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

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

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

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

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

See you next week.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See you next week.

MY FRIEND, PROF EGERTON UVIEGHARA IS 84!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See you next week.

THANK YOU, FATHER FOR PUTTING ME TO WORK

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See you next week.

ABBA KYARI, GEOFFREY ONYEAMA’S BEST MAN?

Last Saturday morning, I was in my study writing the week's edition of Saturday Breakfast when Booboo, my young daughter breezed in. She asked if I had heard that President Buhari's Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, had died of COVID 19. There was a certain smile on her face which I did not like. I told her that none of us should celebrate the death of anyone as death is a price we all must pay and none can be sure who will die next.

Of course, I knew why my daughter would appear to be happy at the death of a man she never met. So much had been written about Abba Kyari none of which was pleasant. Abba Kyari was the unelected de facto President of our country who had made it impossible for anything to work in Nigeria. He was said to be an evil man and the head of a cabal that simply manipulated the president and imposed a well-crafted Northern agenda on the nation.   

I have read much of the stuff. I never met Abba Kyari and did not know him. I did not know what to believe and what not to. Of course, the passing of Malam Abba Kyari was everywhere on WhatsApp, now the world's most ubiquitous platform where everyone can publish everything, factual, imagined or completely nonsensical.

While I did not know Abba Kyari, I know Tony Okoroji who at 29 years old became President of a very disorderly PMAN. I worked 24 hours every day, seven days a week to turn the organization around and make it one of the nation's most admired professional associations. Indeed, I abandoned a lucrative job at one of the foremost recording companies in the world and had little time for my young family as I set to do that which I believed my industry and my nation needed. At the time, I lived in a rented three- bedroom apartment in Akowonjo, certainly not the best part of Lagos. I drove a Volkswagen Passat TS assembled at Pat Utomi's Volkswagen Nigeria Assembly plant in Ojo Lagos. I never threw any large parties nor did I wear any expensive agbada. I struggled with my family and had no money anywhere.

I woke up one morning to read in practically all the national newspapers how I had swindled PMAN and made huge sums of money off the association. They say that hell hath no fury than a woman scorned. I will add that hell hath no fury than a Nigerian whose request for a favour is rejected. I had rejected the request of a man who wanted to climb on top of PMAN to make millions for himself at the expense of the association. He decided he was going to show me 'pepper' and he went out to devote substantial resources to destroy me and to chase me out of PMAN. One moment I was the toast of the Nigerian media for my work in copyright, the Nigerian Music Awards and the great association we had built, the next, I was a fraud, a villain and a man not to be touched by anyone!

To put it mildly, I was dazed. I had gone on with the naivety that if you are honest, the world would see what your mind is made of. So, how could the campaign of personal destruction be appropriate compensation for the huge sacrifice I had made for my profession and my country? I have since learnt that serial defamation is a weapon deployed by scoundrels to decimate those strong enough to challenge them. There are so many scoundrels in Nigeria and they operate successfully because majority of our people have lost faith in the decency of their leaders, the legal system is so complex and slow and the tribal and religious divides produce substantial manure for such vegetations to grow wild. My repeated experience with serial defamation has been such that I do not take what I am told about anyone until I see hard evidence and I am able to interrogate the evidence.      

I was still chewing the Abba Kyarri situation with the many terrible commentaries and stories appearing everywhere when the next day someone forwarded "Tribute to Kyari: The Best Man" written by Geoffrey Onyeama, Nigeria's Minister of Foreign Affairs. I was touched by the story told of Abba Kyari by a man who truly knew him. Abba, a Muslim Kanuri man was actually best man to Geoffrey Onyeama, an Igbo Catholic at his wedding to Sulola, his Anglican bride in an Anglican church in Idoani, Ondo State. Wrote Geoffrey, "Abba was a Pan-Nigerian global citizen, who recognized no boundaries between peoples, be they racial, ethnic religious, class or political. He made friends with everyone. Abba was a man of unimpeachable integrity. Absolutely incorruptible!"

