News- TRUE REASONS WHY IBAN/BON BAN NIGERIAN MUSIC ON RADIO AND TV

The attention of Copyright Society of Nigerian (COSON) has been drawn to repeated announcements on some radio and TV stations that the leadership of Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria (BON) has stopped the broadcast of Nigerian music on radio and television on a date soon to be announced. COSON is not surprised at this development.

It is instructive that the repeated announcements, mainly on AIT, Ray Power FM and Faaji FM owned by Daar Communications and Brila FM owned by Brila Broadcasting Services Ltd respectively,coincides with the recent court actions filed by COSON against Daar and Brila for unabated copyright infringement.

In the Nigerian democracy, the Judiciary is the third arm of government. COSON believes that when every attempt to resolve any issue fails, resort to the courts to interpret the laws and examine the facts is the most civilized way to bring the issues to a resolution and avoid breakdown of law and order.

The tasteless BON announcements complain of ‘incessant and continuous harassment, intimidation, blackmail and attack on broadcasting stations by COSON over un-negotiated payment of licensing fees which in all respect were and are fixed and imposed arbitrarily and unilaterally by COSON’. Unfortunately, the BON announcements do not give even one example of the alleged harassment, intimidation, blackmail or attack, the victim, the place or date. The fact is that BON cannot present any such information because the statement is a smokescreen based on barefaced lies. If the blatant allegations of BON were true, is the right thing to do not for the stations sued by COSON to take the evidence to court and let the courts, once and for all, rule that COSON is acting arbitrarily and outside the law? Why the resort to self-help?

For the avoidance of doubt, COSON is a very professional organization which operates strictly within the law and subjects itself to the transparent and unfettered regulation and oversight of the Nigerian Copyright Commission, the federal government agency charged with such function and the International Confederation of Societies of Authors & Composers (CISAC), the global organization representing collective management organizations in 121 countries. COSON has received support from the entire copyright community around the world for its professionalism and steadfastness in the defence of the intellectual property rights of creative people in Nigeria.With the work of COSON, the sad image of Nigeria as a lawless nation and bastion of piracy and other forms of intellectual property infringement has begun to abate.

Anybody familiar with the issue knows that the unfortunate threat by the leadership of BON is truly a smokescreen and a cunning ploy to precipitate a crisis in the Nigerian music industry. For more than 35 years, a section of the Nigerian broadcasting industry has fed fat from the abuse of the intellectual property rights of creative people in Nigeria. For many years, some leaders of the broadcasting industry in Nigeria have lived in opulence and squandered the money that should have been used to pay royalties to musicians whose rights they have continued to infringe recklessly while the artistes die in penury.

COSON has done everything to engage broadcasting stations in Nigeria to peacefully do what is done in every other country in a very professional manner. The Nigerian music industry has held countless meetings with BON for decades and each meeting has only provided the broadcast industry with excuse after excuse to kick the can down the road. The fact is that there is no genuine interest in some parts of the broadcast industry to negotiate and pay for the exploitation of musical works and sound recordings as is done elsewhere in the world and as required under Nigerian law and international conventions. The behaviour of a lot of BON members is that as long as the matter is not resolved, they can continue to exploit musical works and sound recordings for free without any consequence. They believe that it is not in their interest to have a negotiated settlement and so they find one excuse after another to kick the can down the road and endlessly delay any resolution. Indeed, there are many broadcast stations in Nigeria, broadcasting for years and receiving enormous advertising revenue that have NEVER paid one naira for the music they play.

If the issue of royalty payment has resulted in very expensive litigation against broadcast stations, the leadership of the broadcast industry must accept full responsibility for the crisis because it precipitated the crisis.

To force the issue, COSON has finally decided to take the individual stations which are infringing the rights of copyright owners to court since BON is not serious about resolving the matter. In any case, BON is not a regulatory body, not a broadcasting station but simply an association of the willing and cannot be held legally liable for the copyright infringement by any broadcast station.

The unfortunate statement credited to BON says that its members are frustrated by the injurious monopoly and arbitrary imposition of manipulated tariffs on its members by COSON. What exactly does BON mean? Is BON ignorant of the fact that COSON cannot impose a tariff on anybody? Indeed, the Copyright (Collective Management Organization) Regulations, 2007 has provisions for anybody who disagrees with any tariff issued by an approved collecting society to apply to the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) to set up a panel to review such tariff? Has any member of BON applied to the NCC as stipulated without the Commission taking appropriate action?

