bY Tony Okoroji
A fortnight ago, in Saturday Breakfast, I served “The Big Copyright Struggle in Nigeria (1)” and narrated the many events propelled by what was then a new hyperactive leadership of PMAN of which I was President, to educate the entire country on the urgent need to change the intellectual property perspective in Nigeria, to promulgate a new copyright law and to set up the infrastructure to administer the law. The argument which I made to Governors, Ministers, Traditional Rulers, Heads of the nation’s law enforcement agencies and the media all over the country was that the world was fast changing into a digital, knowledge and creative economy and if Nigeria did not adjust, we would be terribly left behind.
The big copyright struggle in Nigeria (1)
The hyperactivities led to the holding of the National Seminar on the Nigerian Copyright Law which took place at then Durbar Hotel Lagos from the 21st to the 25th of March 1988. The seminar, which was declared open by President Babangida, had in attendance the who-is-who in the Nigerian legal and political environment. I presented a key paper at the seminar.
The major outcome of the seminar was the setting up of a committee to draft a new copyright law for Nigeria, using the report of the seminar as its primary working tool. On April 18, 1988, the Drafting Committee convened at Durbar Hotel to produce the draft of a new law. Chairman of the committee was my great friend, Prof Egerton Uvieghara, the immensely respected professor of Commercial Law at the University of Lagos. who passed on last year. I served on the committee.
For a period of about one week, we were locked in at Durbar Hotel. Under the guidance of Prof Egerton Uvieghara as chairman and Prof Vincent Chukwuemeka Ike, as secretary, the committee worked to craft a draft statute to reflect the yearnings of copyright owners, international developments and peculiar Nigerian realities. On a lot of issues, it was reasonably easy to reach a consensus on the principles, even if agreement on the language took a little longer. Some issues however were more difficult to handle such as the transfer of the copyright schedule from the Minister of Trade to the Minister responsible for culture. This was strongly opposed by Mr. Oladele Jegede from the Federal Ministry of Trade. At some point, it appeared that a walk out was imminent. The crisis management skills of Prof Uvieghara saved the day and the committee was able to complete its task successfully.
The Draft Copyright Law was submitted to the Federal Department of Culture to pass on to the appropriate authorities for promulgation into law. Everyone involved was satisfied that all that needed to be done had been done.
No! Not long after, information was received that a parallel effort was in progress. A directive from the AGF had mandated the Nigerian Law Reform Commission to undertake a review and reform of all Nigerian intellectual property laws. As a result, the Law Reform Commission began research work on the project and it appeared that everything would have to wait until the commission was through with its own process. I was alarmed and got in touch with Prof Uvieghara. This was a new development that was only going to create further complications to a matter that had received more than its fair share of complications. The attention of the Law Reform Commission was drawn to the fact that a draft copyright law had been produced by the committee set up as a result of the National Seminar on the Nigerian Copyright Law, a process fully supported both by the President and the Minister of Justice. Copies of the Report of the Seminar and the Draft Copyright Law were dispatched to the Law Reform Commission.
The Law Reform Commission thereafter invited members of the Drafting Committee and officials of the Department of Culture to a review session at the Commission’s Federal Secretariat office in Lagos. At the session chaired by the Commission’s Chairman, Dr Olakunle Orojo, the Commission raised a number of issues on the draft, none of them major. All the issues were quickly resolved. Dr Orojo, commended us for what he called an excellent job. The amended draft was thereafter submitted to the Justice Minister with both the imprimatur of the Drafting Committee and the Nigerian Law Reform Commission.
Back at PMAN, the long wait began. The effort to spread the reach of the association continued. Strong support came from a number of musicians who though were not members of the Executive Council, were always ready to lend a hand. Some of these were Sir Victor Uwaifo, Chief Ebenezer Obey, Oliver De Coque, Comfort Omoge, Dan Maraya Jos, Mustapha Amego, Funmi Adams Charly Boy and his wife, Diane.
We worked together to mount an unending pressure on the government to act on the Draft Copyright Law. For a while, nobody knew what was happening. After the tremendous activities that took place during and immediately after the seminar, it was clear that the attention of the government had shifted to something else. It was understandable since the law had nothing to do with oil, there was no fat contract involved and nobody was going to get any ‘shi-shi’ for pushing it. It was clearly no more in the priority list of most government officials. Between the Ministry of Information & Culture and the Ministry of Justice, the response was the same, “something will be done soon”. In 1988, May turned to June, June to July and July to August and the answer remained, “something will be done soon”. Several letters were written to the different government officials, with the same answer, “something will be done soon”. As September turned to October and October turned to November, I was filled with apprehension that another New Year’s Day would come and go with the same answer, “something will be done soon”.
Meanwhile, the piracy situation in Nigeria was becoming frightening and the signs were all over the place that the music and publishing industries were on the throes of major divestment. It was time to take the bull by the horn. I instructed PMAN Headquarters to summon a meeting of the National Executive Council. At the meeting, there was agreement that something dramatic had to be done to force the hands of the military government. The decision was taken to declare November 30, 1988, Anti-Piracy Day throughout Nigeria. The big demonstrations across the country on ‘Anti-Piracy Day’ changed the narrative and less than 3 weeks after, the Nigerian Copyright Law was promulgated!
Watch out for “The Big Copyright Struggle in Nigeria (3)”
See you next week.