I was touched by Geoffrey Onyeama's account of his friend's character, completely different from everything that has been written about Abba Kyari. It made me to think: If I could offend someone so badly in my little PMAN position, who knows how many people Kyari offended in his influential post? Immediately after reading the piece, I called the Minister. He did not pick but called me back five minutes later. We spoke at length about his friend and I commended him for the courage to speak up for his dead friend when there was an avalanche of bad reports about him. I however expressed my sadness that there was little effort to tell the story of the man while he was alive. I have no reason not to believe Mr. Onyeama. He is in the list of my ten favourite Nigerians.       

On a low level visit I made to Geneva some years ago, who came knocking on the door of my hotel room? It was Geoffrey Onyeama, the Deputy Director-General at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the big United Nation's agency. For an entire Saturday, Jeff as he was called by his friends in Geneva and his beautiful wife Sulola, did nothing else but drive me around the beautiful city and show me the colours of Geneva. The couple treated me like royalty. They had no reason to. I was not in Geneva as a big politician, an important government official or a big businessman. I was just an unheralded copyright activist from Africa. It did not matter to this incredible couple who have no airs around them. During the sweet ride, we talked a lot about Nigeria and the possibilities that exist if we will just have good leadership. Jeff and Sulola took me to their home and made me feel at home.

Five years ago, Geoffrey Onyeama was appointed Nigeria's Foreign Minister. Being Nigeria's Foreign Minister has not changed Jeff. I have not called Jeff once without his picking my call or returning it after. The Honourable Minister has never given me an appointment he did not keep. Two and half years ago, when he delivered the COSON Lecture in Lagos, he had so many good reasons not to show up or to send a representative. He came to Lagos and honoured me in a way no money can buy. In my several visits to his Abuja office, he has always been engaging and has never been too busy to see me off. Once, he actually rushed out of a meeting at Aso Rock to come and see me. Geoffrey Onyeama does not need to treat me with such decency.  We do no business together and have never exchanged one Naira between us. That is just the way he is. Polished!

I thank him for giving us something to think about in the Abba Kyari story, even though I believe it ought to have come earlier. I have written this because there are many good men out there who want to serve mankind conscientiously who may be scared to go the way of Mallam Abba Kyari. The truth must be told of all men.

See you next week.

MY NAME IS TONY OKOROJI AND 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" my last piece in Saturday Breakfast that my phone crashed last 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 the week, I called many members of COSON in several hamlets in the country who have had issues with 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.

Once again, I thank the wonderful COSON Board members and the management team of Vincent Adawaisi, Isa Haruna and Tony Imusen for not seeing the limitations but the possibilities. 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 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. The reality is that in the few cases I have lost in the court of first instance, I have 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. 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. It is either the witch in their village or the fact that they come from a different tribe. They look for excuses everywhere when the real excuse is within them.

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 began to believe their lies. They have shot at me with every weapon they can find. 1n 2017, a coup was hatched against and executed in broad daylight. Twelve days later, the coup failed in broad daylight. 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. The guy who leads this onslaught purports to sit on a pedestal which I worked hard to make famous.  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 that I lead believing that such would grind us to a halt. For where? When all their gambit failed, they composed a new drab 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 two weeks, members of COSON across Nigeria have publicly showed again that they cherish honest and purposeful service and that they see through all the conspiracy. 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.

Thank you, members of my COSON family for your trust.

See you next week.

---

 [to1]

WHEN HALF BREAD IS BETTER THAN NONE

I could not sleep that night. I rolled over and over thinking of what had happened to me in the last two days of Coronavirus lock down in Lagos. In the middle of the night, I asked myself: what use really is my life and the position that I occupy if I cannot do anything to change the situation positively for anyone?

Stuck at home the day before, I had received a phone call from a well-known musician and member of COSON, the organization whose Board I chair. His wife joined him on the phone. They told me that they had been drinking garri for days and managing that way. The big problem was that they had run out of garri. There was none to drink anymore! They begged me to send them three thousand naira to buy some more garri.

