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After soaking up an ample dose of Tony Allen’s “Lagos No
Shaking” album the night before, and particularly entangled in its rhythmic and
scatty vocals provided by Yinka Davies on the call and response track, “Don’t
Morose Your Face”, I was overly eager to meet the renowned co-inventor of the
Afrobeat sound and possibly one of the greatest drummers in the world.

As I knock at his hotel room door somewhere in the back streets
of Opebi, I am greeted by a lean looking Allen, dressed in a snug jersey
revealing toned arms. Also wearing a pair of blue jeans, a neck chain and
single earring, it’s difficult to miss his two-toned grey and black hair as he
bears a semblance to a yuppie granddad. He welcomes me to join him in some gin.

Tony Allen has been composing music for almost 50 years. It
seemed his career had really started peaking at the turn of the 2000s with his
new hybrid sound, fusing Afro-beat with Dub, electronica and funk. I was keen
to know how he felt about being described by former Roxy Music keyboard player
Brian Eno as the greatest drummer in the world.

“It feels great and cool. It means after all these years, there
was somebody who was there monitoring what you had been doing from day one till
now. I never thought somebody would come up with such an accolade. This means
that those kinds of people were even listening to your music in the first
place. The funny thing is that this is a guy that doesn’t like drummers at all.
He hadn’t seen anybody play the drums the way he would like.” Allen has become
one of Europe’s most in-demand collaborators, working with musicians across
genres, from world music supremos Susheela Rahman, and Zap Mama, to the
experimental artists like Charlotte Gainsbourg and Air.

On Damon Albarn

It was his collaboration with Damon Albarn (lead singer of the
indie-rock band Blur and creator of the 3-D band Gorrilaz) to create the band
“The Good, The Bad, and The Queen” that would earn Allen his place amongst the
drumming immortals.

“Damon happens to be my friend, you know, starting from when he
sang about me on his song “Music Is My Radar”, then I invited him to come and
sing a song on my own album “Home Cooking” and he did. Then we said sometime,
we should do something together, and we did.

“I brought him to Lagos for the first time to audition some
musicians, then we went back to London. We came back with all the equipment for
a studio, and we were at the Aphrodisiac set up for two weeks. We recorded with
a bunch of Nigerian musicians.” I asked what Damon’s impression of Nigeria was.
“First of all, his father told me, ‘take Damon to Lagos’ – because he was going
to places like Mali and Senegal. So I told him, ‘why not put your feet in the
place that you colonised?’ So he enjoyed it and he knows what he left behind.”

On return to London, the music they recorded became too grand
for them both, as they were ill-prepared for the task of shuffling all the
Nigerian musicians on the record for promotional tours around Europe.
Consequently, the music was relegated to a vault. Happily, Damon and Tony
started composing music again; and the “The Good, The Bad, and The Queen” was
born. I asked Allen what it was like creatively shifting from his roots in
Afrobeat to Indie Rock. He replied, “I’m a drummer that created my own way of
playing. I started off playing different styles of music. Afrobeat came much
later and took over and I have created my own way of manoeuvring around music.”

On new Nigerian music

Tony Allen is not enthused when it comes to the topic of the
current crop of musical talent in Nigeria. As I pick his thoughts on the
critique that Nigerian music has become disposable, he retorts, “Is it not the
truth? It’s the truth. For instance, look at what we are doing here now, this
youth of today. It wasn’t like that at our own time, you know. You were
supposed to learn how to play something. Not everybody wants to be a singer or
be miming and what have you. Miming is something of today.

“That is why you don’t see musicians. You see people going
around you but you don’t see the musicians, you don’t see where the music is
coming from. These are the things that make us not have any stance anywhere
because we don’t have anything to give. Why can’t they start learning something
if they want to stay in the music world? We are musicians. I have been playing
music for the past 50 years and it’s what I do.

