COPYRIGHT & THE ANTON PILLER ORDER

Today, we resume our tutorials on copyright and review one of the reliefs available to a plaintiff in an intellectual property matter, the famous Anton Piller Order.

The Anton Piller Order is made by a court to give a copyright holder the opportunity to take an alleged copyright infringer by surprise. It is an order which requests a defendant in an intellectual property action, to allow the plaintiff to enter his premises and search for and remove documents and materials allegedly used for the infringement of the rights of the plaintiff. The order is intended to ensure that the defendant does not destroy important evidence and records which may be necessary for the copyright holder to prove his case.

The Anton Piller Order is granted ex parte. In other words, it is granted upon the application of the owner, assignee or exclusive licensee without the defendant being notified, thereby preserving the surprise element. The Anton Piller Order owes its name to an English case, Anton Piller KG v. Manufacturing Processes Ltd. In that case, the plaintiff applied for an order to enter the premises of the defendant, who was not given notice, to inspect and remove documents for safe keeping. The big question was whether the court had the power to grant such an order considering that it may amount to a search warrant in a civil case. A search warrant may only be issued in a criminal matter.

The celebrated jurist, Lord Denning took the position that the order was not a search warrant because it only authorized entry and inspection with the permission of the defendant. One therefore could conclude that the defendant had the choice of giving or refusing his permission when requested. Lord Denning however went on to say that if the defendant refuses to give his permission, it would be regarded as contempt of court and adverse inference could be drawn against him.

 It appears that the first Anton Pillar order in Nigeria was made in Ferodo Ltd. v. Unibros Stores by Justice Fred Anyaegbunam in 1980. While the matter had to do with a trademark, it opened the flood gates for the granting of Anton Piller orders in different types of intellectual property matters. Ferodo Ltd were sole distributors of Ferodo brake products in Nigeria. Unibros Stores who were not customers of Ferodo Limited were alleged to be selling brake linings bearing the Ferodo name. Ferodo Ltd went to the Federal High Court, claiming urgency and obtained ex parte orders restraining Unibros Stores, their servants or agents from repeating any infringement of the plaintiff's registered trademarks and that Unibros Stores should permit up to six persons (including a police officer) to enter its premises at No.168F Nnamdi Azikiwe Street, Lagos for the detention, preservation and inspection of any movable property or thing that would constitute a breach of the injunction prayed for in the suit.

The court also ordered the Defendants (Unibros Stores) to allow the plaintiff's solicitor to inspect all or any documents in the custody or under the control of the defendant relating to the suit and to produce upon oath, any documents in their possession or power relating to the matters in question in the suit.

The Anton Piller Order has raised serious controversy because it offers great opportunity for the miscarriage of justice. Is it fair and just to make such a far reaching order without listening to the other side? On the other hand, how do you deal with the die-hard pirate who is very slippery and a master of deception?

Despite the concern of some who go as far as saying that the Anton Piller Order is unconstitutional because it breaches the fundamental right to fair hearing, the process has become one of the most potent tools for dealing with piracy across the world.

However, it must not be forgotten that Lord Denning in Anton Piller KG v. Manufacturing Processes Ltd warned that the order should only be used "in an extreme case where there is grave danger of property being smuggled away or of vital evidence being destroyed".

The question of the constitutionality of the Anton Piller order appeared to have been settled in Nigeria by the decision of the Court of Appeal in Akuma Industry Ltd v. Ayman Enterprises Ltd. In the Akuma case, Justice Chukwudi Ignatius Pats-Acholonu had said, "Anton Piller order although seemingly appearing as a monstrosity has become accepted within the vortex of our legal doctrines and jurisprudence". However, the Supreme Court later struck down the entire proceeding in Akuma Industry v. Ayman Enterprises Ltd. According to the court's decision read by Umaru Atu Kalgo (JSC), the Supreme Court set aside the Akuma proceedings because according to it, the Federal High Court does not have the jurisdiction to hear any passing-off case with respect to an unregistered trademark, the very basis of the Akuma case. Since the Supreme Court did not address the issue of the Anton Pillar Order granted in the case, it appears that it is still a matter for conjecture what the court would have said about the Anton Piller Order itself. Coincidentally, the decision of the Supreme Court in the Akuma case was announced a few days before Justice Pats-Acholonu joined the apex court. Nevertheless, Anton Pillar orders continue to be made by Nigerian courts as is made in other parts of the world.

In our copyright tutorial series in Saturday Breakfast, we will continue our review of the famous Anton Piller Order, its similarities and differences with Section 25 of the Nigerian Copyright Act and the application of the principles in Nigeria.

See you next week. 

OMG! THEY COUNTED THEIR CHICKENS BEFORE THEY WERE HATCHED –

THE STORY OF THE HISTORIC FAILURE OF THE YAHOO-YAHOO GANG OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY!

This week, the good Lord once again showed me His awesome powers against the devil. 

I have written in Saturday Breakfast about my recent health challenges. For seven weeks I was unable to go to my office at TOPS or visit COSON House where I am Chairman of the Board.

Early Tuesday morning, I was at COSON House in Ikeja for the first time in weeks. I was at the boardroom, busy on my laptop preparing my address for the COSON Annual General Meeting scheduled to hold that day. Suddenly, my phone began to ring off the hook. Some hopeless persons had posted materials all over social media that I had been whisked off by the police from Lagos to Benin-City where I was supposedly being detained and quizzed for fraud!

Naturally, my friends and family were agitated, especially with my health condition. Everybody began to call everybody and alarm bells began to ring. The COSON communication people had to take an instant photograph of me at COSON House which they posted on social media to show that contrary to the fake news, I was live at work in Ikeja and not in any police dungeon in Benin - City. It was then that nerves began to calm.

I later the same day, I chaired a full meeting of the COSON Board and thereafter, a fantastic 10^th Annual General Meeting of COSON, at the COSON House Arena. While the AGM was ongoing, another fake news story popped up all over social media declaring that COSON House had been sealed off by the police and the AGM which was streaming live to thousands of people on Zoom had been aborted!  Unfortunately for the imbeciles, the COSON 2020 AGM turned out to be probably the most successful COSON AGM ever and photos from the AGM are everywhere for all to see. Nobody sealed off COSON House. There was no reason whatsoever to do so.