As highly technology driven as I am, I have refused to have Internet banking facilities on my phone. The reason is simple: too many people have my number and I get too many requests for money every other hour. I am not a Dangote, an Otedola or an Elumelu. I am not a Larry Izamoje who has a printing press. I run a small business which manages to put food on the table for me and my family. I however have another job that gives me no salary, no housing allowance, no medical allowance, no leave allowance, one rickety official car that breaks down everywhere and many-many court cases, bad press and countless hours of work.

The incredibly surprising thing is that many people scheme and plot to take over my job as the leader of an organization that gets zero funding from any government whether federal, state or local. I very well know that their belief is that something must be happening under the table. In Nigeria, you are supposed to be an imbecile for having a job and not cooking something under the table. I am a good cook but I will rather be an imbecile than be a thief. I do not know how to take that which does not belong to me and I have begged the Almighty not to bestow on me the talent for stealing. As my brother and friend, Ugo Stevenson would say, "there is no successful criminal". I verily believe that ultimately, everyone pays a price for everything we do. I do not steal because I do not want to pay a huge price because I verily believe in the law of Karma.

How much can three thousand naira do for anyone? I started calling round to find someone able to transfer some money on my behalf to my colleague so that he and his wife do not starve. It was more difficult than I had thought but I finally found someone who sent five thousand naira to him. When they called me back, you would think that I had just sent them a million naira.

Not long after, I got a call from another COSON colleague who told me that he was dead broke and that he could manage but did not know what to do about his young son who was just a few months old. I reminded him that I do not do Internet banking and could not transfer any money to him. Despite the fact tha this gentleman lives more than five kilometers from me, he told me he was prepared to come to my residence to get anything to save his child.  I told him not to forget that there was no transportation anywhere and he assured me he was prepared to trek.  

Trek he did. Luckily, my daughter had made some soup the day before. My guy who was practically gasping for breath ate some eba and drank some ice cold water and came back to life. How much did he get from me? Just five thousand naira but he was so grateful, you would think I just saved his life. After some banter, he began his five-kilometer trek in the hot sun back home and called after a few hours to thank me profusely.

Then, I got an angry phone call from a COSON member in Benin City who was completely agitated by the lack of any real support from the government for the citizens who are suffering beyond belief. He asked me if I knew that no musician in Nigeria was earning any income as there was no entertainment activity going on in the country. He asked me why COSON cannot do anything for the members. I reminded him that COSON accounts in two banks were frozen and we could not access the funds. He sounded more and more angry and said that he was going to rally musicians to petition the President and the Vice President and everyone else so that the accounts are re-opened immediately. I was not sure he understood.

Rolling on my bed that night, it became clear to me that my life was no use if I am not prepared to do something about the glaring anguish of my constituents across the nation. As soon as it was daylight, I called a senior member of the COSON management and asked for a statement showing everywhere that COSON had accessible funds. In a few hours the information came. Then I called back to say that I was thinking of asking members of the Board to approve a sum of Fifty Million Naira to be distributed to COSON members across the country who are going through unimaginable trial. She gave me one hundred reasons why what I was suggesting was simply impossible and that the logistics at a time when the banks were rendering skeletal services were not possible to execute. She suggested that we should think about it after the lock down. After the lock down? I hung up the phone on her.

I called my driver, Abey, one of the greatest Nigerians I have ever known. I told him that as much as I respect the lock down, we must hit the streets on a mission to save lives. I called several members of the COSON Board on the phone and told them why we must find a way to do something immediately for our members despite the many challenges we face. The support was solid and it was decided that we schedule an emergency meeting on our digital platform to formalize the process.

Since Tuesday, a few thousand COSON members have received some money which is not a lot but gives them a chance to buy recharge cards, some drugs, some garri, a few cups of rice and possibly make some soup and have some hope. When you are rich, you don't know what eleven thousand naira means. My phone crashed two days ago from the endless calls from members of COSON across the country offering prayers to members of the COSON Board in every language in the country. I thank the wonderful COSON Board members and the management team of Vincent Adawaisi, Isa Haruna and Tony Imusen for not seeing the limitations but the possibilities. I thank the incredible Abiodun Fajemilehin, my buddy known by many as Abey without whom it would not have happened. May God bless my great team for understanding that your life means nothing if you do not use it to lift others.

