Veteran reggae musician, Orits Williki, is the chairman of Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria, MCSN, he spoke to Deputy Editor, Charles Okogene on why the society made a bus and laptops donation to Nigerian Copyright Commission, NCC, and what the society is doing with the money it made from satellite TV and many more.
Happy reading.
I have seen a series of thanksgiving that MCSN, which you are the chairman, has been involved in; if I may ask, what exactly are you celebrating?
Williki speaking to the press in Abuja after the donation
It is not a series, it’s only one and when you say a series, it is as if it is many but besides that, you see, I owe God a debt of thanksgiving. Looking back, I know where we are coming from and where we are now and there is a saying that if you praise Him for the one He has done, He will do more. Nobody ever believed or though that we will come back again, some told us that we are dead for life, some of our competitors told us that over their dead body will we come back again but I had earlier told God that if He takes us through the rough road, I will give Him a basket of thanksgiving. We were tagged all manner of names, criminal fraudsters, several raids by the Nigerian Copyright Communications (NCC), people were detained in prisons while we were trying to meet their bail conditions, which were very high, our equipment were seized, all our equipment we were using from day one is what Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), started using even the list of our clientele. They had non before and they had nowhere to go, the list of the clienteles we had over the years, became theirs through magic because when NCC raided us, they carted away our computers that had the list of those clientele and we were surprised that, that was what COSON started using. For example, we have over 150 names of our members, which were secretly registered as members of COSON. I was one of them, Daddy Showkey too. In fact, if you were at our public hearing, you would have heard all these. So looking back at all these road we travelled, you will know that it was not because we were smarter or that our case was the best but it was only the will of God. So it was that glory that we tried to return to Him with the thanksgiving. I personally promised God that if He takes us through the road to the promised land, I will give Him thanksgiving. That was what happened
One more time, I want you sir, to tell me for the sake of my read readers, what kept you going in those days of persecution?
God. Our believe in God was very strong because we knew we were fighting a just cause And we knew that it was like an old man who will take a baby’s toy and raise his hand up, when his hand begins to ache him, he will bring it down and the baby will take his toy. So we knew that it was a matter of time, we knew that there is no way darkness can prevail over light forever; that kept us going. We also had the support of a lot of people. For example our loyal clientele who dammed the consequences at a time and said ‘no, if we would not pay MCSN, we will not pay another person because MCSN will come back after us if we pay any other person.’ For instance, Daar Communications said it will not pay any other person because they do not use any other person’s works except that of MCSN and they were others who were very loyal and said ‘if they say we should pay COSON, then we will not pay anybody, those are the kind of support we had. Then we also members who refused to go. If I count members who left us officially, I will say they are probably three or four, namely Onyeka Onwenu one, Sunny Neji two, then 2baba who left 50 percent; he left halfway because Kennis Music was still handling his repertoire. Because of this overwhelming support of our members, we can only go ahead and ahead
What you said now, prompted the question I was reserving for a later time, was that the case of MultiChoice that you brought to its kneel?
It wasn’t, because MultiChoice was paying COSON and it was a big lesson for them If they will pass that road again, I think they will not make that mistake again. You cannot under the sun, rob Peter to pay Paul and remain comfortable forever, one day Peter is going to ask for his money You know they sued us first and when they sued us for N2.5b and praying the court to stop us from ever coming to ask for that money and the case dragged for years and they lost We counter sued them for N5billion and won That is a lesson for other users, the best and proper way is, no matter what invoice a society send to you, call them and negotiate but to just say you are not going to pay is not it. Even when they say they are not going to pay, they were still using our works. Can they do that in South Africa? You cannot do that anywhere in the world, that can only happen in Nigeria That was why we said no and fought the case to the logical conclusio
And you succeeded in fighting the case to the end?
Yes
We are all aware of your high and appeal court judgments against MultiChoice, have they started abiding by that?
All cases have been withdrawn; we are friends now because they need us and we need them, we cannot fight forever We are pallies now
Have MCSN started paying its members royalty based on what you go from MultiChoice?
Oh yes, definitately. You know we are professionals. We are not like those other ones who will get the money and begin to silence it like bread We follow due process, due process is that the board will first of all approve what it gets from the financial committee led by Kenny Ogungbe, they are four in that committee with somebody like Tee Mac and two other persons. They will do their recommendation that comes to me, I look through it, if they are questions, I will ask and they will explain to me. Then I sign and send back to them, they will in turn rescreen it and find out the true owners of works we are about paying, once that is done, they report to the board to say that they have look through the recommendation and that they feel that it is fair before the board approves it and once that is done, we now start payment. You know that this payment was for 2006 to 12, six years and then from 2012 to 2020 is another payment years so peradventure you are a member from 2006, you get alert, if you are still a member by 2007, you get another alert, if you are still a member by 2009, you get another alert up till 2010 and 2011 You will get alert for those years, now if you are a new member who just register in 2012, you will wait to get 2012 to 2020 depending on when you joined so it is not just a social club. The books are looked into and this thing takes time you will agree with me and moreover, a lot of our members we used to pay via cheques but we have changed all that, everything has gone digital, we pay through account details and many of them we are yet to get to verify their new accounts and that is going on at the moment and in another one week, everybody will start getting their alerts
You told me a pathetic story of how NCC raided MCSN, took your laptops, threw you staff into detention for months, took them to court, tough bail condition slammed on them, now same NCC became the first beneficiary of your windfall from MultiChoice, how do you convince Nigerians that the coaster bus and 20 pieces of laptop you donated to the commission is not ‘bribe’ for granting MCSN licence?