He becomes even more fired up when our conversation delves into
the need to preserve our musical heritage. Currently, Peter Gabriel’s Real
World record label, DJ Miles Claret’s Soundway Records and Wrasse Records have
gained a reputation as the Holy Grail of World Music mainly of African
disposition. So when I ask why it is that a European is responsible for
preserving our culture, Allen gestures with his palms faced and says, “I have
asked this same question to people too. It is our mentality; what we have, we
don’t cherish it. It’s useless. It is made in Africa. We don’t cherish anything
that we have. To those ones that cherish it, they are making good use of it.
Tomorrow now, you will see that when everything disappears here completely,
when you are looking for archives, you have to go to Europe to look for it. I
think something is wrong and sometimes, I think it’s from the top.” He later
tells me that the French Cultural Centre is partly responsible for grooming a
lot of Nigerian artists, which is the responsibility of our own cultural
ministry.

On Fela Kuti

As we waltz down nostalgic pathways in our conversation, I ask
about the name that has become a prefix to his own career: Fela Kuti, with whom
he recorded over 30 albums. “Fela was like a brother to me. He is a guy that I
could never see a second of him. When I said I wanted to be the best drummer,
which I didn’t know how I would achieve that, but I said it, I started working
towards it until I met Fela. When I met him, I needed a challenge and he was
the only person that could give me that challenge. I will never be tired of
being referred to as Fela’s drummer; there is always a trace.”

Why I left

Allen feels saddened about the fact that he had to leave Nigeria
to gain recognition; and the Lagos he once knew, he believes, is almost
obsolete. “The music industry here has gone down, and recording studios folded
up. Where are the artists to play live? Nightlife has disappeared. Everybody is
scared of robberies and all the dangerous stories. Musicians arrive in the club
but they play to the empty house. So there was no point and that was why I
left.”

Despite his feeling of disenchantment, Allen has always been in
synchronised harmony with the tool of his trade: the drums. “It’s my passion,
it’s my baby, the drums are part of me. I don’t want to think of anything else.
It’s me physically and spiritually working on the drums. The greatest musical
experience is just to catch me unawares. Just let me be there.”

This August, Tony Allen will turn 70 years old and he tells me that despite
his accolades and achievements, he is only just starting. “I have done two
albums with Nigerians and everything is over there.” And in his grumpy granddad
reprimanding tone, he says, “All I want to do is just expose real Nigerian
musicians to the world, otherwise if they carry on doing their R’n’B, it will
stay here.”

Fela, put and emphasised an accentuated beat on ‘Afro’-rhythm
and, it became the pulse and trademark of his music, Afrobeat. The top end
remained the 4/4 (jazz) beat of the claves/sticks aided by the shekere and, the
bottom end was provided by the trio of Ghanaian Addo Nattey on one-membrane
conga, Oladeinde Henry Koffi on three-membrane drum (played with sticks as
‘borrowed from Rex Lawson’s Ijo Highlife music) and; Ladi Tony Alabi a.k.a Tony
Allen the anchor rhythm master on trap drums.

Not surprisingly Tony Allen was the leader of Fela’s Africa ’70
band that fashioned his unique brand of Afrobeat music. Tony Allen was and
remains a living legend; a complete drummer who kept the basic 4/4 beat
simultaneously on snare drums and high hat (cymbals) and augmented it with
rhythmic textures from the two tom tom drums and a deep bottom of bass drum
tattoos. He was a busy drummer with both hands and both feet always in action
and, he was an advanced African pop music trap drummer in that his
embellishments included playing the high hat with drumsticks and, rim shots on
the snare and tom toms. Tony Allen was everything top American Jazz drummers of
the 60s and 70s wanted to be: a master drummer of pulsing rhythms. Fela who was
very knowledgeable about the rhythmic structure of modern jazz music found a
genuine soul mate in Tony Allen to collaborate with and create Afrobeat; a
hybrid of jazz, highlife and African folk rhythms.