See you next week.

 

AFTER CORONA, WILL AMERICA STILL BE THE WORLD’S SUPERPOWER?

It was about 15 years ago that I told my madam that the Peoples Republic of China would soon become the dominant country in the world. She sneered at me. At that point, China was not rated third, fourth or fifth in terms of GDP or productivity. Indeed, China was referred to by some as a developing nation!

Why was I so sure? The facts have been there to see for anyone who makes predictions based on facts. There is the unmatched population. This is not a large population of lazy people waiting for someone to provide food for them or give them "social security". The Chinese have an unparalleled work ethic. They get things done faster and cheaper than anyone else.

The Chinese fascination with technology was another factor. They gathered everything made everywhere else, tore them apart and studied them carefully. While the world shouted about Intellectual Property theft, the Chinese were on a crash course on how things are designed and built. At the time I had the discussion with my wife, half of the toys and wrist watches sold on the streets of New York carried the label, "Made in China". Unusually shiny and colourful, they made no pretentions to being quality goods. A lot of them fell apart after a few weeks but they were made in China.

We have all been taught in school about capitalism and socialism or the extreme version called communism. If you went to a school that was western oriented, you were indoctrinated with the idea that communism is evil and had no redeeming features. Capitalism and the market economy have been established as the only way for the progress of mankind. This was underscored when on Christmas Day, December 25, 1991, the powerful Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) the bastion of communism fell apart overnight, like a pack of cards. Before then, the struggle between nations, the war between the east and the west, was the battle between communism and capitalism. When the Soviet Union imploded, it provided hard evidence to capitalist scholars that Communism is unworkable. Around the world, capitalists celebrated. "Capitalism has defeated Communism!", everyone shouted and the Berlin wall fell.

What the world may not have considered is that there might indeed be a third way, a subtle combination of the market economy, the heart of capitalism with a command leadership structure, the soul of communism. That might sound mutually exclusive and unworkable. Not so, say the Chinese.  

The proof is all over the place.  The superpower USA is owing China over one trillion dollars in treasury bills and bonds. The Chinese Huawei 5G technology is today the most sophisticated network communication technology in the world causing a lot of fear in America and Europe. When the Coronavirus emerged, the Chinese understood the problem, went aggressively to deal with it and the report is that most of China is back to work churning out products for everyone everywhere. Meanwhile, America is in confusion. Not even a 2 trillion-dollar war chest has quelled the tremor in the American stock market. Last week, Donald Trump was toying with the idea of asking some Americans to go back to work by Easter because of re-election fears. He was shouted down by frightened Americans who see the death tole continue to rise.

Who would have ever thought that America will be begging China for ventilators and other critical medical supplies to keep America citizens alive? It is now such a mad scramble for American state governors and mayors. Nobody is worried about superpower status anymore. Critical life is at stake and China is ahead of the curve and has all the cards. Did you hear that Chinese medical supplies headed for Germany were two days ago hijacked and diverted to America? That is how crazy things have become.    

Donald J. Trump's "America First" swagger has revealed its frightening limitations and shown that it is all talk and bluster. Its soft under belly and lack of a long-term strategy have become very clear. The divisions in the population that Mr. Trump's "take no prisoner" style has created, has robbed America of the aggregation of enduring energy and trust required by any nation to do historic things.

In America, the reaction to or appreciation of the dangers of the Coronavirus is in the main, a factor of whether you are a Republican or a Democrat. When some people started calling for the United States Government to prepare the nation to wage a war against the oncoming virus, the reaction of the President and his supporters was that it was a "hoax" and that alarmists Democrats wanted to rubbish him in an election year. Not until the Dow Jones went on a free fall and businesses started to shut down left, right and center did it dawn on the Twitter President that there was trouble of immense proportions in the country and in the world. Sadly, the result is that thousands of Americans, in both blue and red states, will die who may have stayed alive if their government had its eyes on the ball.