I instantly knew who was behind the stupid and desperate scheme to discredit me, take over the COSON AGM or abort it. I know the make-up of the Yahoo-Yahoo Gang, who so badly want to milk the music industry and feast on music copyright at the expense of the true musicians of Nigeria. While they deploy some innocent musicians in their scam, none of the ring leaders is a musician. They are all carpet baggers and opportunists who consider music copyright their new gold mine and musicians their "mugu".

Their problem during the week was that in their desperation, they counted their chickens before they were hatched.

There was indeed a diabolical plan to 'arrest' me in Lagos, quickly drive me all night to Benin City, get a magistrate to remand me on some trumped up charge and lock me up in Benin, through my birthday, December 22, the Christmas and the New Year celebrations. The fact that my health is presently not very good made the wicked plan more sumptuous to the chief architect of this madness for which a large some of money had been made available. The plan was that if I died in detention, the better!

The chief architect of the evil plan lives in Benin City. He so badly wants to make himself the emperor of music copyright in Nigeria, using the police to harass and intimate organizations and individuals to pay money to him for music which he neither owns nor has been assigned to him. He has no visible source of livelihood. He wants to milk the music industry and feast on music copyright and become rich at the expense of the musicians of Nigeria. I have been identified as the major block to his mad ambition and I have to be taken care of.

The first stage of their plan may have worked. On Monday evening, I was accosted by four men in front of my TOPS office which I was visiting for the first time in weeks. They said they were police officers from Benin City and that I had to follow them to Area F Police station in Ikeja. I immediately called James Ononiwu, the COSON lawyer and he came immediately and accompanied me to Area F. The plan was to detain me at Area F and drive me away to Benin City, early in the morning without food, without my drugs, without a bath, wearing the same clothes. The plan failed.

I made some calls and instructions were given to the policemen to let me go. My traducers did not know what had happened. They were already celebrating. They could not wait to see my downfall and had sent the word to their social media hacks that I had been arrested and was being "quizzed" in Benin. Early morning on Tuesday while I was at COSON House Ikeja, they went to town with their fake news.

I flew to Benin City on Wednesday on my own volition. I went to Benin to confront the buffoon who signed the lousy petition they concocted and used to try to bring me down. Their stupid story is that I pocketed the coronavirus distribution which COSON sent as palliatives to its thousands of members during the COVID 19 lockdown. The coward was invited by the police in Benin to show how but failed to show up. In Benin City, I was treated with every courtesy by the police.

Fortunately, of the thousands of COSON members who got the palliative, nobody was paid in cash. It was all done by bank transfer. The records are there of all the people, their bank details, when they received the money, etc. In the distribution, there was no rancour or quarrel whatsoever. I am proud of the way it was done.  If you know any member of COSON, you can please ask him if he got the COSON Covid 19 palliative.

I hear that the stupid people want to blackmail the police AIG in Benin. They tried to use him and it did not work. Now, they are floating another fake story that I gave the AIG N10 million to protect me! Protect me from what? If I have N10 million, I will not give it to the police. I have poor people in my village who need money. I have an unfinished building in my village that needs money.

Whoever funded the embarrassing and historic failure of the Yahoo-Yahoo Gang of the music industry this week must ask for his money back. They are a letdown. Chai!

See you next week.

THE DIFFERENT WAYS IN WHICH COPYRIGHT IS INFRINGED

When we talk about copyright infringement in Nigeria, most people think of the famous or infamous Alaba market in Lagos where hundreds of thousands of unauthorized copies of music CDs and video are reproduced and widely sold. That is what is commonly called piracy, the most familiar type of copyright infringement in Nigeria. That is just one aspect of copyright infringement.

As we expand our knowledge of copyright, we must understand that copyright grants the creator of a work a wide bundle or basket of exclusive rights like the right of reproduction, the right of performance, the right to broadcast, the right of translation, etc. Any unauthorized doing of any act exclusively reserved for the copyright owner is an infringement. This is so whether it is done directly or through a third party. The areas of infringement continue to expand in the digital environment.   

For instance, copyright is  infringed by any person who without the licence or authorization of the owner of the copyright permits a place of public entertainment or of business to be used for a performance in public of a work, where the performance constitutes an infringement in the work unless the person permitting the place to be so used was not aware, and had no reasonable ground for suspecting that the performance would be an infringement of copyright.

Proprietors of events venues like hotels, sports stadia, civic centers, town halls, etc must understand the need to licence their venues for the performance of works which are controlled by copyright. They can alternatively ensure that all potential performers in their venues have obtained necessary licences for the works they wish to perform. If they do not take this seriously, they might be faced with heavy lawsuits.

It may not just be enough for the proprietor of the venue to claim that he was not aware that the performance constituted copyright infringement or that he warned the performer not to infringe copyright.

The English case of PRS Ltd. v. Mitchell & Booker Ltd probably illustrates the situation in the best possible way. Mitchell & Booker Ltd were owners of a dance hall called the Hammersmith Palais. A band was engaged at the Hammersmith Palais to provide music. One of the terms of the contract with the band was that the band should not infringe copyright and if it did, the members will be liable for such infringement. The proprietor of the dance hall went further to post a notice in the hall with the following words, "Only such music as may be played without fee or licence is allowed to be played in the hall". Despite the contract and the notice, the band went ahead to play, without authorization, music that was controlled by the Performing Right Society (PRS), the collective management organization based in London.

In the case, the court came to the decision that on proper construction of the agreement between the dance hall and the band, the band members were the servants of the dance hall owners and not independent contractors. The court also decided that the owners of Hammersmith Palais would not be absolved of copyright infringement because of the provisions of the contract or the notice placed on the premises.