Demystifying Ginger Baker

That Fela knew Tony Allen’s worth as an innovative world-class
trap drummer, was proud of his prowess and, was prepared to let the world know
about it, was well demonstrated when Fela – cheeky rascal that he was – set up
his friend, drummer Ginger Baker, by inviting him to record with the Africa ’70
as a second trap drummer in London. Ginger Baker, touted as the greatest
drummer in pop music based on his knowledge and incorporation of Afro rhythms,
was completely blown away by Allen whose fluid multi-rhythms were a sharp
contrast to Baker’s lumbering heavy-handed flaying of the drums. This important
Fela record not only demystified Baker’s rating as a drummer, it also featured
fascinating spells of gong rhythms.

Interestingly, I caught Ginger Baker try and pull a fast one on
the music world at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games World Music Festival with his
band, Salt (made up of young Nigerian pop musicians including The Lijadu
Sisters whom he had recruited from Lagos). From the audience, it sounded as if
Ginger Baker was playing some ‘heavy drums’; but I was suspicious and decided
to check out what was really happening. On close investigation, I discovered
that Baker conveniently kept the second drummer in Salt, Laolu Akins, next to
him; then deliberately ‘under-miked’ Akins’ drum set, whilst his own drums were
literally ‘over-miked.’ All Ginger Baker was cleverly doing was feeding off
Laolu Akins’ original rhythms, reacting split seconds after Akins’ rhythms. And
because Baker was very well ‘miked’, it sounded as if he was the one creating
all the heavy rhythms of Salt!

Good times

In what many consider as the golden age of Africa ’70 and Afrobeat
and, when the band was still resident at the Shrine at the Surulere nightclub,
the best place to sit for hardcore aficionados was away from the Africa-shaped
table in front of the bandstand, where Fela’s friends, V.I.Ps and celebrities
like radical Naiwu Osahon and Wole Bucknor sat. Instead, you sat at the back of
the covered space, directly facing and listening to the duo of Henry Koffi and
Tony Allen as they laid down the Afrobeat rhythms and, admiring tall slim Ijo
Black Rose gracefully shimmying to the music in her ‘dance cage.’ Whenever
Koffi got into his groove, dancing and playing multiple rhythms on his
three-membrane drum, he would play the zinc roof of the stage with his sticks
and smile knowingly. A good time was always had by all!

Fela stamped his huge personality on Afrobeat and used his savvy
of marketing by deliberately creating controversy to make himself and his
Afrobeat very popular. He was immediately accepted by the youth, the ‘masses’
and later, grudgingly, by the middle and upper classes who felt threatened and
in some ways let down by one of their own! Musically, Fela brought his vast
expertise of composing and arranging garnered from Trinity College, London,
into making Afrobeat one of the most distinct genres of world popular music from
the twentieth century.

Tony Allen Live

In October 2007, I was part of a group of Nigerian artists
invited to participate in an annual Book Festival that honours Nobel Laureates;
held at the resort town of Aix en Provence in the South of France. Nigeria’s
Wole Soyinka was the guest of honour for 2007; Tunde Kelani showed his films;
George Osodi and I had a one-month-long photography exhibition and Tony Allen
was invited from his Paris base to perform an improvisational drum session with
Ara, the Nigerian female talking drum player.

It was nice renewing acquaintances with Allen and he gave me his
new CD, ‘Tony Allen Live KIP 002′, on his independent label. It has since been
a CD I play and enjoy a lot and one that has, not surprisingly, attracted the
interest and admiration of all who have heard it. A live recording from some
unidentified music festival in France, it starts with the master of ceremony
saying, “It is indeed a privilege for me to introduce to you a living legend.
Ladies and Gentlemen give it up big-time for Tony Allen and his Afro-Funk
Orchestra;” to great applause. Tony Allen, now based in Paris for two decades,
is hugely popular in Europe and has also been Nigeria’s Ambassador
Plenipotentiary for Afrobeat music worldwide.