While Donald Trump was busy picking a fight with every Democrat he could find, the power equation in the world may have been re-written. The big bang has occurred! The Coronavirus has revealed the strong limitations of a superpower status founded on nuclear weapons, inter-continental ballistic missiles and other forms of weapons of mass destruction. In the time that Donald Trump has been threatening and shouting at Iran, Xi Jinping has been building roads, rail lines and Airport Terminals across Africa and Latin America. Please tell me who has made the better investment.

People also looked down on Japan until Toyotas, Nissans and Mitsubishis took over roads across the world and Sony, TDK, Hitachi, JVC and co, took over our living rooms. Watch out for Chinese cars. They are on the way!  

Believe me or not, the wind has blown exposing the American bum-bum. The way things are going, the entire world may be on the way to becoming one big Chinatown.

See you next week

THE CORONATION OF A VIRUS

Tell me, who could have known less than three months ago when we all shouted "Happy New Year" across the world that we were welcoming a year in which nothing would make sense anymore, a year in which the world as we  know it will no longer exist? Happy new year?

Welcome everyone to the third world war! This is not the cold war. It is not a war between capitalism and socialism. It is not between the conservatives and the liberals or the fascists and the democrats. This is not the east against the west or the north taking on the south. This is not even the breakout of the simmering war between the few outrageously rich and the billions who are hungry and dreadfully poor.

In this war, all the massive nuclear weapons, the inter-continental ballistic missiles and the submarines loaded with killer war heads in which the world has invested zillions of dollars, pounds and euros, are useless. Your AK 47 is like toothpick in this war.

Tell me, how can Amotokun, IPOB, the Delta Avengers or even Boko Haram protect any of us against this enemy?

Today, across the world, schools, businesses, sports stadiums, bars, restaurants and everything in between are shut down. Can you imagine that the premiership is frozen and Liverpool fans who thought they had won the premiership for the first time in their history are wondering what is going on again? Come rain, come sunshine, the Olympic Games had never been postponed for one day. The games scheduled for July will not hold.. All kinds of events that have been intricately planned and eagerly awaited have gone up in smoke.

My son, Tony Jnr and his beautiful heartthrob, Andrea must be wondering what happened to the wedding they have planned and planned for months with every dollar and every cent they could save. I know how much my missus worked on the colours, gowns, shoes, flowers, cakes, shapes and all the many other things that mothers worry about at such events. April, the scheduled month, is by the corner, the wedding, my friends, is blowing in the wind!    

The streets are empty and everybody is on the run because the enemy does not care who you are. When I say everybody is on the run, I mean everybody! This enemy does not distinguish between the vulcanizer on my street and the almighty Aliko Dangote. Boris Johnson, the tough talking British Prime Minister, is in hiding and so is his Health Secretary and Prince Charles, the next in line to the British throne. The big boys of Abuja are running to Lagos in search of what medical care they can get. The international airports are shut and all the expensive private jets are of no use.

This enemy does not care whether you are Christian, Muslim or Buddhist. All churches in Rome, the residence of the Pope and the headquarters of the gargantuan Catholic faith are shut down. It is not just in Rome, all churches everywhere including my native Nigeria are shut down and so are all mosques and all temples. The big and fast-talking pastors with answers to everything have also been unmasked. They have no answer to this. They too are on the run.

The enemy does not care whether you are black or white. It majestically walks the streets taking on all comers and wrecking all economies. Have you ever seen stock markets around the world nosedive as they have done the last few weeks? It is almost like the indices are also on the run trying to hide under the table.

Who knew that America could in one day sign a cheque for two trillion dollars? Two trillion dollars!!!  Wow!!! To be honest, I did not know such money exists in this world. Two trillion dollars!!! Imagine what that kind of money can do to change the entire continent of Africa. You see that they were hiding all that money until the enemy forced them to cough it out. Watch. Very soon, they will cough out some more.  While America is writing cheques in trillions of dollars, Nigeria wants to spend a miserly 25 million dollars to fight the enemy. When I saw it on CNN, I almost puked! Giant of Africa! Na wah!