Furthermore, the court took the position that the band members were acting in the course of their employment when they performed the music, the subject of the dispute and that the owners of the copyright were entitled to an injunction and damages for the infringement of their rights.

The decision by the English Court in the above matter appears to be based on the principle of vicarious liability and indicates the need for proprietors of events venues to thread carefully on the issue of copyright in music.

Copyright is also infringed by any person who without the licence or authorization of the owner of copyright performs or causes to be performed for the purposes of trade or business or as supporting facility to a trade or business, any work in which copyright subsists.

Please, performance does not only refer to live performance as in the illustrated case. It includes the playing of recorded music on the facility. It also includes radio, television and cable broadcasts or computer transmission received on the facility. As long as it can be shown that the reception of such a broadcast or transmission is outside of a private setting, a performance in public will be deemed to have taken place. Indeed, even if the record player, radio, television set or a computer monitor is located in a private residence and the performance is clearly audible or visible in public, copyright infringement may still have occurred!

That certainly was the case in another of the many ground- breaking English copyright cases that have developed copyright practice around the world. In PRS v. Camelo, the defendant's wife managed a restaurant on the ground floor of a story building where the family lived. There were three rooms on the ground floor used by the family. The room at the back was the kitchen. The room in the middle served as the family living room. The room in front opened out to the streets and it was in this room that madam's customers were served their meals.

A radio set in the family living room was so loud that it could be heard clearly in the restaurant. The evidence was that the customers were attracted to the music. The defendant however took the position that the radio was situated in a private residence and the fact that the music was heard in the restaurant area was merely accidental.

Justice Clauson who determined the case took the view that it was irrelevant where the radio set was located. According to him, the performance took place wherever the music was audible to a person hearing it as a musical piece. In the words of the judge, "the performance may be in the private living room and extend far beyond the area and on the facts of this case I should say it extends over substantially to the whole restaurant". Of course, it was held that the defendant had infringed copyright.

This kind of infringement is pervasive in Nigeria. Culprits include nightclubs, banks, hairdressing & barbing salons, supermarkets, stadia, restaurants, luxury buses, airports, etc. Think about it while we continue our discussion next week.

See you next week.

WHAT AMOUNT OF USE OF A WORK CONSTITUTES COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT?

                                                                                                       

I had a discussion two days ago with my daughter Alex, whom I believe is an exceptional writer. She is also a fan of Saturday Breakfast. After about nine years of publishing Saturday Breakfast every week, I wanted to know from her which of the publications made the most impact on her. She replied that she liked the personal stories but as a creative person, the publications that taught the subject of copyright have been most useful to her.

 

I had planned to write about the continuing bad sportsmanship of Donald Trump this week but changed my mind. With love to Alex and her likes, I will dedicate the next couple of weeks to continuing our lecture on copyright, a very intriguing subject indeed. Please read on.

 

People often ask me how much use of a work in which copyright subsists will make the user an infringer of copyright. The right of control of the owner of copyright in a literary work, musical work, artistic work or a cinematograph film or video is with respect to the whole or a substantial part of the work either in its original form or in any form recognizably derived from it. In clear terms, such a copyright owner has control over the use of either the whole work or a substantial part of the work

 

Emphasis is that such use will be either in the original form or some other form that can be recognized as having been derived from the original. You may then ask: How is it to be determined that a 'substantial part' of a work has been used?

 

The term; 'substantial part' may have been first incorporated into the English Copyright Act of 1911 and accords with prior decisions of English courts.  The courts in England had consistently taken the position that copyright is not only infringed by the unauthorized use of the whole work, but by the unauthorized use of a substantial part of the work.

 

In an 1884 English case of Ager v. Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company, Justice Kay said emphatically: "To multiply copies of a material portion of a work which is entitled to copyright is as much a breach of the law, though differing in degree, as to multiply copies of the whole work".

 

In an earlier case of Chartterton v. Cave, Lord O' Hagan stated the law like this: "To render a writer liable for literary piracy, he must be shown to have taken a material portion of the publication of another, the question as to the materiality being left to be decided by the consideration of the quantity and value which must vary indefinitely in various circumstances".

 

Unauthorized use of a 'substantial part' does not only refer to quantity but to quality.  In fact, some court decisions suggest that the quality of the part used may be more important than the quantity. Although no large quantity of a work may have been used, if the part used consists of the striking features, it may still be deemed to be a substantial part and the use may amount to an infringement.

 

For example, the chorus line of a six-minute song may only have a duration of five seconds. The unauthorized use of that chorus line may amount to an infringement if the chorus line is the 'hook' in the song.  On the other hand, the unauthorized use of a two-minute verse of the same song, which verse is easily forgettable, may not be deemed to be an infringement.  From the above illustration, it appears that every case must be determined by its peculiar facts.

 

In the English case of Hawkes & Sons (London) Ltd. v. Paramount Film Services Ltd only twenty seconds of a musical work was used while the whole of the work will normally take a band four minutes to play.  The English court of Appeal still held that a substantial part had been taken and therefore, copyright had been infringed.

 

In another English case, Tinsley v. Lacy, Vice chancellor Sir W. Page Wood explained the issue in the following opinion: "The question of the extent of appropriation, which is necessary to establish an infringement of copyright, is often one of extreme difficulty; but in cases of this description, the quality of the work is more important than the proportion which the borrowed passages may bear on the whole work"

 

From the discussion so far, we certainly must conclude that every case must be determined by its peculiar facts. This is an example of the intriguing nature of copyright.

 

See you next week.

CHIEF TONY OKOROJI

Chairman

||COSON

COPYRIGHT SOCIETY OF NIGERIA LTD/GTE

COSON House, 41 Oluwaleimu Street,

Off Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos

TEL: 234-802-304-3147

Email: tony.okoroji@cosonng.com

            tonyokoroji@yahoo.com

MY NAME IS TONY OKOROJI, AND BOY, I LIKE IT!

I have said before that I do not want to be Dangote or Otedola or Ronaldo or Donald Trump. I do not need to be a governor or a minister. I am Tony Okoroji and boy, I like it.