The first striking aspect of Tony Allen Live is the excellent
recording which showcases his clean, snappy and intricate drumming at its best!
Afro-Funk? The instrumentation and young talented musicians; mostly from the
Diaspora, give an electronic flavour to the seven-tune 74-minute-long CD of
mostly laid-back foot-tapping body-shaking Afrobeat-funk.

The opening track ‘Asiko’ starts with frisky wah wah-guitar
riffs and the tune is sustained by the interplay of rhythms between guitar and
drums with Allen lamenting about women’s ways in Yoruba and, then comes an
extended efficient jazz-style trumpet solo, much like Tunde Williams with
Fela’s band. ‘Black Voices’ is an outstanding up-tempo tune with rich
instrumentation of claves, Fender Rhodes electronic piano, the usual ‘tenor’
guitar continually laying down rhythmic riffs, a second guitar that takes an
interesting fuzz-effect solo, a horn section, Allen on trap drums and vocals in
English after which there is a gravel-voiced segment in another African
language.

The album’s format is Fela-style in musical structure: long introductions
which Manu Dibango once joked are longer than the songs themselves and, order
of solos. Tony Allen’s drum sounds are unmistakeably stamped on all the tunes
particularly on ‘Yeshe’ (about sexual harassment) and ‘E Parapo’ with their
Campos Square/Faji Owambe flavour of rhythms maintained for long spells by trap
drums, guitars and marimba/xylophone effects from electric piano. An obvious CD
by a drummer-leader who has inspired his musicians to modernise and ‘funkify’
Afrobeat as they hear it!

You may come across a dreadlocked man dressed in a T-Shirt and
a wrap-skirt walking the streets barefoot. It may be startling at first sight,
but that is the signature for the Ghanaian artist and self-proclaimed
propagator of Pidgin Music – Wanluv Kubolor (Kubolor means Vagabond in the Ga
language; one of the languages of Ghana).

The musician whose real name is Owusu Bonsu, recently launched
the first ever Pidgin Musical film titled, “Coz ov Moni” which he says would
soon be premiering in Nigeria. Ahead of the film’s opening in the UK on July
22, Wanluv Kubolor speaks to NEXT about his life and music.

The travelling musician

Music has always been around me, it always makes me happy.
While growing up I saw my parents enjoy music and every time there was music
playing, I saw my parents dancing. It just made me believe that music gives
happiness. While I was studying Computer Science in America, I was rapping and
singing as a hobby; one day, I realised that some of these small gigs was
getting me some kind of money. I knew that if I took it seriously I would be
able to live off music. Though I liked Computer Science and computers, I
realised I was enjoying the music more. I knew I had a rebel kind of life so I
knew I would not want to get an office job with that kind of life, so I did the
most logical thing and the best thing for me which was pursuing music.

The complexities of
Pidgin Music

The most appropriate label for the kind of music I do is Pidgin
Music, because my background is made up of different cultures that I grew up
in. In Ghana alone, I grew up in a Ga neighbourhood, but my family is Ashanti;
so with my father’s side of the family we were speaking Twi and in the house I
was speaking Romanian with my mother and listening to gypsy music. I was also
listening to Highlife, Hip-Hop and other folk songs on the radio. Highlife was
mostly in Twi and the folk songs mostly in Ga, while the gypsy music I listened
to was done in the gypsy language and the Romanian language. Generally, in my
life, I came into so many languages. I even learnt French at school. When I am
doing music I find it hard to separate these influences. A Romanian could be
listening to my music and hear a Romanian word or phrase that alone could
attract the person to the song. Being from a mixed environment has spawned this
style of music I do.

More than just the
buttock

My favourite thing is a woman’s buttock. I don’t really sing
about it; but if am doing a song that talks about a woman, it makes it very
compact. I do songs about many things around me like traffic – societal songs
which could talk about the people in uniform and what they do by the road side,
also I have songs like ‘Life Dey Jump’ which means: life is sweet, I also have
songs about the environment. As a wholesome human being I do wholesome music. I
keep myself open to all the forces around me to get inspired.

