Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), Africa’s
fastest growing collective management organization for musical works and sound
recordings, has called on its thousands of members across the country, other
stakeholders in the music industry and lovers of music in Nigeria who are
sympathetic to the plight of creative people in the country, to speak up on
Saturday, September 1, 2018 as Nigeria marks “No Music Day”
Making the call in Lagos, COSON Chairman,
Chief Tony Okoroji said, “Creative people in Nigeria cannot afford to keep
quiet as Nigeria goes through another electioneering campaign process in which
no one offers any direction for the development and optimal deployment of the
millions of Nigeria’s creative talents for national development. We will not be
taken for granted any more
“The time has come to make it abundantly clear
that it is only politicians who have developed a sensible long-term plan for
the progress of our industry and have shown clear interest in the development
of the nation’s creative industry that can count on our significant support and
votes when the time comes”
“No Music Day” can be traced to that historic
week in 2009 when Nigerian artistes of different shades embarked on a weeklong
hunger strike staged in front of the National Theatre in Lagos. The hunger
strike which was a result of the frustration caused by the devastating level of
intellectual property theft in the country was the prelude to what has become
known as “No Music Day” in Nigeria. The day was September 1, 2009 when
practitioners in the Nigerian music industry asked all the 400 licensed
broadcast stations in the country not to broadcast music for a significant
period of the day.
Continuing, Chief Tony Okoroji who spearheaded
the 2009 campaign, said that it has become imperative that appropriate action be
taken to remind the different politicians canvasing for votes across the
country that the disease which necessitated the hunger strike of 2009 has not
quite been cured and that at this time that other nations are building their
growth on the creative economy, Nigeria must take important steps to protect
its creative industries to ensure the socio-economic progress of the nation.
As has become the tradition, broadcast stations across Nigeria
have been requested not to broadcast music between the hours of 8am and
10am on Saturday, September 1, 2018 as a mark of solidarity with the nation’s
creative industries which have suffered immensely from the debilitating
infringement of copyright. Rather than broadcast music, the stations have been
asked to dedicate the 8 am to 10 am time belt to the broadcast of interviews,
documentaries, debates and discussions that focus on the rights of creative
people and the potential contributions of creative activities to the national
economy. Newspapers and magazines across the country
have also been requested to publish special features on these issues in the
coming days.
The
Nigerian public is requested to tune in to different domestic radio and
television stations on September 1 as over 60 top COSON members, Intellectual
Property lawyers, investors in the music industry and other music industry
experts are spread out to diverse broadcast stations and will simultaneously discuss
“Copyright is Human Right” the
theme of the 2018 No Music Day.
On “No
Music Day”, flags at the magnificent COSON House in Ikeja will fly at half-mast.
COSON will also issue an important statement on the state of the music industry.
At
the COSON Arena, a tool kit developed under the GEM project by Mr. John Assien,
an internationally respected expert on copyright and a former Director of the
Nigerian Copyright Institute, will be formerly presented to the intellectual
property community at a special event called “Let’s Talk Copyright” (LTC)
which will hold at the COSON House Arena on September 1, 2018. Let’s
Talk Copyright will be the climax of the 2018 No Music Day.
Artistes,
journalists, intellectual property lawyers and those interested in the subject
are invited to Let’s Talk Copyright which begins at midday on September 1
Comments
Post a Comment
Please comment here