D: @A, the matter open. Me no accuse anybody o. Na dia biznes dem dey o, so happy bizness.
A: I no talk say you accuse. This is a fight between NCC and MCSN over the humiliation done on NCC by MCSN. This much I know because I am very close to MCSN and to some extent, NCC.
H: Any where there is monopoly in any business concern, the people suffer more than the Job. NITEL on my mind.
E: @G, you are on point.
A: @G, you are right, by saying the more the merrier, but can you affiliate with a body in America which American government says is illegal?
G: Let more collecting society pay!
A: You have not answered my question @G.
D: What has affiliation got to do with it sef? Dem don fit collet the royalties for Nigeria finish, then na the ones for abroad remain?
A: ‘G’ is the one stoking the fire of international affiliation as the reason why MCSN should be allowed to operate as a CMO without approval by the regulatory body.
D: Is affiliation not for collaboration purposes? How many outfits are paying royalties in Nigeria? If you like collaborate with Obama, if you never fit put your house in order, forget it. The dummy MCSN sold for years about a collabo with CISAC, sebi COSON don get the same collabo with CISAC? Nigeria should be the focus here first.
G: A, this is not even about affiliations. That’s far from the matter. The point is that the creative industry is such a large landscape to have just one right administrator. Those who made that law that conferred the ‘sole’ right on COSON, to my mind were very selfish and didn’t think about the possibility that the industry will expand as it has done in the last few years.
Let’s face the fact; COSON cannot go this journey alone. Even that Adewopo’s proposal of a merger was a move that will forever remain impossible. You can’t have a merger between two organisations that are in business for motives that are best to known to them. Interestingly I am hoping on making this my dissertation topic. I have just gotten sponsorship to study other societies and from my preliminary findings, it’s the more the merrier.
I like the COSON energy and their drive and their desire to rewrite collective rights environment, but the point to be made is that there should be no monopoly in the creative industry. People should go where they want and get paid according to the power of the collecting society! That’s my take.
G: If I were MCSN, I will get the artistes under my fold out on the streets for a sustained lobby and protest. I should be able to entrust my ‘future’ into the hands of an organisation of my choice. Why did they not appoint just one pension fund administrator in Nigeria? They made it open because in matters like this, the market forces have to decide.
H: Monopoly has never and will never be a better option. Do we still remember NITEL? Even before Globacom emerged, we bought SIM cards with our blood.
G: That’s the point; it’s my right and I should entrust it to who I like! But I know we will get there. It’s just a matter of time. That sector will be liberalized as they did to the broadcast and telecommunication industries.
B: My ogas, please let’s get our fact straight. As much as we might all have divided opinions, COSON has no hand in this. The case is strictly between NCC and MCSN. @’G’, If you say that ‘the more, the merrier’, are you suggesting that MCSN should continue its operations, even after the official regulatory body has told them not to do so? @’F’, nobody forced anyone to be a member of COSON. Not even the government. COSON is not controlled by Okoroji, but rather by the same musicians whose rights are being collected on their behalf
I: @’B’, bros, I didn’t know this hidden side of yours, but while you are here, spare us the hocus pocus of “COSON is not concerned; its NCC/MCSN”. You are doing your job well, but we know the undertone. In summary, we hia u sir.
B: @’I’. Job or not, I am sure of what am saying. Are you saying that MCSN is not subject to NCC as a CMO?
I: It’s the case of the accused turning to the complainant. Like ‘A’ said, NCC is miffed at the judgment MCSN got against them, especially preventing access to their account. But seriously, NCC is hand in gloves with your office. MCSN got a judgment, are you saying the judgment is thrash? And because it’s NCC, they can flout it and raid MCSN at will? Mind you sir, the judgment was also given because NCC raided MCSN unduly years ago.
G: ‘B’, they didn’t need to ‘outlaw’ MCSN in the first place. They would have allowed the two to operate and forge partnership themselves, not force them to merge into a body.
B: COSON is well regulated, and NCC can verify the account whenever it chooses to. It is not a one-man show. While it might seem a better option to have more CMOs operating in the country, the interested organization should operate under the ambit of the law. If it were that easy to set up a CMO without regulation, then every Tom, Dick and Harry can just set it up; they would claim to have members and then embark on illegal collection of copyrights. But there is a law and it is only normal that such laws should be obeyed
H: @’B’, you are right on point. I think the issue here is not even about COSON, NCC is the issue. The laws must be obeyed, but NCC should not close the doors and encourage monopoly.
B: As much as most of us might disagree with the new Lagos traffic laws, we must obey before we complain. It is the law of the land, however unfavourable it might appear.
C: Let me take this matter from the roots. How old is MCSN? How old is COSON? Who started this collection thing first? Was NCC aware of that body then? Has any artiste complained about any fraudulent act by the said body? Ok. If there’s a need to have one body (which I totally disagree with), is it not more sensible to use the body already on ground, with international recognition? Assuming there were lapses in their operation, why not talk about righting the wrongs and allow the company be? Why toe the difficult path of registering a new body and forcing the old one to shut its operations? Why is COSON afraid of open market? We are Nigerians; let’s stop fooling ourselves with stupid ‘laws’.
H: Again entertainment journalists have not helped matters. I suggest we begin to ask more probing questions by taking NCC to task.
G: Mr. ‘B’, it’s convenient for you to talk about operating within the ambit of the law because COSON is ‘recognised’! Have you stopped to ask yourself why the NCC is taking on the arduous task of registering CMO’s? They really don’t have any business with that. It’s like our fight with NFVCB (National Film and Video Censors Board) when they got too involved in distribution. Elsewhere, these bodies are set up as limited liability companies by guarantees and operate within the ambit of a duly registered corporate entity. Why is our own different. And @’A’, it’s not about international affiliation alone. MCSN has been there long ago. The NCC didn’t need to call for fresh registration of new bodies. All it should have done was to register the two and allow a level playing field. Besides NCC has so much they have not done than to bother with approving CMOs. It’s a pity for Mayo and co, but joy will come in the morning for them. The more will be the merrier in no distant future.
