SATURDAY BREAKFAST with TONY OKOROJI
I am humbled by what the Lord has done with me.
I have written before that in the building of the copyright system in Nigeria, I have carried placards many times and led very risky demonstrations many-many times. On several occasions, I could easily have been shot by an “unknown soldier”.
I have been seen in many courts across the nation many-many times not over any private land dispute or any matrimonial cause. Indeed, I have been to court more times than many active litigation lawyers and witnessed against top corporations, governments and individuals, time and time again. I have done this because in building a copyright culture, we must have court decisions that set the precedents and define the ‘do’s and don’ts’.
I have gone many-many days without sleep, travelled lonely roads at dangerous hours, written opinion articles, delivered hundreds of lectures, organized myriad conferences, seminars and workshops, written a striking book on the subject because I believe that a significant contributor to the future of our nation will not be oil or gas. It will not be minerals buried in the soil. It will be the product of the minds of talented and brilliant young Nigerians. I verily believe that our greatest wealth and our future trading assets will be our intellectual property.
When she was appointed, I congratulated our dear sister, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization, the very brilliant Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala. I am sure that she has found out that a lot of the battles between nations on trade, are no longer about oil or gas or shipping or steel. The new war zones are IT and IP – intellectual property.
I helped to construct PMAN. PMAN was one of Nigeria’s strongest hot beds of brilliant ideas and deep thoughts. There was nothing we did, while I was President of PMAN, without deep strategic thinking behind it. As I watch the kind of people currently engaged in what appears to be a death struggle, the banality of their fight to control the once great PMAN and the gutter language they splash all over the place, I am saddened. They clearly do not understand the reason behind the PMAN struggle. Permit me to ask: is the hunger in the land so-so bad that Nigeria has degenerated to the point where there is no shame anymore and everything is about money and a meal ticket? In this case, I verily agree with the saying, ‘nemo dat quod non habet’: you cannot give that which you do not have.
As you may know, I superintended over the building of an outstanding Nigerian institution called COSON which many said could never see the light of day. When the COSON House was commissioned nearly eight years ago, a lot of people were surprised that there was not one Naira of government money in the magnificent building, no donor dollar from anywhere, no bank loan and no debt of any type. Thank God, the building continues to stand tall and to sparkle and many superb young Nigerians
continue to work within it.
I have also written before that for close to fifteen years, not one of the highly trained staff of COSON has received his or her salary one day late. No COSON member entitled to royalties has ever been denied money due to him. Not until some con men, the same individuals scheming to suck PMAN to death, went to court behind our backs, in a typical mafioso style, to try to shut down the bank accounts of COSON and loot its resources. Of course, they failed.
It might surprise many to know that no COSON member has ever paid any registration fee, monthly dues or subscription of any type, yet, every COSON member is entitled to some income every year.
During the COVID 19 lock-down when no musician could work, COSON distributed several millions of Naira to thousands of musicians across Nigeria. With the economy going south, COSON in 2023 and 2024, has sent palliatives, in millions of Naira, to thousands of musicians across the federation. COSON was set up to give to musicians, not to take from them.
I also worked with others to construct the Nigerian Copyright Commission. With the help of great Nigerians like the late Prince Tony Momoh, who treated me like a dear younger brother; the late great Prof Vincent Chukwuemeka Ike and the unforgettable legal luminary, Prince Bola Ajibola, the NCC was set up.
I helped in writing the law creating the NCC as an institution. With my cherished friend, who death recently took away, Nigeria’s No 1 Professor of Commercial Law, Prof Egerton Uvieghara and one Bayo Aiyegbusi, a straight- shooting public servant, we drafted the first amendment to the law. With Moses Ekpo, a boundless public servant as DG, we built the NCC from the ground up. Sadly, like several of Nigeria’s badly led institutions, the NCC which I sacrificed blood, sweat and tears to build, left its main purpose, turned the law upside down, and made the pursuit of Tony Okoroji a key objective.
My dedication to the intellectual property cause has never been because I wanted a title or because I was in pursuit of personal wealth. It has been my way of serving the Almighty and my nation. That is the way I do my own offering, pay my tithe and praise the Lord.
Over and over again, I have been counted out by men who do not understand the concept of giving and of sacrifice. They have tried every which way to count me out. Each time they think they have finally succeeded, something new happens. They are confused and cannot understand why the good Lord has refused to count me out. I work for Him.
I have repeatedly emphasized that I drive on a full tank of faith. I serve a living God who by all measures is not finished with me. The work I do is to the glory of the Almighty. The power I use is not mine but His.
Whatever credit I have taken here truly belongs to the Almighty who has done these things using my hands and the modest intellect He has given me. None of it is by my power. All glory and honour belong to Him.
Please, drive on a full tank of faith with your tires pumped with love and do not listen to anyone who tells you that your dreams are impossible. The word, impossible, belongs to the devil.
I am presently working tirelessly with several colleagues. We need your prayers as we burn the midnight oil to bring to fruition the promised master-blaster COSON Week 2025 that will hold the nation spell bound between May 25 and May 31. We are deploying the talents and skills the Almighty has bestowed on us, to lift the spirit of our depressed nation. Nigeria will rise again! Please, say “amen” to that.
See you next week.
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