I do not say it with arrogance, conceit or egotism. I say it with humility and with thanks to the Almighty for what he has done and continues to do with me.

I wrote in "Half Bread is Better than None" once in Saturday Breakfast that my phone crashed one week from the never ending calls from members of COSON across the country offering prayers to the COSON Board in every language spoken in Nigeria. I don't know about you, but their prayers are worth more to me than all the money in the world.

During that same week, I called many members of COSON in several hamlets in the country who have had issues receiving their Coronavirus relief from COSON. The joy in the voices on the other end that the Chairman personally called them is immeasurable. In almost every occasion, the problem was resolved. To give to others is what makes my life worthwhile.

May God bless my great team for understanding that your life means nothing if you do not use it to lift others. I thank the members of COSON for appreciating our efforts.

I have said it before that I have little material wealth, no big estate, no zillions anywhere, no money in any foreign account, no oil well and no godfather but OMG, I have God the father and each time I am in trouble, he rescues me. I drive on a full tank of faith and I am H-A-P-P-Y! I appreciate the grace that the Almighty has given me to work hard, focus on my challenges and achieve results that please Him. I walk with my head held high and love the gifts He has given me.

I have heard some people say that I am arrogant… me arrogant? No way! What they might see as arrogance is actually confidence. If you believe in God, you glow in His glory. I am not so stupid that I do not understand that whatever wisdom and strength any of us may deploy does not belong to us but to the Almighty. If you think that I am arrogant, please bury the thought. I simply glow in the glory of God the father who makes everything possible.

Those who know me and those who have worked with me will testify that I prepare, practice and practice for everything. I never want to go to a meeting without studying[to1]   the issues and fully understanding what I want to come out with. I do not embark on an event without checking every box over and over again and being sure that there is a Plan 'B', if Plan 'A' fails. I never take a case to court without being certain that my processes are very well done and that the facts and the law are on my side and that if I lose at the first sitting, the processes are strong enough to reverse the judgment on appeal. The reality is that in the few cases I have lost in the court of first instance, I have always won on appeal.

Almost every day, I am confronted by people who have come to meet with me with no prior preparation whatsoever. They want something from me and cannot explain what it is they want and why they deserve it. They have failed to plan and naturally have planned to fail. The big problem is that when the failure stares them in the face, they take no responsibility.

Across our land, there are many who go to 'work' every day without doing any work. They believe that they are entitled to be paid for going to work and not for the work they do. Many show up in the office just to deploy the company's WIFI to do Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Thereafter, they gossip and gossip and gossip. At closing time, they are the first to step out of the gate. Unfortunately, it is this group that shouts the loudest when salaries are one day late. 

Every day, people gather in persons or on the phone to hatch one conspiracy against me or another. They have lied and lied about me and begun to believe their lies. They have shot at me with every weapon they can find. I was reported to the EFCC for something that has nothing to do with me and after a few months the matter died like Dodo. Men of SARS were organized to take over my office. In less than an hour, the good Lord dispersed them. The Police CID in Abuja was programmed to arrest me and parade me as a common criminal for stealing N60 Million! The senior police officer who called to summon me to Abuja later called to apologize to me and reported that he was being used. They conspired and filed criminal charges against me to send me to jail and a good judge saw through the gambit and I never was docked.

They have hired people who do nothing else but publish inciting and defamatory matters against me every day from dawn to dusk. Practically every power of a government agency which I helped to found has been thrown at me as they misinterpret laws which I helped to write.

They connived to shut down the bank accounts of the organization I lead believing that such would grind us to a halt. When all their gambit failed, they composed a new song called "Forensic Audit"

Each time they get one small ruling from a court, they celebrate like they have found the cure to the coronavirus.    

Lo and behold, nothing has happened to me. The energy they have deployed in doing bad is energy that they could have used to do good and be blessed by the Almighty. I am sure they keep wondering how I continue to stand and COSON continues to thrive. People like them would believe in juju and not realize that one with God is always majority.

In the last four weeks, I have battled with my health. During the period, I saw love in every form. I also saw that God is not done with me. Not yet. I thank God for his protection. I thank Him for who he has made me. I do not want to be anyone else, no matter how rich or famous. My name is Tony Okoroji, and boy, I like it!

 

See you next week.

---

 

LOVE IN EVERY COLOUR

May the Almighty be praised. 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. I have just been through such a situation. The fact that I am serving Saturday Breakfast this morning means that the Almighty has done it again!

Two and half weeks ago, the unexpected happened. In an instant, my engine knocked and my system collapsed and the end looked very-very close. The son of man was in that state between life and death.  For a guy who does not go to church as often as he should, that I am alive is in every way a miracle!

Believe me, I have repeatedly seen the treachery and betrayal of men and how people rationalize their duplicity and all the nonsense they do. But in the last two weeks, I saw love in every colour and sweetness in the heart of men. I had no idea I had such goodwill.

From everywhere across the world, my family fought for me. They did not want me to die, not now. In an instant, telephone calls were flying across the world and every possible medical arrangement was being made.

I did not get to use many of the arrangements made because God made his own arrangements. Many thanks to my beautiful niece, Dr. Adanna Akujuo who from Pennsylvania called every doctor she knows in Nigeria to provide immediate and first-rate medical care to stabilize her uncle. Babe, my love for you will never-never die. From Dallas, my boy, TJ, and his sweetheart, Andrea, a sharp medical expert herself, were on the phone making various arrangements for immediate evacuation to an excellent hospital in the US.

How do I thank my big sister whom I fondly call 'Miss'? By the way, 'Miss' is the mother of Dr. Adanna Akujuo and the undisputed rock of my family. She took charge from Queens New York. My brother Iyke who I do not joke with was making things happen from Baltimore and so was my sister Nkechi in Westchester, New York. One afternoon with my brother, Victor changed my perspective. From giving up on life, I wanted to live again and I saw many reasons why I should not die. I saw the many people who depend on me one way or another and I begged God to let me live. My job is not quite done.

