SATURDAY BREAKFAST with TONY OKOROJI
Yesterday, December 22, was my birthday. From midnight, my Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and other Social Media accounts were practically on fire! For hours, I was on the phone taking calls from almost every country in the world. There were times when I had five calls waiting on the line at the same time. On Facebook, I read many very touching tributes to me, some in poetry, some in flowing prose. There were different kinds of graphics with my face on them, some in stills, some animated and others in moving pictures. Some guys even went as far as composing songs for me, recording the songs and posting them on social media. To put it mildly, yesterday, I was carpet-bombed with love from everywhere!
I am not a rich man by any standard. I am not a governor, minister of the Federal Republic nor Director-General of any of the sundry government institutions that litter my nation. I am not a top member of any political party; in fact, since birth, I have never belonged to any political party. I do not have a mansion in Banana Island in Lagos or Maitama in Abuja. The truth is that I do not own a mansion anywhere. I do not award contracts to supply or remove anything. I actually thought that many would consider my life to be boring.
So, how come, on my birthday, I was being celebrated by hundreds, if not thousands of people in several countries, many of whom, I do not know? I have not done anything that is impossible. What I have done is simply ask the Almighty to give me the grace to lead with honesty and transparency and be a giver and not a taker. The Almighty has not let me down.
For decades, Nigerian artistes and creative people remained at the periphery of national discourse. Nigerians may have sung our songs with passion, watched our movies with glee or read our books into the middle of the night. They still did not quite have much respect for us or what we do. Fela may have been the most recognized Nigerian face in the world, but many at home simply saw him as an irritant. But please, show me one truly successful nation on earth which had not created a special place for its creative geniuses.
For a long time, Nigerian artistes paid people at radio stations to have their music played so that the owners of the radio stations can attract listenership and make money from advertising. Many of our artistes entertained in hotels with rooms they could never sleep in and restaurants they could never dine in. If Wole Soyinka had not been given a big international prize by a Norwegian organization in faraway Oslo, many in our country would have brushed him aside as just an old rascal with over grown grey hair!
I realized long ago that the nation of Nigeria would never realize its immense potentials if it did not create an environment for the respect of creativity and adequate compensation for the deployment of intellectual property.
As a result of the efforts of those of my colleagues who share my passion, the tables began to turn. Contrary to repeated warning from many that we were bound for failure, radio stations in Nigeria began to pay musicians for playing their music and TV stations too! Fired up by a slogan, ‘let the music pay!’, even the hotels across the country began to do likewise. As we put value to that, which Nigerian creatives gave out for free, many young people in our industry were inspired and stimulated. Today, Nigeria’s most positive worldwide identifiers are not our corrupt politicians who have led the country astray and certainly not our 419 businessmen. They are our young musicians, actors, actresses and writers.
If you think that everybody will be happy with the work we have done, you are kidding. Our success angered some people. When I took the decision several years ago to spend my life to lead the promotion and defence of the rights of creative people in Nigeria, I was not blind. I knew that there would be many obstacles along the way and a huge price to pay. I have seen the desperation with which people fight against positive change, especially when they think that such change would eliminate their privileges.
Those who have chronicled my work will tell you that I have been dragged to the EFCC, the ICPC, DSS, the dreaded SARS before it was shut down, and even the NFIU! I have been in and out of court more times than most litigation lawyers. Intricate schemes have been set up to defame me, distract me or destroy my name. Of course, I have been abducted and my personal bank accounts shut down. It is indeed a miracle that as I celebrate another birthday, I have never been to jail and not even behind the counter of a police station.
I have seen the human face of the work we do. When COVID struck and Nigerian artistes were in limbo, with no money whatsoever, COSON stepped in. Thousands of desperate artistes were able to buy badly needed drugs because they just got alert from COSON. Just last month, in the heat of the economic devastation facing many Nigerians, COSON intervened again with a palliative royalty distribution to thousands of Nigerian musicians.
I have seen some musicians laugh, cry and dismayed! They never believed that they would see the day that the music industry in Nigeria would put over two hundred million naira on the table and share it among its people. They never thought that someday they would watch a movie or sing and dance in a structure like the COSON House, a magnificent building that belongs to them. We have only scratched the surface because so much more is possible
I wish that I can reply everyone who ‘bombed’ me with a message of goodwill on my birthday. My prayer is that each of them will be celebrated like I have been.
I recommit myself to the Almighty to use me as He wishes for the good of the creative community in Nigeria in the New Year. There is still no retreat and no surrender. I remain the man who drives on a full tank of faith. Merry Xmas and Happy New Year everyone.
See you next week.