The short walk to music

I have been doing music professionally since 2004. I ran into
one of the greatest Ghanaian artist still alive, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley in Los
Angeles when he came to my show which was promoted by a Nigerian promoter.
After [Ambolley] saw my performance, he helped me take it to the next level
[and] he started booking some shows for me; I was also opening for him in shows
around the United States. Back in Ghana there is what we call PAYOLA which is
“Pay to Play” where people pay the stations for their music to be played.
Because of this system, my music has not reached a desired peak, but just the
small rotations I have got have made me one of the most popular artists in
Ghana.

I also do shows around the world. I attribute this to the
pidgin style. I did not release an album until ‘Green Card’ in 2007 (the cover
was designed by Lemi Ghariokwu who designed all the sleeves of Fela’s albums).
Some musicians who listen to foreign music believe that they have to sound like
the artist they ‘hear every day. So it’s a psychological battle. Now I have
‘Green Card’ and ‘Coz ov Moni’ out I am tending towards more traditional
sounds; am still sampling other sounds but am more into a live band traditional
sound. I enjoy touring the World [Music] circuit more than the Hip-Hop or the
Pop circuit. There might be money in the Pop circuit but you have a certain
life span.

Skirt wearing and
barefooted man

Growing up in Ghana I was always the odd person. In a way it
has desensitised me to comments or to stares. I wear a T-shirt or some
traditional shirt, a wrap-skirt and I don’t wear shoes. As a child, anytime I
was leaving the house to play, my parents will force me to put on footwear,
even when I put it on when am out of the house I hide it in the bushes or under
a block. When am coming back, I will remove it from where I hid it and wear it.
My parents always found out that my feet were dirty but my slippers always
looked new. As I grew older I started wearing shoes to school but later in 2006
as a student in America, I used to wear African slippers, the traditional ones
from Ashanti.

In 2007 when I got back to Ghana, walking around with these
ornamental shoes made my feet hurt by the middle of the day so I would put it
in my bag until I had to enter a Bank or the Club. After a while, I will forget
to wear them so I started leaving the slippers at home. One day someone came to
my house, his foot wear had cut so he borrowed mine. From that day I have never
worn shoes. I feel more alive when I walk around bare feet. For me it gives me
the enjoyment and freedom I had as a child, I feel that same youthful energy,
like Peter Pan. You also get a direct flow with the planet. The only
disadvantage for me is that the microphone I use to perform is not plastic so
it shocks me when I put it near my lips, so I put paper or cloth. I have been
walking around bare feet for three years. I have walked in places that no one
would want to go even with boots on.

The rap-skirt gives me easy access to things like fresh air. I
can’t think of a more comfortable wear and I think our ancestors had figured it
out a long time ago. Right now I can’t even wear supporters (underpants)
because when I wear it after sometime I feel uncomfortable. Our wearing
trousers came from European influence but that’s because of their climate which
is different from ours. When it’s cold I wear double wrap-skirt. The last time
I wore trousers was in December 2007; if you exclude the time I wore a trouser
on the set for ‘Coz Ov Moni’ for the closing scenes.

Coz Ov Moni

I grew up to sound of music from Indian films, where there is a
lot of music, even when the last killer is about to shoot they break into song.
Somewhere at the back of my mind I always knew I wanted to do a musical. The
idea came up between me and Mensah (a Ghanaian musician based in the UK) to do
a musical. Mensah is one of the pioneers of Hiplife in Ghana, by 15 he was
producing for Reggie Rockstone.

We were in secondary school together where we used to rap
together; we met again in 2005 in New York and decided to do a concept album
where everything happens in one day for two friends, so the album from the
beginning to the end is morning to night. So when you listen to one song the
next continues from where the last stops; as we started creating the album we
realised that we could make it a film.

