Rights Commission will partner with CMOs to do things right – …

The Director General of Nigerian Copyright Commission (NÇC), …, Wednesday, restated that the commission will stop at nothing in making sure that collective management societies (CMO) do things right.

..  who spoke at Annual Genera Meeting (AGM) of Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria (MCSN), said that this has become necessary to enable them (CMOs) discharge their duties effectively to their members.

According to him it the members that own the CMO not board members, or management. 

On his impression of the AGM, the director general who said that he had to attend in spite of short notice  because there will be no other AGM till next year even as he was a bit under the wheather said ” I think it is good, it is impressive. It is well organized and members were quite active, it wasn’t just a case of a staged managed meeting . We have seen a few disagreement, we have seen a management and board willing to respond to issues. We always say that the owners of a CMO are the members so the management, chairman or board must listen to the members . I would not want a CMO I will go to and only the chairman will be talking. He be the only person riding everyone, I want a CMO that ideas come from all sides and that is what I have see today.” 

He also used the occasion to publicly disclose that the records of the commission showed that ” there is one CMO in music, one in audiovisual, plus one CMO in literally works. That is what our record shows and those are the ones we call approved CMOs.”

And when asked to react to a call on President Muhammadu Buhari by members of COSON to sack him as the DG of he said, “if God is not of it, it will.”

As a regulatory agency, we no just referee that will be waiting for when to issue yellow card and so on.

You rarely attendant gathering like this, what inform your decision to attend this?

I won’t say it is rare; it depends on competiting assignment . As you know very well, I came in 2019 and there has’t been much because of COVID and that. I will say this is probably the only time I have had the opportunity to do this despite the fact that the notice came very short, I am not sure I had more than 72 hours to respond and I still had to. Like I said in the hall, I am a bit under the weather but I had to do this because I know there will be no other AGM this year, next one will be next year so anything we can do, go the extra mile to show our belief in the CMO system and our support for sustainable  growth of CMOs we must do that. I must say we have who can do all of this, but this is so important that I should find space for this kind of event.

So what is your impression?

I think it is good, it is impressive. It is well organized and members weremm quite active, it wasn’t just a case of a staged managed meeting . We have seen a few disagreement, we have seen a management and board willing to respond to issues. We always say that the owners of a CMO are the members so the management, chairman or board must listen to the members . I would not want a CMO I will go to and only the chairman will be talking . Only person riding everyone, I want a CMO that ideas come from all sides and that is what I have see today.

As a regulatory agency, we no just referee that will be waiting for when to issue yellow card and so on. Remember a referre does not help a player to player better, he does not tell a player you are on the wrong side move to this side. As a regulatory agency you must also be on the look out to if possible, proactively assist CMOs to get it right . And mind you the music CMOs are probably the ones that people always hear about most but others are under the weight the burden of surviving. Like I said, CMOS need support and like I said we should constructive partners in ensuring that the ultimate beneficiaries, that is the right owners, get what is suppose to go to them. That is the bottom line of CMO administration and that is what we must do without withdrawing approvals. But like I always said, it gets to a point where it becomes very obvious that somebody, a board or CMO has become irredeemable and in that case… I think is in the bible that God said about Ephraim ‘if he want to go, let him go.’

What is the status of other prominent CMOs?

Incidentally, because I am a lawyer, and we have some cases in court, I try not to do anything that will make the court feel that I am already pre-juding but at the same time the commission will not sit back and watch anyone, anyone or any CMO hide under a tiny finger of having go to court… we cannot allow infractions, we cannot allow criminality, we cannot allow impunity under the guise of I have go to court. I mean, you know how it is when someone tells you I have just go to court and because of that let m do what I want to do. It is not acceptable. Government will not allow impunity, will not allow criminal tendency, will not allow anyone just by putting on a cloak of I am in court do anything. If you ask me, what I can say is that as far as records of copyright commission are concern, our records show that at this point, that there is one CMO in music, one audiovisual, plus one CMO in literally works. That is what our record shows and those are the ones we call approved CMOs; for          instance, you are free to call yourself a CMO, the only thing you cannot do is to go ahead and start negotiating and collect money from people and have members more than fifty .

A CMO circulated a release recently calling the president to sack you, what is your take on that?

Well, let people not think that they control government. Let be kind to the people we elect . Let us not sit down and think we are larger than Nigeria; Nigeria is govern by laws. Lets give credit to those we elected,  lets believe that they know what they are doing. It is irresponsible to just sit somewhere and tell the president  to remove somebody from office. The truth is that there will always be distractions, distruptions and nuisance, these are parts of it but I think we should remain focus until we bring down piracy level, until people pay for the works they use, until I no longer see musicians dying poor. Untill all these are achieved we have not done w