B: @’C’, it is not by quarrel. The question here is what parameters did NCC look at to register COSON. COSON was set up, not by Okoroji, but by a coalition of professionals involved in making music with the backing of the musicians themselves; both the old and the new. Nobody forced anybody. You choose where you want to belong. And since COSON was set up and controlled by them, the credibility of the body has not been in doubt. For all I know, the two associations were asked to find a common ground and if you know Chief Okoroji well, he is a man of documentation. I have read a lot since I resumed, and I can boldly tell you that all hands of fellowship were rebuffed with insult and subsequent campaign of calumny.
C: @’B’, the first law of nature is equal right and justice; I hate injustice and I condemn it in totality. Law or not law, justice prevails. I wish COSON (Okoroji) well, but what goes around comes around.
F: @’B’, I doubt that you would agree that under Adewopo, NCC was favorably disposed to the Okoroji faction that has become COSON today. What level playing ground are we talking about? The NCC was anti MCSN and all of us know.
A: Make una leave COSON out of this now. Let’s face NCC that raided MCSN. When for many years under Adewopo, COSON was not recognized, how many of us blamed MCSN for that? This is strictly between NCC and MCSN.
D: How many of us here were present at the meeting called by Adewopo to find a final resolution to the issue at Abuja? Like ‘A’ said, Adewopo bowed to superior argument that there should be one society because as at that time, he was still friends to MCSN. This MCSN fought and reinstated Adewopo when Okoroji caused him to be suspended. So, naturally, one thought he would give MCSN license to practice, but it came to MCSN as a rude shock that he did not. If both parties; MCSN, and then PMRS had allowed their egos and interest to be put aside, we won’t be having this issues today.
G: MCSN is a registered business interest, limited by guarantee. Artistes are free to go there and ask them to represent their rights. They are like housing agents who you go to meet for housing services. Why did government not only license Diya Fatimilehin?
A: If I read you well Mr. ‘G’, what you are saying is that just anybody can wake up and set up a CMO? I do not think so. Then we do not need NBC too. Anybody who can afford a transmitter should be allowed to go into broadcasting then. And can you please tell me the country where CMO which is usually GTE is not regulated; whether by way of duopoly or monopoly? And again, the fact that Alhaji Giwa of blessed memory set up MCSN in the 70s with its office in a room at TBS does not mean that the company should get automatic approval; after all, the first building in the town does not mean the best. @ ‘F’, that is not true. Adewopo was MCSN and MCSN was Adewopo before what joined them together separated them. This much I know and ‘D’ can testify to it. Adewopo was MCSN’s lawyer before he was appointed D.G of NCC. Ask Mayo and he will tell you. Adewopo was so pro MCSN that he wrote several opinion articles in The Guardian, calling for the scrapping of NCC. He even appeared before the House Committee on Copyright Matters to ask them to scrap NCC, but months later, Obasanjo (former president) made him NCC’s DG and he quickly approved MCSN as a CMO. When he was suspended, Ambassador Frank Ogbuewu, it was, with MCSN and Charly Boy that formed FIPO that campaigned for his reinstatement. He was never for COSON and its promoters.
I: @ ‘H’, a court of competent jurisdiction has asked NCC to stop harassing MCSN and even awarded damages. I am surprised you accept NCC’s Gestapo style which is influenced by the malice they have against MCSN.
B: If only we can stop to see COSON as an Okoroji thing, we will really appreciate the effort of the organization. @ ‘C’, COSON is still in its teething stage. It’s achievements so far are due to the sheer resilience and doggedness of its founding staff members, headed by its hardworking Chairman, Chief Okoroji. But the organisation is still evolving, and it’s still very much at a critical stage where it needs every hand on deck.
H: I do not accept their impunity against court ruling. Now is the time to take them to task, because they owe tax payers some explanations.
B: Every popular musician you know today save for a few are card carrying members of COSON, if they don’t believe in it, I am sure they won’t identify with it.
G: @ ‘A’, please get me right. I didn’t say you can just wake up and float a business, because your company is limited by guarantee. No. What I meant is that you can still seek registration with NCC which should approve that you operate as one, but not close the doors to people who will legitimately do this business well. The word ‘sole’ is alien even in entertainment business, that’s why you have so many recording companies, music labels etc. Whatever superior argument Adewopo bowed too, including (bowing to the perceived blackmail to make NCC ungovernable for him) was for that moment. But the point now is that Nigeria is too ripe for liberalization of the right administration segment of the entertainment industry. Why do you think MCSN got the 40 million judgment in it favour? It’s because the word monopoly is alien to a free market like the creative industry. Like I said, it’s just a matter of time. The MCSN just needs to do a lot more lobbying and get other people interested in this to join in the lobby. It took former Justice Minister, Bayo Ojo; Adewopo’s supposed teacher, friend and in-law nothing to move NCC to Justice Ministry? It will take someone else nothing to liberalize that sector. It’s just a matter of time. ‘Sole’ is an alien word in the entertainment industry. If you engage Adewopo today (and I have engaged him even last week), I am sure he will tell you why he had to take the decision he took at that time. The man is even calling for a total overhaul of the NCC laws which he has found out (now out of office and teaching at the legal institute in Abuja) cannot effectively administer copyright issues in Nigeria. PLEASE LET MORE SOCIETIES PAY!