We played it for producers who agreed to shoot it with about
three weeks of rehearsals and three weeks of shooting we were done we had
enough material to plan everything for ‘Coz Ov Moni’ It’s the first of its kind
in the world; and the professionalism we put into the production has made the
film to be accepted in so many film festivals around the world.

Singer TuFace Idibia and other music stars are expected to
enter the witness box of the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, on July 14 and
15, in the latest salvo in the battle against piracy in Nigeria. They are
likely to take the stand during a court appearance by the notorious ‘Eze Ndi
Awalawa’, the alleged kingpin of Alaba Market pirates.

The sanctity of artistic talent, and its rewards for its
creator, has for a long time been subject to incalculable violations in
Nigeria. It was therefore with jubilant resolve that stakeholders in the
Nigerian music and video industry joined forces as one formidable body to bring
to book, in a fierce legal battle, the much touted Tony Onwujekwe, also known
as ‘Alaba King of Pirates.’

Alaba Market, located in Ojo, Lagos, is the hub of artistic
piracy at its most virulent in Nigeria. Even works yet to be made public are
not spared in the perpetrators’ attempts to live off the intellectual efforts
of others. Many artists have since assumed the identity of fishwives in their
incessant complaints about the antics of these peddlers. Whole works, and
hastily crafted mélange of various artists works are given labels like “The
Best of Tuface”, ‘Timaya Versus P-Square’, ‘Nonstop Hits’, and sold at prices
that would make their creators cringe in pain.

First court appearance

This faceless, impenitent trade, after what seems to be a
lifetime characterised only by pointed fingers, ghost-hunting and lukewarm
efforts by government and its agencies in finding solutions, on Monday,
February 1, finally recorded an unprecedented breakthrough with the arraignment
of Tony Onwujekwe at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos.

Presided over by Justice Okon Abang, it was an electrifying
atmosphere in the courtroom as the three-count charge of piracy of the works of
the best-selling Nigerians musicians today, including: Idibia, Plantashun Boiz,
Faze, Banky W, Timaya, P-Square, and Dbanj among many others – was read to
Onwujekwe. He pleaded “not guilty” to all charges; and was initially remanded
in custody but is currently out on bail.

Many entertainment industry stakeholders such as Kelvin Luciano
of Questionmark Entertainment, Charles Novia of November Records, Cally Ikpe of
Calivision and Toni Payne were present at the arraignment. Tuface Idibia, Muma
Gee and W4 have also made appearances in court. Organisational presence was
recorded in the persons of Tony Okoroji, Chair of Copyright Society of Nigeria
(COSON), Toju Ejueyitchie; and John Ewelukwa Udegbunam, President, Music Label
Owners & Recording Industries Association of Nigeria (MORAN).

Speaking at the arraignment, Okoroji said, “While we celebrate
this historic event and recognise the right of every suspect to due process, we
call on the judicial branch to understand the significance of this case to all
living and dead Nigerian artists. We cannot afford the matter of the ‘Alaba
King of Pirates’ to become one of those Nigerian cases that are forever trapped
in twisted logic, never-ending legal manoeuvring and eternal adjournments.” He
concluded by calling for Onwujekwe to be brought to book without delay.

Second court appearance

Investigations into the case have proceeded with the court’s
admission, on April 29, of evidence in the form of boxes and boxes of pirated
works retrieved from the business premises of the defendant.

Fresh charges of unauthorised reproduction and offer for sale
of the works of Nigerian artists as diverse as 9ice, Wande Coal, Banky W, Olu
Maintain, Idris Abdulkareem, Yinka Ayefele and Osita Osadebe – were also
brought against the defendant. To these, the so-called ‘Alaba King of Pirates’
again pleaded not quilty.

Led in evidence by a prosecuting counsel from the Nigerian
Copyright Commission (NCC), Obi Ezeilo, the first prosecution witness was
Mathew Oloruntade, a police officer from Ojo Police Station. Oloruntade
testified on the arrest of Onwujekwe on November 5, 2009, following a complaint
concerning the defendant’s alleged piracy of work by a certain Peter Devine.