Believe me, I saw love in every colour. From Bernice Eriemeghe, Vincent Adawaisi and each member of the great team at COSON, I saw love from my team at TOPS particularly from the 'Benin Girl' I call Deebee who wants to single handedly fight whatever is ailing me. Ijay has been my special masseur, My guy, Abey has been everywhere making sure there is no vacuum of any type. Thank you, King James, thank you Peedee.

Most times, it takes a tremor to reveal the true beauty in the world. In the last two weeks, the true beauty of my daughters, Alex and Booboo have been revealed to me. They have done everything any father can ever expect of his children. They have abandoned everything to keep me alive. Motivated and supported by her mum who is away, Booboo has made every delicacy imaginable to keep me titillated. At home, my nephew that I call 'Mr. Cash" who by the way has no money but has a lot of muscles has stood by the door constantly daring the strange ailment to come in.

It is not yet completely over. I am learning to stand straight again and walk like a gentleman without a walking stick. I am learning to speak coherently again and with intelligence. I am even learning to write again and use the laptop properly. Baby steps… gently… one at a time.

I have seen love in every colour. I have seen love from Nurse Peace who got married while I was down and l could not attend her wedding to her love, Johnbosco. In the hospital, I saw love from Okpokpo, the matron and from Anu, the nurse who always hung by my bedside. I saw love from Fatima and Beauty, the beautiful nurses.

The good Lord makes things possible. He is the one who brings love. He brought love to me through a gentleman, Dr. Moses Jatto who with his wife, Josephine have cared for me and mended me like a baby. Thank you, doctor.

Truly, I have seen love in every colour and I wish that as you go through life, you experience love like I have experienced.

See you next week.

BYE-BYE DONALD TRUMP

I did not think that a man with the obvious character flaws of Donald Trump would ever be elected President of the United States of America. I thought that Americans are too smart to fall into such a hole.  I was wrong.

Let me confess that the election of Donald Trump left me devastated. It made nonsense of everything I believed in. I was terribly confused. For weeks, after that crazy Tuesday in November 2016, I refused to watch any TV news channel and weaned my addiction to my once favourite website, politico.com. The idea of seeing Donald Trump addressed as President elect of the United States was too much for me to bear.

I am an event organizer and love big theatre. Which theatre in the world is bigger than the inauguration of the President of the United States of America? Which show has ever attracted a live audience that big? Which big sporting event attracts a worldwide TV viewership that massive? I did not watch the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States. For the first time, I was not interested in big theatre.

You are damn right if you say that I was acting like a jilted lover. True, Americans jilted me. I was going through that kind of pain and emptiness you feel when the one you love deeply suddenly walks out on you. I love America. I am inspired by their ability to manage their diversity and use their coat of many colours to produce the most beautiful garment the world has ever known. I love the boldness of America that screams at you, "nothing is impossible!". I am awed by the intricacy of the New York Subway, the audacity of the Lincoln Tunnel, the sheer dizziness of the Manhattan skyline.  

I have been to Hollywood and marvelled at the depth of thought that conceived the gargantuan Universal Studios and the almost indescribable Disneyland.

Today, I spend practically all my time promoting the Nigerian creative industry and daring it to be bold. That surprises a lot of my family and friends who know that I am a science guy with an 'A' in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics and Additional Mathematics. They do not understand how I ended up making music for a living. You think I understand it?

The truth is that despite all the metamorphosis in my life, I remain a great believer in empiricism. I am a plus this minus this equals this kind of guy. If you cannot explain it to me, I do not believe you. That is why I am convinced that 'juju', 'jazz', 'ogun', 'otumokpo' and all their brothers are all a big scam, a scam that has warped the thinking of Africans and left us bewildered as the rest of the world is splitting atoms, querying genes and probing Mars. In Africa, we still want to eat omelettes without breaking eggs.

You may then understand why I am shocked that people as smart as Americans could not see through Donald Trump and understand that this guy is the king of 419. If thousands of miles away, I could see that this guy lies and lies, practically every time he speaks, why did Americans think that he would tell them the truth? If I could see that there had to be a sinister reason why this guy would not present his tax returns to his people, how come the brilliant Americans could not see it? If from Lagos Nigeria, I could see that this man-child who cannot keep his fingers off his smart phone, is a danger to everyone, how did the Americans come to the conclusion that they could trust him with their nuclear codes?

As Donald Trump turned the once proud White House into the set of a permanent reality show, even the Russians, the mortal enemies of America were openly laughing and openly mocking America. Vladimir Putin must have had a time of his life as he played Donald Trump like an acoustic guitar.  Donald Trump has fought everybody around him, firing everyone who did not agree with him. This apprentice in the Whitehouse without the intellect to understand diplomacy, thought he was on TV.

I hope the world has learnt a critical lesson. The skills required to build a skyscraper are different from the skills required to lead a free people in a democracy. The profit motive is driven by extreme self-centeredness, the kind that the Donald has in abundance. To lead a free people, you need to have extreme selflessness, the kind that Nelson Mandela had in abundance and which Donald Trump cannot understand.

This week, Americans woke up from their four-year old nightmare. They fired Donald J. Trump. Tired of the commotion and endless tweets and the thousands of Americans dying from the coronavirus, Americans have voted for a different way of doing things.

Donald Trump in typical fashion is unlikely to walk away from the Whitehouse like a gentleman. He will throw tantrums. He will curse everyone. He will kick. He will manufacture every conspiracy theory imaginable. Oh! the election has been stolen from him even though he is President and controls all the levers of powers! In every direction, he will cause trouble and destroy the institutions even though his opponent received about four million more popular votes across the country and won far more electoral votes than him. But Americans will prevail.

I know many Nigerian Christians who think Donald Trump is one of them and think they have to support him. No!            

The Donald Trump problem is not just an American problem. It is a challenge to the entire humanity. How did this guy with absurd ego and obvious lack of self-control come to be in control of the world's biggest arsenal of nuclear weapons? If it does not bother you, it bothers me.

