As the gates to COSON House, the magnificent headquarters of Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) reopened in Lagos for vibrant operations in 2019, the nation’s foremost copyright activist and COSON Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji, has asked the thousands of members of COSON spread across Nigeria and COSON affiliates across the world to see 2019 as a bumper year and a year of tremendous growth for COSON members and their organization.
According to Chief Okoroji, as the creative industry enters a new year with fresh leadership at the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), the destabilization, meddling and unending interference in the internal affairs of COSON, a 100% private sector organization set up without one Naira of public money, should cease.
The former President of PMAN said that instead of the continuation of the adversarial relationship that has not produced any good for anyone in the copyright system, the leadership of COSON looks forward to a more co-operative relationship with the NCC so that the tremendous local and international goodwill and expertise available to COSON can be deployed not just for the good of COSON members but for the progress of the entire Nigerian creative community and the Nigerian nation.
In his New Year message to the creative community, Chief Okoroji said that he is aware that many friends of COSON were deeply concerned about the battle for the soul of COSON which started in 2017 and went through 2018. According to him, “some of our friends were scared that in 2018, COSON will scatter or die like many creative industry organizations before it”.
In the words of Chief Okoroji, “rather than die, COSON has become stronger. We wish to assure our friends that COSON has become a better organization as a result of the challenges and that our membership has continued to grow, the relationship between the Board, Management, Consultants and Affiliates has become even more solid and that we see 2019 as a year of tremendous growth for copyright management in Nigeria”
The COSON Chairman explained that that the challenges of recent months have created the opportunity for the laws dealing with collective management of copyright in Nigeria to be vigorously queried and the internal rules of COSON to be properly examined.
In conclusion, Chief Okoroji thanked the members, board and management of COSON for their unflinching trust and confidence in him and assured them of his commitment to a COSON that remains a model organization 100% dedicated to defending the interest of its members and steadfast on transparency, accountability and good governance.