The battle ahead

The saga of Onwujekwe’s trial continues on July 14 and 15, when
artists will finally get their chance to testify to the ruinous impact of
piracy on their intellectual properties. And with the artistic and
organisational support garnered in the prosecution of the once invincible
‘Alaba King of Pirates’, many believe that the tide may be changing for the
Nigeria entertainment industry.

However, the war against piracy in Nigeria, while finally
making embryonic steps towards implementing a successful penal system for
intellectual theft, may still have some way to go. Even in the light of the
legal proceedings against Onwujekwe, pirates appear seemingly undeterred; and
the practice remains rife. Only recently, NEXT reported the massive piracy of
Mainframe Production’s latest film, ‘Arugba’. The speed of the reproduction,
just days after the movie’s launch, caused filmmaker Tunde Kelani to speculate
publicly that he might have to leave the country.

Commenting on the ongoing trial, Kelani said, “It is certain
now that [Onwujekwe] is the not the only one operating.” The cinematographer
informed that a third pirated version of ‘Arugba’ was released last week, along
with two of his earlier films, ‘The Narrow Path’ and ‘Yellow Card’. Amidst the
gloom, he is heartened by news that the National Film and Video Censors Board
(NFVC) has started raiding pirates in the South West of the country.

Kelani, who once said, “The government agencies have no clue as to what to
do or are intentionally refusing to act,” is also tackling copyright
infringements of his work head on. His lawyers have succeeded in getting
unauthorised full-length versions of ‘Arugba’ taken off YouTube. Nigerians were
responsible for the breach; and one of them has sent Kelani a threatening
email; and boasted about the intention to pirate even his future films. And so
it would seem that the impunity of pirates is far from dented by the current
case against Tony Onwujekwe; and there is a long way to go to reduce the
prevalence of piracy in this country. Much hinges on the outcome of the case
against the ‘Alaba King of Pirates’.

Following the approval, earlier this year, of the Copyright
Society of Nigeria (COSON) by the Fedreal Government as the Collective
Management Organisation (CMO) for musical works and sound recordings, the
organisation held a Stakeholders’ Forum at the Protea Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos on
July 1.

The event attracted key players in the music industry,
including: Admiral Dele Abiodun, President, Performing Musicians Association of
Nigeria (PMAN); musicians Onyeka Onwenu, Blacky, El Dee, Kenny Saint Brown,
Stella Monye, Adewale Ayuba, and Essence. Also present were producers Obi Asika
of Storm 360; Tajudeen Adepetu, of Soundcity; Kenny Ogungbe of Kennis Music and
Primetime Entertainment; as well as Clarence Peters of Capital Hill Records.
Broadcast, advertising and telecommunications media representatives were also
at the forum.

A short documentary narrated by musician Sunny Neji, was
screened to the gathering, to communicate the social, legal, business,
constitutional and international foundation for the emergence of COSON. In
Neji’s words, “With the approval of COSON as a sole CMO and the establishment
of a solid management for the organisation, the old excuse, ‘we don’t know who
to pay to’, is now dead and buried. COSON is here to make sure that never again
will Nigerian creative talents labour in vain.”

COSON chair, Tony Okoroji, took the podium after the
documentary. In his speech, he communicated his appreciation for the immense
support COSON has received, and its readiness to make a positive change in the
industry. “Never in the history of Nigeria has this calibre of people come
together to discuss these issues in one room,” he declared. “The era of free
music is gone. By the approval of COSON as a sole CMO, the Federal Government
of Nigeria has given us the marching orders to end the abuse of creativity in
Nigeria. We are determined to give meaning to the COSON slogan – Let the music
pay.”

The new management team of COSON, led by Acting General Manager,
Chinedu Chukwuji, was also introduced to the attendees at the forum. The
Director General of the Nigerian Copyright Commission, Adebambo Adewopo, was
represented by Charles Amudipe, who assured delegates of the “full support” of
the NCC on behalf of the Federal Government.

