THEY HAVE TRIED AND TRIED BUT COSON IS WORKING!

THEY HAVE TRIED AND TRIED BUT COSON IS WORKING!

Believe me, soon, the chickens will come home to roost. The conspirators who planned the failed coup to hijack COSON will pay a price, one by one. Several times I have seen Karma work. It is set to work again!

The nature of their conspiracy will also become public knowledge. What has already become very clear is that nothing they have done has been to help the members of COSON. It was all self-centered: greed of the worst kind. They wanted to conscript a system built as a legacy for every creative person in Nigeria, pocket it and use it to further enrich themselves. They knew that they can never get the members of COSON across the country to give them what they want. They had to arm twist a government agency, set up to uplift the stakeholders in the creative industry, to become a key partner in their perfidy. And all along, they have  pretended to be democrats!

The intellectual mastermind of this group is an old man who has become a habitual troublemaker. Before the battle to hijack COSON became public, I had written about him in this column. Just yesterday, I received two new court processes, both with his imprimatur. Reading through them, I did not know whether to laugh or to cry. Neither has rhyme nor reason. Each suggests that he has become terribly desperate. I can understand. Each and every scheme he has conjured to destroy COSON has failed. He is now running from pillar to post. I am not sure that he sleeps at night. At the end of the day, he may wish to run but he cannot hide. Eventually, everyone pays for the evil he does.

My guy, a habitual petition writer, has bullied some respected people in our industry to append their names to his petitions and court cases without letting them know what is eating him up.

I have done a careful assessment of our guy who knows how best to manage COSON. He is over 70 years old and I do not see what exceptional thing he has done all these years except that he is a prolific writer of petitions and position papers. With his skills, I am not aware of any book or even a pamphlet authored by him. He presents himself as an expert at building institutions but every institution he has been given to build is either dead or on death row. I know my guy very well. His kind populate our country - very good at talking but can't get anything done.

A few years ago, my guy contested elections to be on the Board of COSON. The members did not vote for him. He however thinks that he is so incredibly gifted that it ought to be clear to everyone. In his mind, the decision of the members not to vote for him was not their choice. According to him, he is not on the board because I manipulated the elections which I did not organize. My guy who says that he is a democrat does not seem to understand that democracy requires some humility.

My guy does not understand that in a democracy, you must respect the right of the people to choose a fool over the smartest guy in the room. I am not sure that there is any sane person who cannot see that Hilary Clinton is a smarter person than Donald Trump who cannot restrain himself from tweeting and retweeting bizarre stuff every day. Yet, today, Donald J. Trump resides in the White House and Hilary Clinton lives in Upstate New York. She has no choice but to accept the facts. In Nigeria, there are many who believe that Goodluck Jonathan and Atiku Abubakar would have made better presidents than Muhammadu Buhari. Like it or not, Muhammadu Buhari sleeps and wakes up at Aso Rock Villa.

A few years ago, almost no one in Nigeria gave COSON a chance. While my guy was busy writing his petitions, the beautiful COSON House was built without any kobo from the public purse. While this old man was on his computer keyboard composing one petition after another, COSON gave employment to some very brilliant and very well-trained Nigerians and for years has paid their salaries and allowances as at when due. While my guy has been crafting his petitions, COSON has distributed several millions of Naira to members across Nigeria every year. The organization he has so much spite for has executed reciprocal representation agreements covering over 150 collective management organizations in every corner of the globe. Its accounts are audited and filed as when due. Every two years, COSON organizes the amazing COSON Week, the last: eight back to back events organized over eight days in eight different and scintillating venues: some of the best organized events in Nigerian history. Despite my guy's unending petitions, on all indices of growth, COSON has been a very successful Nigerian story.

I was once President of PMAN, the musicians' union. PMAN was a most respected Nigerian institution. We were celebrated. People like my guy started their petition writing and agitation. I left PMAN for them. Everyone can see what has become of our once great PMAN.

Oh yes, they have done everything to infiltrate the COSON Board and have failed. We argue very vigorously on the COSON Board but we do not throw chairs. Because we do not throw chairs, my guy says that the COSON Board is a rubber stamp Board. Of course, If we were fighting ourselves on the streets, my guy would say, "Can't everyone see that they are unstable? Kick them out!'

COSON has become very attractive. Suddenly, all the people who were too busy to give tolerable time to COSON know how to run COSON better and they can't wait to chase us out.

COSON was started in a two bedroom flat. At some point, I spent 60 days and nights at the COSON office, only going home periodically to pick up a change of clothes. My bed was the office floor. I was writing legal documents, press releases, accounting documents, organizational charts, etc. Many times, I worked 20 hours in a stretch. Without the compliment of staff that COSON now has, that was how the building blocks were laid. The blocks were held together by incredible self-denial and iron clad belief that tomorrow can be better than yesterday. I have been attacked left, right and center and have lost count how many times I have gone to court to defend my name and to defend the COSON legacy. They have told tales of fabulous property owned by me. They cannot give you one address because such property exists only in their warped minds. 

I am human and not indispensable. I however understand the COSON vision, its very foundation and how the building blocks have been laid. I know the unique strengths and weaknesses of the organization. There is no question that there are people who dream of taking over COSON not because they want to defend the interest of the members but because they think that COSON has money that they can get their hands on. They neither have the knowledge nor the training to deal with the very complex subject of collective management of copyright. They lack the liver to take on the many enemies who are determined to thwart the system. They do not possess the skills to manage the many contending interests but they are very hungry for control. In less than six months, they will destroy this wonderful organization we have carefully built and turn it into another PMAN.

I have decided that I will not be bullied out. They can write as many petitions as they want, file as many court cases as they want and conspire ceaselessly as they want, I will not be bullied out. As long as the members of COSON genuinely want me to protect their legacy, I will be there to protect what belongs to them. Let the petition writers continue to write their petitions. What they may not know is that Karma is on the way.

See you next week.