EVERYBODY WANTS TO SET UP A COSON!

On the 20^th of May, we will celebrate the 12^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 will mark the 5^th anniversary of the commissioning of 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 will continue 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 less than 12 years of operation, distributed hundreds of millions of Naira as royalties to its members and affiliates. 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 thousands of its 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 was done in a very structured, professional and transparent manner which was widely celebrated by members of COSON. You know what? Bad belle people started writing petitions saying that it was a scam and nobody received the money. The fact is that nobody was paid in cash. There are bank records showing the payment of the Covid 19 relief to thousands of COSON members. The reality is that scammers believe that everybody is a scammer!

Suddenly, everybody wants to set up a CMO, to copy COSON! 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 bag 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 with and rub shoulders with PMAN. PMAN became a much-admired name and the toast of the nation and the continent. I sought for and obtained sprawling land in a glorious location in Abuja to build a magnificent PMAN Plaza. Indeed, the foundation of the PMAN Plaza was started. And the dam broke!

Every musician in Nigeria who could afford a rickety 'tokunbo' SUV began to see himself as President of PMAN. To be PMAN President became the burning ambition of a lot. It became too noisy and I walked away.

Do you know that 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 of PMAN. PMAN is a registered trade union but none of the 'Presidents' understood the Trade Union Act or even the PMAN constitution. We all can see where it has led PMAN. Sadly, the PMAN Plaza was never built. I have been told that the land was sold and the money was wacked!

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 our country to make that possible. It required an incredible amount of work and heaps and heaps of personal sacrifice. The language was one of unity and not that of division and hatred. Today, when you go to any of the platforms opened in the name of PMAN and read the gutter language, the language of hate and odium that is everywhere, you must shudder. The ignorance on most of the issues is incredibly shocking.

Either as President of PMAN or Chairman of COSON, I have never gone into a meeting or discussions with any group 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 and humility 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 or a trade union, 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 has it panned out guys?"

I know those who are desperate to grab COSON and do to it what they did to PMAN. Give them six months and they will sell COSON House. We will not let them.

Let me say again that setting up a CMO is not pure water business. If you want to be rich?... Please, don't go set up a CMO!

See you next week.

JUSTICE EKWO BURSTS THEIR BUBBLE!

There was significant tremor or you might say, an earthquake, among the Nigerian political class this week following the unexpected decision by a Federal High Court Judge, Hon Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo that Dave Umahi and Kelechi Igwe had ceased to be Governor and Deputy Governor of Ebonyi State respectively upon their defection from PDP to the APC which the court declared unlawful and unconstitutional.   

The immediate reaction of Governor Umahi was completely bombastic. His tirade against the judgement and the trial judge showed that the judgment had hit "bulls-eye" and that Umahi, despite any attempt to appear calm, was caught off guard and may be terribly scared. In his mind, "who is this Ekwo man who has the temerity to take away my ordained governorship?" His reported unprecedented and incredibly quick assembly of a battery of 18 Senior Advocates to head to the Court of Appeal shows without question that there is big fire on the mountain and a brigade of firefighters, at whatever cost, must be hired to put out this raging fire.     

I give kudos to NBA President, Olumide Akpata who acted like a man and instantly and masterfully called Engr. Umahi to order and reminded him that Nigeria is not a banana republic. We may elect governors but, in this land, we do not make anyone an emperor and no one should be above the law.  It is good to know that without wasting time, Umahi listened to wise counsel and publicly apologized for his caustic outburst against Ekwo. I wonder about the wisdom in his going to the Ebonyi State High Court to get an ex-parte order to try to thwart Ekwo's judgment

I had begun to think that nobody had the courage to call the rascals in our politics to order until Justice Inyang Ekwo spoke. I am a great believer in the rule of law. I consider the rule of law to be the foundation of the progress of any society. Don't give me roads, don't give me a railway, don't give me dams. Please don't give me a 3^rd Niger Bridge. Give me the rule of law and there will be many roads, railways, dams, 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th Niger Bridges, hospitals and schools and peace and order in the land. With the rule of law, there will be no abuse of power and none of the waste and humongous stealing and banditry going on around us.  

