Almost two weeks ago, Gospel singer Sammie Okposo announced his exit from COSON and shared a press release with us to that effect (renouncing his membership). In evaluating his basis for the exit, I said it made no sense and was meritless. If you are going to walk out on an organization and put out an unsolicited press release, you should at least have a strong basis for it. Otherwise it is unnecessary noise and much ado about nothing.
COSON’s General Manager Chinedu Chukwuji has now issued a statement and echoes similar sentiments. The GM throws some shade towards MCSN in the statement. Chukwuji, all that is unnecessary.
I suggest 2014 ought to be a year COSON changes the rhetoric as to MCSN or remains silent while the legal justice system and appropriate advocacy bodies determine the approval of MCSN as a collecting society.
Cheers,
Uduak
“The General Manager of Copyright Society of Nigeria, Mr Chinedu Chukwuji has said that with time Gospel Singer, Sammie Okposo will realize that there are few Nigerian institutions that are run with a level of transparency, accountability and professionalism available at COSON and he will return to the fold. According to Mr Chukwuji, Sammie has not availed himself the opportunity of visiting the COSON office and is clearly unfamiliar with the quality of personnel, the technology and processes put to work at COSON.
Reacting to the recent internet report that Sammie Okposo has withdrawn his membership of COSON, Mr Chukwuji said that COSON has not received any resignation letter from Okposo. According to Mr. Chukwuji, ‘COSON has thousands of members and hundreds of thousands of affiliates. We do not join issues with our members on the pages of newspapers and certainly not with Sammie Okposo, whom I consider a personal friend. Since Sammie has made his statement public, we have a duty to clear any misconceptions about COSON before they become accepted as facts’
Mr Chukwuji said that he finds it curious that Sammie had to issue a public statement about withdrawing his membership of COSON at a time when members of COSON are engaged in a historic struggle to liberate the Nigerian creative industry from servitude. According to him, ‘Mr Okposo has unlimited access to me and I believe he is a very close friend of the Chairman. I have asked our Chairman if Sammie ever complained to him and his answer was negative. Sammie never asked me for any information that was not provided to him. I cannot remember seeing Sammie at any COSON meeting and he has not been to the COSON office to ask any question’
On the statement made by Ms Onyeka Onwenu which Mr Okposo said was responsible for his action, Mr Chukwuji said, ‘Sammie should know that the statement made by Ms Onwenu after she was not re-elected during the COSON elections of May 2012 is the subject of a defamation action in court. I believe that as a democrat, Sammie should have been patient to find out whether the court will determine that the statement is justified or not before relying on it’
With respect to royalty payments, Chukwuji said that the process of royalty payments at COSON is 100% transparent.According to him, ‘COSON is probably the only CMO in the world where the entire members’ debate and vote to approve every royalty distribution scheme. Elsewhere, management devises the royalty scheme and implements it. Every member of COSON who has issues with his/her royalty statement has the right to audit the process and this right has been exercised several times’
On the issue of tenure of officers, Mr Chukwuji said that COSON which is less than four years old, strictly follows the rules as laid out in its Articles of Association which limits the tenure of any Director to three years except re –elected. According to him, the Chairman is first, a Director; and is bound by the same rules.
Mr Chukwuji said that he hopes that Sammie does not join the unapproved MCSN facing criminal trial, an organization where the Chairman, Mr Orits Wiliki has stayed in office continuously for a period of more than 14 years and the CEO, Mr Mayo Ayilaran has held the position under different titles for more than 25 years.“