The world is a better place without a Donald Trump at the Whitehouse. There is a lot of a work to do to bring humanity together and all hands need to be on deck. The first part of the job has been done by Americans who have looked at the Donald in the face and said to him, "you are fired!"

See you next week.

WILL DONALD TRUMP WIN AGAIN?

This time four years ago, very few people gave Donald J. Trump a beggar's chance of getting anywhere near the White House. The pundits said that he was a joke. The media wrote him off. The polls said he was dreaming. No one who worked hard for his money would have bet a cent in any of Trump's failed casinos across America that Donald Trump would become the 45^th President of the United States of America. We were all wrong.

In November 2016, what looked like a joke became reality! Donald J. Trump was announced President-elect of the United States of America, the most powerful office in the world. Surprise! Surprise! The American people, deploying their fairy-tale electoral college system told the world that they had elected as their president the trash talking egomaniac who spews obscenities as much as he openly sprouts divisions and cultural wars. The distinguished former United States First Lady, former New York Senator and former U.S. Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton received about three million more votes from the American people but come and see 'America wonder', a guy who was that badly worsted at the polls, a guy who has run his companies five times into bankruptcy, pays little tax and has been married to three different women was announced winner of the election.

Imagine if that had happened in an African country, Donald Trump would have immediately picked up his smart phone and fired off a tweet to deride the country as a 'shit hole country' with no respect for the core tenet of democracy which is one man one vote.

Come to think of it, there are many people in Nigeria who are fans of Donald Trump. They see him as the "actor" in a movie. You know that "actors" never lose. There are many Nigerians who support Trump because he is supposed to be against gay marriage and abortion. We are talking about the same guy reputed to enjoy a night out with prostitutes. Donald Trump has no respect for women, especially if they are black women. That is why he cannot stand the idea of own Ngozi Okonjo Iweala being DG of the WTO.

With the problems in Nigeria, you may wonder why this columnist writes so much about America. I have always been fascinated by America. For much of my lifetime, America has been seen as the moral compass of the world promoting democracy, human rights and fighting autocratic regimes, evil, hunger and disease across the world. We all look up to America to show us the way. America used to be seen as the leader of the free world and much of the world went were America went.

I knew that some Americans can be "one kind" but I never thought there were such many crazy people in America who would see in Trump the leader of the land of the free. The amazing thing is that those who have propelled Donald Trump's journey to the Whitehouse are the bible quoting Christian conservatives. How can this group consider this man whose behaviour is so unchristian to be one of them and accept him as promoting their values… this self-conceited man whose own niece, Mary Trump with a Doctorate in Psychology, refers to as the most dangerous man in the world?  

Donald Trump shows you the power of Reality TV and the smart phone. In the world of Reality TV, there is no bad news. Bad news is good news. Donald Trump, the star of NBC's Reality TV show, "the Apprentice" understands that in the crazy Reality TV world, all you need is to be in the news. And so, the Donald swears, curses, and wagers his fingers at everyone and if you are not discerning, you are captivated. He is the news all the time and white uneducated Americans clap and cheer. They may think they are watching Reality TV. What they may not understand is that this weird fella has changed the world in such ways that it will be hard reality for their children and grandchildren. Donald Trump has not made America great again. Indeed, America no longer leads the world.

In three days, Americans will go the polls again. I hope that the coronavirus conundrum in which America finds itself has revealed the limitations of Donald J. Trump's "America First" swagger and shown that it is all talk and bluster. His soft under belly and lack of any long-term strategy have become clear. With about 8 million Americans struggling with the virus and about 230,000 American dead, this cannot be a reality show.

Before now, the USA would have led the world in finding a way to wipe out COVID 19. America has the brain power and resources. To the amazement of most people, a divided America has remained the epicenter of the virus with no end in sight. The disunity in the population created by Mr. Trump's hyper culture wars and take-no-prisoner partisan divisions have robbed America of the aggregation of enduring energy and trust required by any nation to do historic things and so COVID 19 continues to ravage the USA. It is so strange the those who support Donald Trump refuse to wear face masks, the easiest way to beat the virus. At a time that Americans should be fighting the Covid 19, Americans are fighting themselves.

The American people are going to the polls again. Most of the pundits appear to think that former Vice President, Joe Biden will win this time and the world will no longer have to endure Donald Trump on our TV screens every day. The polls, especially in the battleground states, appear to support that view. But in 2016, almost all the polls said that Hilary Clinton would succeed Barack Obama.

Is this year different? Have Americans learnt any lesson? Have the Democrats learnt how to take on this man who has no sense of shame and can say anything and do anything to win? Can the world handle four more years of the trash talking egomaniac tendencies, the hyper culture wars and take-no-prisoner partisan divisions that Donald Trump spreads everywhere which is hurting America and hurting the world? Will Americans shock the world again? In three days, we will know.

See you next week.    

GO! GUYS GO! NIGERIAN LIVES MATTER TOO!

In so many ways, the year 2020 has been a washed-out year, a year in which all plans and projections have run amok. A tiny virus that the naked eye cannot even see has messed up nations big and small and people powerful and powerless.

As crazy as it may sound, the last quarter of the year 2020 may end as a watershed period in the history of the Nigerian nation, a period in which the young people of Nigeria took their future into their hands and declared to one and all that Nigerian lives matter.

I am proud, very proud of what the youth of Nigeria have done in the last two weeks. I am exceedingly proud of the leadership provided by young Nigerian artistes. I have always expressed the view that no nation in the history of mankind has been made great by cowards and that you cannot have omelets without breaking eggs. The youth of Nigeria have shown that they are not cowards and have decided to break the eggs necessary for there to be omelets in the land.

Let the truth be told, it is not just about the police or SARS. Our nation has completely lost direction. A self-serving leadership that appears to be deaf and dumb, has assumed that they own the country and all the milk and honey in it. In their minds, the rest of the nation have become their slaves.

Did we not say that we do not want to be colonized anymore by the British? What we did not realize was that we were going to end up being colonized in a worse manner by our own people.