Justice Ekwo has truly burst a bubble as that which was being murmured around is now being discussed openly and vigorously as it ought to be in a democracy. Is it ok for our politicians to be acting like prostitutes without beliefs, principles and control, sleeping with one man in the morning and another at night and causing instability all over the place? All kinds of pocket lawyers and constitutionalists have become engaged in the argument.

The facts are not in dispute. In March 2019, Incumbent PDP Governor, Dave Umahi, nominated by the PDP, contested the gubernatorial election in Ebonyi to execute the programs and manifesto of the PDP. One of his opponents in the election was Sonni Ogbuoji who was nominated by the APC to contest the election and execute the programs and manifesto of the APC.

After the campaign, the people of Ebonyi overwhelmingly voted for the PDP giving Umahi, its candidate, 393,043 votes or about 82% of the total votes cast. APC's Ogbuoji got 81,703 votes or about 17% of the total votes cast. That should have been the end of the matter.

Alas in November 2020, Ebonyi people woke up one morning to hear that the man they gave their mandate to execute the programs and manifesto of the PDP had dumped them and defected to the APC purportedly with their mandate. There should not be any debate about the constitutional rights of Engr Umahi to belong to any political party of his choice. The question is whether it is proper for Umahi, having been elected on the platform of the PDP, to take the mandate given to him, to do an about turn and move to APC to implement the programs and policies of an opposition party roundly rejected by the people. Umahi was not the candidate of the APC. It was Sonni Ogbuoji!

When the people of Ebonyi went to vote, on the ballot paper, they saw the symbols of different parties and not the photograph of any candidate. There are no independent candidates in Nigeria. 

 

In the news, it is reported that Justice Ekwo sacked Umahi as Governor of Ebonyi State. I beg to disagree. The way I see it, Umahi sacked Umahi! On the day he decided to defect, he resigned his position. The sacred mandate given to him by Ebonyi citizens is not his car, his cell phone, his laptop, or watch to take wherever he goes. It is not his personal property to be taken wherever he chooses. Umahi was elected as governor, not an emperor. Upon his decided resignation as governor, he also lost his immunity and was rightly sued for purporting to be that which he no longer was.

I know that there are other opinions on this matter. I respect those opinions. As this case is likely to end up in the Supreme Court, I would hope that there is no attempt to run out the clock and that the courts would expedite action on this very important matter which might help determine whether the Nigerian democratic experiment survives or not. But for now, anyone else planning to be an Umahi must be asking himself questions.

 

To me, the law has to make sense. Some of the people who are shouting "no!... no!" today will if the shoe is on another foot, be speaking differently.

As Nigerians look in consternation and disbelief and the nation staggers from one deep crisis to another, there is now no doubt that most of our politicians in the executive and legislative arms have failed us badly. There must be other men and women of courage in the judiciary who like Inyang Ekwo, can call the bluff of the political class and save this nation for our children. There must be other men and women in the professions like Olumide Akpata who are prepared to stand up to be counted and say, "enough is enough"

Until I see these others, Inyang Edem Ekwo and Olumide Akpata are my Nigerians of the year.

See you next week.

WHAT’S UP ON WHATSAPP TODAY?

Hey guys! It is the social media age. Practically everyone with a smart phone is now a writer and everyone is a publisher. Before now, there was one very important guy between the writer and the publisher. He was king of the newsroom. He was called 'Editor'. His job was to make sure that whatever the public read was as much as possible factual and that there was balance in the story that his newspaper told. Every great newspaper was built on its credibility. It was the job of the editor to ask the critical questions: What? Who? Where? How? Why? I used to consider editors the most powerful men and women in any nation. 