Copyright training

The gains of the Stakeholders Forum was quickly followed up with
an introductory course on Copyright and Collective Management, held on July 7
and 8 at the same venue, the Protea Hotel, Ikeja. The course was held under the
auspices of the NCC, which provided trainers for the sessions. Originally
intended for operatives of COSON only, the two-day training was extended to
include copyright owners (musicians) who are members of the organization; users
of musical works; and the media. Welcoming all to the programme, Tony Okoroji
explained that the widening of the training was due to the fact that “there are
several elements that must come together for the success of the reformed
copyright collective management regime in Nigeria.”

Representing the Director General of the NCC was Bayo Aiyegbusi,
who assured participants that the government agency “will provide the
institutional support that COSON will need.” He noted that developments on
copyright and collective management in Nigerian are in line with developments
in the rest of the world. Speaking further, Mr Aiyegbusi disclosed that two
international agencies will visit Nigeria in the coming days, to assist COSON
in ensuring that musicians get due return for the use of their works. The
visiting organizations are: the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)
and the Paris-based International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers
(CISAC). “The music must pay,” said Aiyegbusi.

Among the papers delivered at the training were: ‘Introduction
to Copyright Law and Administration in Nigeria’ by John O. Asein, Director of
the Nigerian Copyright Institute; and ‘An Overview of the Provisions and
Imperatives of the Collective Management Organisation Regulations’ by Mike O.
Akpan of the NCC.

The Introductory course was attended by music industry figures
including singers Onyeka Onwenu, Sunny Neji, Nomoreloss, Kenny Saint Brown; and
ace producer Laolu Akins. Toju Ejueyitchie, Managing Director, Premier Music
Publishing Ltd and Chair of Nigerian Association of Recording Industries (NARI)
also attended; as did John Ewelukwa Udegbunam, President, Music Label Owners
and Recording Industries Association of Nigeria (MORAN).

‘Dem no send’

Speaking during one session, Kenny Saint Brown thanked Tony
Okoroji for “pulling me in” for active involvement in COSON. She revealed that,
like 95 percent of her fellow musicians, she had been resistant to joining any
organisation, even PMAN. But now, “I want to contribute hundred percent to the
growth of COSON,” pledged Saint Brown, who said she had never received a kobo
in royalties in all her 12 years as a singer. Now rebranded as KSB, the singer
urged for a youth-driven approach that would make COSON and its objectives
appealing to Hip-Hoppers who dominate the music industry. “Artists, we don’t
respond to things like this (training), it’s too serious. Artists like
jamborees.”

Nomoreloss concurred, saying, “Intellectual property owners are
young people. They are the ones keeping the music industry alive today and – to
use their language – ‘Dem no send’. They don’t know [COSON].” Efforts must be
made to bring younger musicians on board, he said, adding that the NCC should
be seen to endorse every major campaign by COSON because “Nigerians respect the
law when it is government law.”

Responding to KSB and Nomoreloss, Tony Okoroji reeled out the
names of a diverse range of musicians including Ruggedman, Muma Gee, Stella
Monye and Adewale Ayuba – all of whom are COSON members. To support its
application for approval, the organisation had supplied the details of over
1000 members, well above the government requirement of 100. “The problem of
COSON is not membership,” Okoroji stated; the problem is that most of the
members don’t speak about their involvement in the CMO. “Encourage them to
speak, because it is about their rights. “Among media representatives at the
training were Africa Independent Television (AIT) and newspaper editors from
The Guardian, The Daily Independent and NEXT. Participants were presented NCC
certificates at the end of the course by Mr Aiyegbusi.

COSON is to follow up its July 1 Lagos forum with similar events in other
cities. A Stakeholders Forum is scheduled to hold at the Bolingo Hotel in Abuja
on July 20; and another one at the Top Rank Hotel in Onitsha August 4.