By Charles Okogene
The event was the 2019 edition of the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) biannual lecture held inside the cosy COSON magnificent house (apologies to Chief Tony Okoroji, the chairman of the copyright organisation who a section of its members want to compel to submit the Society’s books for auditing). The lecture took place on Saturday, December 7, 2019 and it was to round off the week-long activities marking the COSON week.
Apart from Emeka Mba, former National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) and National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) that delivered the lecture, the organisers had advertised that the Attorney General and the Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami whom COSON and Okoroji had taken to the cleaners some years ago over the recognition of Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria (MCSN), a revival collective management organisation (CMO) in the same venue, was to deliver the keynote address.
Based on that, some journalists decided to attend the event, with the hope that, it will afford them the opportunity of asking the honourable minister some unanswered questions as per the recognition of MCSN and the position of his ministry and the National Copyrright Commission’s (NCC), on the crisis rocking COSON and, which has led to the suspension of its operating licence by NCC under the leadership of its erstwhile director general, Afam Ezekudo.
Knowing how overzealous security men operates whenever a top government functionary of ministerial status is attending an event, few of us, journalists, were seated at the venue before the 11 o’clock commencement time.
Minutes after 11 Okoroji who was dressed in a flowing brown garment sauntered into the hall to ask everybody to please ‘come down stairs for the red carpet’, which was part of the programme of the day; with paparazzis and TV cameramen clinking and filming the few celebrities on the carpet. With that done, everybody returned to the hall and the waiting game continued; this time, waiting for Malami. The waiting continued till few minutes to 1pm when Kofi Idowu-Nuel, the comedian and COSON director who was recently appointed to replace the late Ras Kimono, on the board of COSON, who acted as the master of ceremony for the day, came on stage to jazz up the feelings of guests with his not too funny jokes of Lagos roads’ pothole and traffic.
At something to 1pm, Okoroji took the stage again to break the news that the minister, due to some pressing national issues, will not come after all and that he has delegated a competent aide to stand in for him but unfortunately, the unamed aide, Okoroji said, just phoned him to say that he was stranded at the airport in Abuja.
The information was received with murmuring and side talks by the journalists who had expected a front page story from the minister or his rep.
“10 days ago I was with the minister in Abuja and he assured me that he will be here to deliver the keynote address but few days ago, he sent words that due to some pressing national issues, he will no longer attend personally; that he will send a representative. And the rep just called me to say that he is stranded at the airport,” Okoroji told the guests and members of COSON that had gathered to hear it from the minister.
With that information and the introduction of a few important personalities like Sir Victor Uwaifor, Prof. Egerton Uvieghara, Sir Shina Peters who decked in a snow white agbada lace, Mr Mamud Alli-Balogun, Patrick Doyle, Felix Odey (Feladey) and some top management members COSON done, Mr. Mba was ushered on to the podium to educate us on ‘Strengthening the Collective Management of Copyright in Nigeria in the new Era’, which was the theme of his lecture.
And the ex- NFVCB/NBC boss did not disappoint. Brilliant and educative was the way Okoroji described his lecture, though, it was clear that some of the musicians in the hall were not on the same frame of reference with him. That should be another topic for another day.
Doyle almost ruffled feathers during question and answers when in what looked like reporting the present and past DGs of NCC, he told the guests made up of the Chairman of the governing board of NCC, Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja, that DGs of NCC have never visited COSON, an organisation they are supposed to be supervising.
Though, there was a pin drop silence after the revelation but Jaja said nothing in response, perhaps acting to the instruction of Okoroji who revealed later, that he had asked the NCC board chairman not to utter a word.
However, two days after the highly successful show, a top member of COSON that has been in the trenches calling for forensic auditing of COSON account described the whole as hogwash, the claim by Okoroji that he had earlier secured Malami’s promise to attend the event.
“He (Okoroji), did not say the right thing to you people. He never got a word from Malami that he will attend. He would not have attended the event of an organisation that is operating without licence,” he said.
He backed his claim with a recent release from NCC, which said that a reputable auditing firm, KPMG, had been commissioned to look into the books of COSON, which is one of the conditions for restoring the withheld liecence of COSON.
The COSON member also said, “that the newly appointed DG of NCC did not attend was not unexpected, after all, it NCC has suspended the licence of COSON and attending would have amounted to endorsing illegality.”
Maybe that why the NCC released to the public, a decision it took since November to commission that it had KPMG to scrutinise COSON’s books just two days after the lecture at, which Okoroji repeated again, that no penny of COSON was missing or misappropriated, stolen or a kobo gotten from anyone to put up the intimidating edifice called COSON House in the heart of Ikeja, Lagos State capital.
While those on the side of Okoroji are still surprise at the NCC action, those on the side of the few members pushing for forensic probe of COSON books are still in a state of confusion as to who to believe, Okoroji or his atagonists, over the reasons Malami did not show up at lecture.