 

That day is gone and all that appears to be history. Very few people these days get their news from any newspaper. Very few watch TV except for Telemundo, Zee World, African Magic and Premier League. People do not even talk anymore. They 'chat'.  Everyone is on WhatsApp, the "wicked" app owned by Mark Zuckerberg who also owns Facebook.

 

Twenty-four hours a day, news, photos, videos, gospel, lies, sex and mischief continue to stream in on WhatsApp. If you are not careful, you get hooked, swallow it all and suffer the constipation.

 

On WhatsApp now, there is a platform for your village, your town, your old school mates, your church group, your colleagues at work, your drinking partners, the pepper-soup joint you belong to, etc. Every day, you must check all the platforms. It is never ending. People are begging you on WhatsApp… people are toasting you on WhatsApp.

 

WhatsApp, the free messaging and video calling app is a leveler. It is the app you turn to every morning before anything else. It is said to be used by over two billion people in more than 180 countries. The users include students, and their teachers, nurses and doctors, plumbers, vulcanizers, market women, taxi drivers, lawyers, pastors, choir girls and prostitutes, politicians and voters et al. WhatsApp is so simple that anybody can use it. It is reliable, cheap and private, so you can easily keep in touch with anybody. WhatsApp works across mobile and desktop even on slow connections, with no subscription fees.

 

The incredible thing about WhatsApp is that it knows no boundaries. You can be reached on your very same number anywhere on earth at practically no cost. Your personal messages and calls to anyone on WhatsApp are said to be end-to-end encrypted. In other words, no one outside of your chats, not even WhatsApp, can read or listen to your jive. So, you can gossip as much as you want and tell as many lies as you want and curse anybody as much as you like and be as raunchy and naked as you ever dreamed of on WhatsApp and the world will continue to rock on! What of the famous WhatsApp video calls? Hmmmm! You can see everything and practically do everything and its no one's business.

How else do you know whether "super cop", Abba Kyari is today in police cell, with the NDLEA or has joined his guy, Hushpuppy in a beautiful FBI cell in America if you are not on WhatsApp? Tell me how you will know whether Bobrisky in old age, has changed his mind and has decided to go back to being a man.

 

If you are not on WhatsApp, how do you know who the Jagaban Borgu, the Asiwaju of Lagos and the man whose ambition is to rule Nigeria, is visiting today? How do you confirm if he is truly peeing in his pants?  

 

Can you believe that for several months, I was begging my guy, Aubameyang to bang in some goals for my dear Arsenal and he was running around the football field like a chicken with long neck and Arsenal was gradually heading for relegation. Now, Auba walks away from Arsenal without saying "Bye-Bye" and is slamming the goals for Barcelona and expects me to be happy. You think I am talking nonsense? It's all on WhatsApp!   

 

Go to any social gathering these days and everybody is typing on his little machine, 'snapping' photos, posting or 'chatting'. Everyone is spreading information for good or for evil with all the biases that human beings have.  There are no rules and anyone can be as nasty as he wants to be, as raw as he chooses to be and as hateful as he decides to be.

 

Last week, the world woke up to the horror that Russian President, Vladmir Putin had ordered the full military invasion of his neighbouring nation of Ukraine. The bombing, the killing, the dyeing, the horrendous destruction is all there on WhatsApp.

 

WhatsApp with its two billion users has become so terrifyingly powerful. It has become clear that Mark Zuckerberg has in his hands data that can be deployed to elect leaders anywhere and to remove them if it becomes necessary. WhatsApp is no longer just an app, it is an army. Do not forget that Donald Trump, who no serious person gave a chance, conquered America with a smart phone with the help of his friend, Vladmir Putin. To regulate a behemoth like WhatsApp or not and if yes, how, are questions that the world must struggle with.

 

As we adjust to a new world, a world in which there soon will be no newspapers as we have known them, no checks and balances as we have known them, no rules or regulations as we have known them, how do we survive?

 

By the way, have you checked your WhatsApp today?

 

See you next week.