One day during the week, I spent almost 5 hours in traffic from Ikoyi to Ikeja, the time it should ordinarily take to travel from Lagos to Onitsha. At some point, the car was stuck for close to three hours at exactly the same point on Western Avenue. The petrol in the tank of the car dried up and one of my colleagues had to search for a jerry can, to go and buy some fuel to keep the car running. My colleagues complained bitterly about the heavy traffic caused by the

WHO WILL BE THE NEXT IBRAHIM MAGU?

On Monday, July 6 2020, Ibrahim Magu woke up, took his bath, knotted one of his many fancy ties and dressed up in his usual sleek suit and set out on the streets of Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria. If anyone had told him as he was leaving home that morning that somebody born of a woman would have the audacity to block his convoy and order him to change his direction, I am almost certain that Ibrahim Magu would have laughed in the person's face and probably told the person that he was drinking a very bad variant of 'ogogoro'.

When Magu woke up that Monday, he was one of the most powerful men in Nigeria. Everyone, big or small, trembled at the mention of his name. He could order the arrest of anyone, detain anyone and using the enormous instruments under his control, send anyone to jail. After all, he was the Czar of President Buhari's anti-corruption fight, the fulcrum of Buhari's presidency.

Ibrahim Magu was powerful, so powerful. The Nigerian senate which has the constitutional powers to confirm or reject his appointment as Chairman of EFCC, twice refused to confirm him but it did not matter. Magu became bigger than the constitution and for five years, based on some twisted logic, bestrode the nation as "Acting Chairman" of the EFCC!

On July 6, in a commando style, Ibrahim Magu was waylaid on his way from the EFCC Formella Street office in Abuja, and forced to go to Aso Rock Villa, not to pally with the President, but to face a previously unknown presidential panel set up to investigate Magu's tenure and an alleged massive 'magu-magu' at the EFCC. They say, "wonders shall never end!". The evidence is there that in a twist of fate, Magu, the hunter, became the hunted.

Magu who is reported to live in luxury in a house rented in the incredible sum of N40m and furnished with N43m is said to have spent the night of his arrest sleeping on bare chairs at the Louis Edet Police Headquarters in Abuja.  

In the morning of July 6, Magu was a powerful man. In the evening, he was a powerless man. Those who gave Magu the power had taken it!

I have never met Ibrahim Magu. He is not my friend but as a Nigerian interested in the vicissitudes of our nation, I have followed the trajectory of his career.

The way the Magu matter is being handled troubles me. You do not need to be super brilliant to notice that in the matter, we appear to be working from the answer to the question. The way he was grabbed on the streets of Abuja like a convicted felon on the run is troubling. The fact that a hitherto unknown panel was specially set up for him at Aso Rock Villa despite the many investigative agencies in Nigeria, is troubling. The reported treatment of his lawyers is troubling.

When I saw the many unverified allegations against Magu being circulated by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), I was deeply worried. The News Agency of Nigeria owned by the Federal Government is not known to dwell in gossip or speculations. It has been a serious news organization. When NAN began to publish unproven facts against Magu, I did not need to be told that someone in government with a lot of leverage is determined to convict Magu without trial.

I know that there are many who would say, "God don catch am" and maybe they are right. I have no evidence that he has not done some or all of what he has been accused of. It is in the same way that I will not argue that his excesses may not have caught up with him but at some point, Nigeria will have to bring jungle justice to an end if we truly want to make progress. I am a man who believes that what distinguishes a great nation from a banana republic is the fair use of the law on everyone. As the English philosopher and physician, John Locke, did say, "the end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom".

Subject Magu to an open and fair process and let the chips fall where they may.

I am frightened that in Nigeria, we have become a nation of hunters. Everybody is haunting everybody. If you have a gun today, you use it to hunt your neighbour. That is why my young colleagues have had enough of FSARS and are protesting on the streets. Almost every serving governor is hunting his predecessor. Every local government chairman is hunting the guy who served before him and in the process, we twist the law as it pleases us or create new laws on the fly.

Today, Ibrahim Magu who used to own Nigeria cannot drive around in his usual large convoy. I am almost sure that the many policemen that tagged along and gave him protection would have been withdrawn. To all intents and purposes, the emperor has become naked. That should teach all of us a lesson that none of us will wield power forever.  None of us is God.

Which leaves me with the question: who will be the next Ibrahim Magu?

See you next week.

WHEN GOD WON IN EDO STATE!

At the beginning of June 2020, Adams Oshiomhole was one of the most powerful political players in the land. The former governor of Edo State and former President of the Nigerian Labour Congress wielded power with no apologies to anyone. Upon his election as Chairman of the ruling APC, Oshiomhole was reported to have warned a minister of the Federal Republic that if President Buhari would tolerate the minister's indiscretion, he, Adams Oshiomhole would not take the nonsense.  For most people in the APC, the fear of Oshiomhole was the beginning of wisdom.

Uche Nwosu, son-in-law of former governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, will not forget Adams Oshiomhole in a hurry. Together, they danced and made merry at Dan Anyiam Stadium in Owerri when Oshiomhole visited Imo State. Nwosu was the crown prince of the Okorocha dynasty, waiting to take over as Governor of Imo State. When push came to shove, Oshiomhole out flanked him, pulled the carpet under his feet and the rest, as they say, is history.

Adams coordinated the plot that brought Buhari back as President at a time when Atiku Abubakar was seriously flexing his muscles. On every APC campaign stage across Nigeria, Oshiomhole, not the tallest of men, jumped higher than everyone else and spoke louder than everyone else.

In the normal order of things, Adams Oshiomhole, National Chairman of APC would never have considered Stephen Oshawo, Chairman of the APC Etsako Ward 10 in Edo State as a powerful man. But when it was time to cut Adams Oshiomhole to size, the real powers that be did not go to the Supreme Court, they went to Oshiomhole's ward and got his ward Chairman to suspend him.

In the normal order of things, if Adams Oshiomhole was looking behind for who would pull the carpet off his feet, he may have worried about the APC Deputy Chairmen or the Vice Chairman. I doubt that it would have occurred to him that it would be Victor Giadom, an Assistant Secretary of his party that would be used to mess him up so badly.

