Need we re-chronicle the blood feud between Tony Okoroji-led Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) and the embattled Music Copyright Society of Nigeria piloted by Orits Wiliki? The fight for supremacy, one that typifies a case of desperate Alaba-International market salesmen jostling for customers is lingering far too long.
While COSON enjoys the blessing of the Nigerian Communication Commission as its only recognised collecting society, the Federal High Court, in her judgement on suit No. FHC/L/CS/1163/2012 filed by MCSN against the Nigerian Copyright Commission for the enforcement of its fundamental human rights, Honourable Justice Muhammad Nasir Yunusa declared the raid of the MCSN’s offices, arrest and detention of its officials as unlawful Lagos once reaffirmed that the operations of the MCSN is lawful and constitutional and therefore should not in any way be disturbed in its operations.
As it were, there’s still no victor, no vanquished in the unfolding melodrama of acrimony. While trying hard enough not to belabour you with the banters they haul at each other at the slightest provocation, one would not but conclude that better late than never, the warring camps can sheath swords and survive on the prism that the sky’s width is abundantly able to accommodate everything on wings.
Who says the Nigerian music industry cannot survive with more than one collective society as practiced in developed worlds? The competition would only be stiffer, giving way for the best practices to thrive. This lingering fight only gives the societies away as ones severing some repressible frustration.
If the artists whose entitlements and welfare they claim to be reaching for each other’s jugulars for are not wearing the gloves, why should the principals take Paracetamol on the artists’ headache? Jumping and hopping into the courtrooms apparently won’t amount to anything fair for all parties concerned.
There can be a better time to re-evaluate the practices and put them at pal with standards obtainable in Europe and America. This way, there would be no holes for rivals cry foul of and the artists themselves would be able to go to bed with both eyes closed, trusting that their interest is above any other.