, many professors, many judges of courts across the country including judges of the Supreme Court. Some of his students include retired Supreme Court Justice Niki Tobi and Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun. 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. He taught me the law of Copyright and graciously wrote the foreword to my book, 'Copyright & the New Millionaires'.

With Professor Uvieghara as Chairman, I served on the committee that drafted the present Copyright Law which was first enacted as Decree 47 of 1988 and which repealed Decree 61 of 1970 and set up the Nigerian Copyright Council (NCC). I subsequently served with him on the Governing Board of the NCC. Professor Uvieghara and I were given the further assignment to draft the first amendment to the law. We took the assignment very seriously, and with one Bayo Aiyegbusi, a very hard-working public officer as our secretary, we produced the document that was promulgated on December 28, 1992, as the Copyright Amendment Decree No 98 of 1992.

It was absolute joy working with Prof. We had vigorous arguments about language, construction, principles and policies and not once was any of our arguments driven by ego or end in any negative thoughts. Our objective was always to do the best job possible and I learnt so much from him. Professor Uvieghara was never afraid to say the truth as he saw it to anyone no matter the cost.

Presently I am mourning a number of my friends who just passed on but I have decided not to mourn Professor Uvieghara even as I miss him very dearly and miss all the great time we had in Magodo and elsewhere. I will rather continue to celebrate the life of a very uncommon Nigerian who took me like his brother and gave me love in full measure. At 85, Prof Uvieghara lived a full life and was not afraid to go. He understood the depth of life, yet the shallowness of life. His friends and family should be happy that he came, he saw and he conquered.

Adieu my friend.

See you next week.