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| Okoroji |
Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) has requested President Muhammad Buhari to give marching orders to Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama to kick start an intellectual property and creative revolution in Nigeria.
At
the big “open house” event at COSON Headquarters to mark ‘No Music Day’
2016 on September 1, which event was attended by several artistes and
assorted media representatives from the full spectrum of Nigeria’s
print, broadcast and social media, COSON said that this period of
economic recession in Nigeria should provide important soul searching for the Nigerian nation.
Insisting
that the era when the Nigerian economy was almost completely dependent
on oil and gas is in the nation’s past and will not come back, Nigeria’s
irrepressible copyright collective management organization insisted
that Nigeria’s future will have to be built on the creative ingenuity of
the Nigerian people.
Delivering
the 2016 Official Address on the State of the Nigerian Music Industry,
COSON Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji said that the creative ingenuity of
the Nigerian people can be seen in how wide Nigerian music, movies,
literature, fashion, programming, and similar products of the creative
endeavour originating from Nigeria are in demand across the world.
According to him, this is clearly an area in which Nigeria has
significant comparative advantage and what is needed is the spark to
light the fire and the result will be confounding.
In
the words of Chief Okoroji, “We believe that President Muhammadu Buhari
can give a marching order to both his Vice President, Prof Yemi
Osinbajo who has the training and the intellect to fully grasp the
issues and his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama who for
several years was a respected Director at the World intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO), to create real change in Nigeria. These
gentlemen have the ability to kick start an intellectual property and
creative revolution in our country which can change the story of Nigeria
forever. Then we can inspire our citizens to create and invent things
of value with the assurance that every work of creativity and invention
will be protected by the nation and every creator and inventor can enjoy
the fruits of his or her labour. We will then have taken a major step
in assuring domestic and international investors that Nigeria is no
longer a nation of ‘monkey dey work, baboon dey chop’ and that we are
ready for the knowledge and digital economy”.
Chief
Okoroji said that people in the creative industries have continued to
request for a proper engagement with the government so as to make the
knowledge and creativity driven economic future possible. He expressed
the hope that the government would react appropriately to this request
so that the important work can begin in earnest.
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