Artistes to Yar’Adua
Help, pirates are killing us!
•Set to go on hunger strike
By TOSIN AJIRIRE
Saturday, July 18, 2009
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•Onyeka
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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Nigerian artistes are all dying in silence. But on Wednesday
they refused to be buried without raising a finger at least
for the last time to draw the attention of the public, most
especially, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to their plight.
Coming under the umbrella of Nigerian Music Industry Coalition
that include Performing Musicians Employers Association of
Nigeria (PMAN), Association of Recording Industries (NARI),
Performing & Mechanical Rights Society Ltd/Gte (PMRS),
Association of Music Business Professionals (AM.B-Pro), Gramophone
Records & Cassette Dealers (AGRECD), Music Label
Owners Association of Nigeria (MULOAN,) Music Advertisers
Association of Nigeria (MAAN) and Audio Video CD Sellers Association
of Nigeria (AVCDSAN) among others, the artistes at a world
press conference held at Protea Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, cried
out in unison that “enough is enough” to the scourge
of piracy in Nigeria.
 And
if you think they don’t mean business, hear this: “If
we do not see any change soon, we have resolved to call on
all well meaning practitioners throughout the country to begin
a mass hunger strike to make it clear to the world that the
situation is not acceptable. Also, as a sign of our seriousness,
we will soon announce a ‘warning strike’ that
will request all broadcast platforms across the country to
observe a 24-hour “no music day” as
a demonstration of solidarity with the plight of our industry.”
Prior to this war cry, however, the coalition had met for
several weeks to do a thorough assessment of the state of
the industry and later concluded that “we have no choice
but to use this forum to call on President Yar’ Adua,
his cabinet and both houses of the National Assembly to note
that the entertainment industry continues to provide Nigeria
with one of the most veritable platforms to harness the latent
talent, energy and skills of hundreds of thousands of our
young people who roam the streets everyday with no hope of
any real employment except in the devil’s workshop.
“With no meaningful assistance or investment by the
Nigerian state, the Nigerian entertainment industry has for
several years been our nation’s most effective vehicle
in the projection of a positive international presence and
image. The practitioners in our industry have continued to
be the chief providers of badly needed elixir for a terribly
traumatized citizenry facing biting socio-economic conditions
and in this way our industry continues to insure the relative
stability which our nation enjoys.”
Speaking on behalf of the musicians, Elegant Stallion Onyeka
Onwenu stated that apart from the hundreds of thousands of
jobs contributed by the cumulative effect of the industry
locally, it has been proved the sector has great capacity
for the export of Nigerian entertainment products which are
highly in demand in different countries of the world.
“The amount of piracy and other forms of copyright infringement
in Nigeria have become intolerable. There is no nation in
the world where the virus called piracy is eating up the entertainment
industry as voraciously as it is doing in Nigeria, the last
couple of years being the most daunting. All the foreign investors
in our industry have long deserted the country, taking away
with them millions in investment and thousands of jobs. We
are, therefore, forced to request Mr. President to declare
a state of emergency with respect to the fight against the
scourge of piracy and muster the necessary resources to eradicate
this monster.”
This unprecedented step, according to the artistes, has become
necessary because efforts made so far to fight piracy have
failed and rather than piracy being controlled or reduced,
it is now ravaging an entire generation of creative people.
And so, “practitioners in the entertainment industry
may soon be forced to take the laws into their hands in a
desperate attempt to safeguard their investment and this may
result in otherwise avoidable bloodshed.”
To reassure the stakeholders and the international community,
the artistes have called on President Yar’Adua to immediately
“set up a Governing Board made up of Nigerians of proven
commitment and integrity to design and supervise the activities
of the Nigerian Copyright Commission in accordance with the
Nigerian Copyright Act (as amended) section 31 (1); Mr. President
may need to be reminded that for more than five years, the
Nigerian Copyright Commission only had a board for a period
of a few months in 2005.
“Direct the Nigerian Copyright Commission to immediately
put on hold the process of approval of any new copyright collective
management organization pending the immediate convening of
a stakeholders’ conference on collective management
to ensure that the process receives input from the stakeholders
that will earn any organization emerging from the process
the support of the industry.
“Direct the Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro
to serve a warning to the traders at Alaba International Market
in Lagos which has earned the notoriety of being the world’s
biggest hotbed of piracy, that if within a specified period
the traders do not clean up the market, the government will
shut it down.”
For the artistes, there is an urgent need to convene a national
summit of the music industry at which all stakeholders, individuals
and every shade of opinion including the executive and legislative
arms of government must come together to review the situation
and devise an acceptable action plan to address the problems.
“We, therefore, request Mr. President to expeditiously
direct the Honourable Minister of Justice and Attorney General,
Mr Mike Andoakaa to liaise with us to bring about the summit
as soon as possible. It is our belief that this summit will
throw up the strategies that will guarantee lasting solutions
to the problems that have made it impossible for us to grow
this industry into the major economic force that it has the
potential of becoming.
It will also propel the industry to become a more significant
contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of our great
country, Nigeria,” the musicians declared.
The event was graced by several top acts like Pa Fatai Rolling
Dollar, Ras Kimono, Sunny Nneji, Laolu Akins, Tony Okoroji,
including major stakeholders such as Toju Eyutiechie, Joel
Ajayi, Solomon Arueya, Eddy Lawani, Obi Asika, Cally Ikpe
and others.
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