Let us look at it this way, piracy is killing us everwhere, NCC is one of those federal agencies crying of money because it is under funded . If you go to their office at Coastain, you cannot believe that, that is NCC’s Lagos office, It is always crying of money. NCC cannot go to court without me, so if the person that is supposed to come to court with me says he has no money to fuel his car or that he has no means of transportation to come to court, what do you do? And your livelihood depends on the case. Again for them to go for raid, we are the ones that charter vehicle for them and at a stage we said no, let us change the dynamics. Yes, they are the regulator, we were fighting before but we all meant well, we want the industry to be regularized, let the owners of the work enjoin their works If that is your problem, we don’t mind donating a bus and some equipment you need to do your job that benefits us. We are drowning, piracy is sinking us and so it is like you live in a community where robbers keep coming to attack, I think that it will be nice if the community comes together and say, ‘ police, we have bought you guns, patrol vans to save this our community, to police us well from further harassment by robbers. So that is exactly what we have done with that donation; we only helped them to do their job so that they will help us to fight pirates. That is just what we did.
So with this scenario you have painted what is the reaction of your members and non-members to the donation?
A lot of them applauded it; a lot of people applauded it. You know you cannot have 100 percent on your side but when the majority is on your side and said it is a wise thing to do, then you are on the right cause and that is why they say democracy is a game of numbers and so for me, I am very convinced that it was a good move. If every agency under NCC do what we have done, then we will be in flying colours They will have no reasons to say they are unable to do this or that because of this or that. I think it was a good thing.
Orits Williki handing over the coaster bus MCSN donated to the Director General of Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), Mr. John Assein Background is the thw bus
Since the renewal of your license, some two years ago, how has non-members of your society reacted to it?
If I open my mail for you, you will be surprised by the amount of prayers I get from musicians, members and non-members, even from those who chickened out, who thought that we cannot make it. Our staff were not earning salary for nine good years, I was not earning salary. Rent were in arrears for nine years too They are surprised that we got this far and that is why I said that only God owns the glory. The good thing to do is to congratulate those who fought for it and also give thanks to GOD That is the good thing to do.
Now with this victory and change of fortune, what next for MCSN?
You are going to witness that thing that was missing in the system. In the past two years it has been work, work, work because the level of destruction visited on us by NCC and COSON, they never believed and they really destroyed the institution called MCSN and so, we had to put our pieces and pieces togather and in doing that, we will not do what we used to do the way we used to do it because the world is now a global village, there is a standard now and we do not want to be found wanting. We want to do things in the best practice in the world like our counterparts the world over and so you will begin to see some of the things we do. You are aware of Gocreate for example, that is one step we are moving ahead with so that somebody cannot just come and tell me, ‘ I hear say una share money, where my money’ no, with Gocreate, you can on your own know how many times and how much MCSN will pay you through that App. So you on your own knows how much you are expecting unlike before. Radio and TV stations too will have this App so that when we come, there will be no argument, we just push the button and the result will appear . That is the level we are going
What now is your relationship with other stakeholders like PMAN, BON?
You that BON is the umbrella body of all broadcasting organizations in Nigeria, we have an existing contract with them , you understand? We signed that contract with the believe that they will all comply, but not many of them have complied and as the contract is coming to an end, we will take alternative action. We may pull defaulters out and deal with them seperarely.As a user of my work, you are duty bound to seek my authorization before you use or take a license from me. You cannot hid under any umbrella and use my work. Already, we have signed with hotel owners’ association. Gradually, we are covering the ground Once we have signed contracts with these stakeholders, it will be easy to disseminate our strategies and we will be able to know how many night clubs, hotels, radio and TV stations we have in Lagos or in the country by this App
How prepared are you to do the battle in the street
We will continue to do what we know how to do best. We have all our staff trained to do their job and if need be, we get more hands. We are just going to face our job and do it well. There will be no propaganda. The so called COSON does not exist anymore in the face of the law from the last judgment and if there is any new one that will come, it has to be with a new name and while waiting, we will continue to do our job
You are a member of MCSN, Premier Music that released your earlier albums is one of the founders of COSON, how now you are a member of MCSN and some of your earlier works are with COSON?
No, my works with Premier have expired over five years ago and I have written to them to hands off all my works even before Toju, the managing director, died Actually they were only holding one, which was the first one, Tribulation, that was the only one, so right now, I am in control of all my works
So much for COSON, NCC and MCSN, the other day I was watching you on Facebook, are you still active on stage?
Over active; the reason you are asking this question is because you are an old man now, old school . The traditional way of distributing and promoting ones work has changed. The way we use to sell CDs are no longer so. If you go to my website, wwwcoweriermusiccom you gonna see a lot of my works there or you go to my official UTube page, Pupa orits official channel, you will see a lot of my work there, I am on spotify, high tune and other channels, you are not going to see less than 150 songs And I am sure you have not heard up to 20 of my songs
What is the situation right now with your collaboration with Righteous Man?
We are on, doing some stuff together. He is editing one of the new songs that is coming out soon.
