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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