In the normal order of things, Adams Oshiomhole, the sharp player on the political chess board would never have envisioned that the rules enshrined in the APC constitution would be so badly thrown to the dogs and that an APC National Executive Council Meeting would be held with two days notice at the Aso Rock Villa at the instance of the said Assistant Secretary and the very powerful Adams Oshiomhole would be so emasculated in the public glare. Today, there is no normal order of things in Nigeria. Those who gave Oshiomhole the power, have taken it.

As you read this, Oshiomhole's once political godson, Godwin Obaseki, has just given Adams a deadly blow. In last Saturday's election, the result of which was celebrated by Nigerians across the board, Obaseki showed Oshiomhole the difference between "I am" and "I was".

Adams Oshiomhole, the proud man that he is may give the public the impression that what happened last Saturday was one of those things. No sir! It was not one of those things. It was a titanic event from which all of us must learn a lesson.

Officially, last Saturday's election in Edo State was between Godwin Obaseki and Osagie Ize Iyamu To most Nigerians, the contest in Edo was not between Governor Obaseki and Pastor Ize Iyamu. From one angle, it was between Obaseki and Oshiomhole. From another angle, it was between the people of Nigeria and the 'cabal'!

Adams Oshiomhole was not made by his recent convoy of SUVs or his mighty house or his fraternization with Aso Rock or his beautiful wife. Oshiomhole made his name in Nigeria because he was seen as a 'people's man', a relentless fighter for the people against the anti-people cabal. Without that, I doubt that he would have been governor or chairman.

See where we are now. Nigerians are in big trouble. As the NLC flexes its muscle over the irrational increase in fuel and electricity price at a time many Nigerians have been humbled by the coronavirus epidemic, where is our guy, Adams Oshiomhole?  

Can you imagine what would have happened if Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr was said to have joined the Republican party in the US? Nigerians danced on Sunday because there was this sense that God won for them in Edo State against their traducers.

Does Adams know that things have changed? Has he warned his driver to make sure he does not drive on the wrong side of the road or run a traffic light in Benin City? Things are no longer the same and the great Adams Oshiomhole who used to be the emperor of Benin City may now be arrested for a simple traffic offence in Benin.

What has happened here can happen to any of us whether in the church, the mosque, the market group, a social club, a professional association or even in the family setting. Power is ephemeral and transient. It can disappear in a twinkle of an eye.

In my time, I have met a lot of small men intoxicated by power. They think that the power they wield belongs to them without realizing that the power belongs to the office they occupy, the uniform they wear or the chair they sit on. Many understand power to mean the ability to punish or subjugate others rather than the ability to uplift and put a smile on the faces of as many of God's children as possible. Must we wait for the 'cabal' to be done with us before we understand the vanity of power?

See you next week.

I HAVE SEEN TREACHERY IN EVERY COLOUR

May the Almighty be praised. 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 does not go to church as often as he should, it is in every way a miracle!

Believe me, I have repeatedly seen the treachery and betrayal of men and how they rationalize their duplicity and all the nonsense they do. When a guy you thought was your guy begins to manufacture a dispute between the two of you when there is really nothing to quarrel about, your antenna should go up. Nine times out of ten, your guy is fabricating a justification for treachery which he is hatching and which will soon manifest. Then the guy you used to eat and drink with will tell everybody how horrible you really are and why he must perch somewhere else. It is all cock and bull! He has found a new chopping center.

The average human being is selfish and is out for where he thinks his bread is buttered, and a good number of such people live in our part of the world. Do not be surprised to find out that the person who has behaved like he would go to the grave with you is in fact praying that you should die quick so that he can grab everything that belongs to you. All the while, your guy has only been using you as his ladder. If he gets to wherever he has been climbing to or finds a better ladder, he will create a scene and dump you like rotten ewedu soup.

I have learnt to be weary of praise singers. If a guy begins to tell me that I am the best thing he has seen since man discovered sliced bread, my antenna goes up! I know that I am a mortal being and no mortal being is perfect. The guy is setting me up for the kill. Have you ever got any telephone call from a guy you do not know from Adam who begins by sweet talking you and telling you how the two of you met at an event you never went to? From there, he will tell you about the huge demand for a special stone in some place that only he knows and which you can obtain and be rich or an NNPC contract that he wants to execute with you as his partner.  

I have seen betrayal upon betrayal and evil men in every colour. I seriously have to restrain myself from believing that there is no good man in the world anymore and there is no reason to do good to anyone. Fortunately, there are still good men left and there is good reason to do good to people. If I cannot do good to people, then the Almighty should take my life. It is a waste.

In my work, I hear all kinds of things. I have written before that there are people who complain that I am 'Executive Chairman' at COSON. Let me repeat 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.

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 and affiliates. I am the general in front of the army and not behind. I do not ask others to work while I drink pepper soup. I dirty my hands and get the work done.

Take it from me: most people do not say what they mean. You have to read their lips. I have had to learn to understand what people mean and not what they say. They will in one breath tell you that Okoroji is "Executive Chairman" and is doing everything himself. Next minute, the same people will tell you that Okoroji did not do anything, "we are the ones who did all the work"! It does not matter. Let the work be done!

I have always asked the Almighty to give me an opportunity to give. I have written in this column before that if had become a janitor or a security man, I would have dedicated myself as much as I have dedicated my life to being Chairman of COSON.

Last year at Lagos Sheraton Hotel, I stepped down as a Director and Chairman of the COSON Board. My term was up and as a rule, I have never stayed in any position one day longer than the statute allows. Despite a full auditorium of COSON members from practically every state in Nigeria at Lagos Sheraton, no one stepped up to take the position. In conformity with our rules, I was re-elected. In this land full of treachery?

That day it struck me that while there is a lot of evil in the world, there are still good men left and that there is good enough reason to do good to as many people as possible. May the Almighty be praised. Thank you my COSON members.

See you next week.