COSON has successfully negotiated copyright royalty agreements with numerous local and international organizations including Google, Multichoice/DSTV and the nation’s largest broadcast network, the federal government owned FRCN. COSON has also successfully negotiated royalty agreements with the hotel industry in Nigeria under the auspices of Hotel and Personal Services Employers Association (HOPESEA), Hotel Owners Forum Abuja (HOFA) and Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC). There are several broadcasting stations that have reached agreements with COSON and are broadcasting music comfortably as required by law. The fact is that COSON works very well with people who want to work with COSON and for the first time in Nigeria, artistes are receiving royalties for their works in a transparent and accountable system.

The repeated threat of the leadership of BON to ban music made by Nigerians on the airwaves belonging to Nigerians is to activate the ploy of the BON leadership to precipitate a crisis of confidence around COSON and to set COSON members and affiliates against their organization. The way they have planned it, while the crisis lasts, they will smuggle through the backdoor the approval of MCSN, the group which the government has long rejected and which together with its officers is being prosecuted for different criminal activities by agencies of the Federal government. The plan is to find ways to truncate the ongoing trial of the MCSN officers who willingly in turn issue arrangee copyright licences to them. Under this arrangement, the stage will be set for some of the members of BON, notorious for not paying their bills, to continue the wanton exploitation of the intellectual property of free citizens.

For nearly two years, COSON knew about the disingenuous scheme being hatched by the leadership of BON. The Director-General of the Nigerian Copyright Commission, Mr. Afam Ezekude can confirm that COSON had notified him of this ploy both at a meeting and by a letter dated February 8, 2012.Excerpt from the letter to Ezekude reads: ‘Despite the close engagement which COSON has had with BON, the organization wants to claim that there is lack of clarity as to who its members should pay royalties to for the broadcast of musical works and sound recordings. It is clear that this is a scheme to precipitate a crisis in the collective management of copyright so that BON members can hide behind the crisis to continue the free use of the entire music and sound recording repertoire in Nigeria and slow down the progress being made by COSON. There is no question that if the BON scheme is allowed to be activated, no one can be sure of the exact consequences because the entire industry would be forced to go back to the trenches’

The Attorney – General of the Federation & Minister of Justice, Mr Muhammed Bello Adoke SAN can also confirm that by a letter dated February 28, 2013, COSON had also alerted him about the ploy of the BON leadership.

In the letter, COSON had asked the Attorney General of the Federation to investigate how the leadership of Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria (BON), led by a paid employee of the Federal Government, Malam Abubakar Jijiwa, is taking active steps to  truncate the criminal trial of the unapproved MCSN and six of its officials which trial is being conducted by the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), an agency of the Federal Government.

COSON believes that the time has come to ask Malam Jijiwa to step aside as Director-General Of Voice of Nigeria. His open affront on the policies and decisions of the government paying his salaries are baffling and inexplicable and the fire he is allowing himself to be used to stoke can lead to consequences that the Nigerian nation will regret. Serious members of BON also need to get clear answers as to what is being done in their name and whose interest, their Executive Secretary, Mr Segun Olaleye is serving. For instance, it will be necessary to establish who called and who attended the ‘emergency meeting’ where it was decided that free Nigerians who have committed no offence should be banned from the airwaves of their nation.

The unenforceable threat issued by the BON leadership is a most childish and silliest announcement for an organization that wishes to be taken seriously. It has made BON the laughing stock of the world. Sadly, Jijiwa and Olaleye have allowed BON to become the megaphone of the unapproved MCSN being prosecuted by the Federal Government of Nigeria for various criminal offences. They have also become willing tools in the hand of an emperor who believes that because he has established a number of broadcast stations, he is now bigger than Nigeria and above the law. This needs to stop immediately.

COSON hereby assures all its members and affiliates that Nigeria is not a banana republic and that no one can stop them from being heard in their country. COSON’s dedication to the progress of the Nigerian nation remains unshaken. We remain committed to using the instruments of the law to fully defend the rights of creative people in Nigeria and to promote the Nigerian nation to the world. We will not be intimidated and will never act outside the law. We are committed to ensuring that musicians walk tall in Nigeria and earn a decent living for their work. We will do what is necessary to ensure that our industry offers gainful employment to the thousands of our countrymen who roam the streets today aimlessly. We will work night and day, without fear or favour, to continue to promote the spirit of the COSON slogan, ‘Let the music pay!’ 

SEYI ALLEN 08023252821, 08034625160