Have we learnt anything from the coronation of this virus, an enemy none of us can see, an enemy we are running from without knowing where it is, a tiny virus that has become king of the world? What the present situation tells us is that the things we attach so much importance to do not really matter. When push comes to shove, our status, our wealth, our tribe, our work, our religion, our political party and everything else really count for little. Did I say little? They count for nothing! All the hate in this world, the loathing and the killing are terribly misplaced.

If we survive the third world was, the war of the Coronavirus, would we learn to love each other with the realization that we are all children of the same God? I wish.

See you next week.    

WHEN DID COWARDICE BECOME A VIRTUE?

During the week, it was announced that COSON has gone to the Federal High Court with a 10 Billion Naira lawsuit against the Nigerian Copyright Commission seeking the court's interpretation of the Copyright Act.

The concept of the lawsuit appears to have received significant support within the creative community and among those who understand the law. Not surprising, the perennial Nay Sayers are on overdrive on social media calling me all kinds of names with their very poor language and poor syntax. It is all so laughable.

Can you imagine what would happen if COSON got 10 Billion Naira awarded to it as damages by the courts? Who do you think would be the first to rush to COSON House with demands on how "our money" would be shared? It will be the same Nay Sayers!   

COSON was not built on being meek and mild. For much of my adult life, I have traversed the courts in Nigeria to earn respect for the rights of creative people in our nation. I am proud of that record.

I know that there are people who will never enter a court room till they die. They are scared like hell of the courts! It is understandable when you think that a judge can sentence someone to death and the person is executed in broad day light and his life ended.  A very young man sitting as a judge can order that an old man forfeits everything he thought belonged to him. Immediately, that becomes a command that must be obeyed. Have you ever been visited by court bailiffs who wake you up before dawn and begin to seize your belongings? Don't listen to anybody who tells you that the law does not work. It does!

I went to court simultaneously against nine broadcast stations to get the broadcast industry in Nigeria to respect the rights of musicians to have their content paid for. I went to court to have MTN, the communication mogul, pay for music content on its platform. I went to court against the Cross River State Government because of the abuse of music content in the popular Calabar Carnival. By the way, we got judgment to the tune of half a billion naira. I have gone to court more times in Nigeria than I can remember.

No great institution in human history has been led by a coward. Cowardice is not a virtue. The day COSON begins to be led by a coward, I am sorry, it will be over.

Have you noticed that in the disagreements in COSON, nobody has slapped anyone? There has been no boxing or wrestling of any type. Nobody has thrown a chair at anyone. There has been no scratching or kicking. Oh! there has been a lot of social media noise but no violence whatsoever. We have depended on the men in wig and gown to go to court and argue our case. That is why COSON continues to work and those who thought COSON would die are surprised. Real strength is not found in kick boxing but on your intellect.

Despite the social media noise, we are not at war with the NCC as an institution. We are clearly unhappy with the way the place is being run. We have gone to court because it is our belief that the system will work better if the limits of everyone's power is determined. That cannot be a bad thing.

There are people who think that we should be afraid of the NCC because they are our "regulators" No! We should respect the NCC and that will only happen if the NCC leadership conducts itself in a way that it is deserving of respect. That cannot happen when there is so much pilfering going on in the place.

With respect to Section 39 of the Copyright Act, I will not discuss it because the matter is in court. I just want to remind people that I am not an ignoramus on the subject. With all humility, no one in Nigeria can claim knowledge of Section 39 of the Copyright Act better than the great former chairman of the NCC, Prof. Egerton Uvieghara and myself. Between the two of us and one Bayo Aiyegbusi who acted as our secretary, we drafted that piece of legislation on behalf of the NCC Governing Board and it was sent to the appropriate authority and promulgated into law without one comma removed. I know the section.

It appears to me that some people are scared that the courts will soon burst their bubble. Nobody should be worried because if we do things right, everyone benefits eventually.

Do you still think that the law does not work? I ask every COSON member to stay tuned.

Please take every precaution you can against the corona virus. It is not a joke.

See you next week.