Chief Tony Okoroji says Thank you

10 YEARS OF THE COSON EXPERIENCE: THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR SUPPORT

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO COSON

On this 20th day of May 2020, we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the official take-off of the operations of Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) which has become Nigeria’s must successful and most admired copyright collective management organization.

When we began our journey on May 20, 2010, very few people gave us any chance of success. We had been told, over and over again, that collective management of copyright would never work in Nigeria and that the Nigerian creative industry lacked the discipline to build the stable and complex institution required to make collective management a success. With very focused leadership and fired up by our slogan, “let the music pay!”, COSON has broken that tough jinx and has built an institution that works.

From Day 1, we have kept strictly to every rule in the book and complied with every law of our nation. For ten years, we never missed one Annual General Meeting and every year, we have had our AGM in the month of May, the month we celebrate our take-off. At each of our AGMs, we have invited a cross section of the media to follow and report our very open discussions and deliberations. Transparency has been our watchword and we had our meetings in the open because at COSON we have never had anything to hide. Indeed, apart from the statutorily prescribed Annual General Meeting, we also held an Extra-Ordinary General Meeting every December at which our members had an open opportunity to discuss every issue. The COSON Board had fixed a date for the 2020 COSON Annual General Meeting this May in the COSON tradition. Unfortunately, because of the COVID 19 restrictions, the AGM would have to be held on another date.
Without the prompting of anyone, the COSON accounts have been audited every single year by auditors appointed by our Annual General Meetings as required by the Companies & Allied Matters Act (CAMA). We have had the audited accounts reviewed and approved by our AGM as required by law and filed each annual return with the Corporate Affairs Commission and sent an activity report made up of hundreds of pages every year to the NCC. Without any question, COSON has been the most transparent and accountable organization in the history of the Nigerian creative industry.
When the COSON House was commissioned exactly three years ago, a lot of people were surprised that there was not one Naira of government money in the acquisition and construction of this magnificent building, no donor dollar or pound came from anywhere and that we acquired, built and equipped COSON House with no bank loan and no debt of any type. COSON has never received any money from the government.
For ten years, except for one month, the month of December 2018 when all the COSON bank accounts were mysteriously frozen without notice, not one of the highly trained staff of COSON has received his or her salary one day late. It is also a fact that no COSON member has ever paid any registration fee, monthly dues or subscription of any type to COSON yet every COSON member is entitled to some income from us every year.
In its ten years of operation, COSON has distributed hundreds of millions of Naira as royalties to its members and affiliates. In April 2020, even with the major bank accounts of COSON still frozen and the issues in court, COSON in a responsive and responsible manner reacted to the suffering of its thousands of members across the country under the pressure of the COVID 19 lockdown. The society became the first Nigerian institution to provide such palliatives to its members at a time of great need. At first, =N=50 million was approved by the COSON Board for this purpose. An additional =N=22.5 million was later approved. The distribution has been done in a very structured, professional and transparent manner which has been widely celebrated by members of COSON.
We are very proud of the success that COSON has achieved which is a product of the leadership’s laser focused dedication to defending the interest and welfare of our members and the deft management of our resources.
Unfortunately, the COSON outstanding success also became our albatross. As it has become clear that we have broken the jinx and built an organization which across the continent is being celebrated, several midnight plots and gang-ups began to emerge. All kind of plots have been hatched to hijack for a few people COSON which we have built as a pan-Nigerian organization to provide succor to all owners of musical works and sound recordings in every nook and cranny of the Nigerian nation. All kinds of false stories have been manufactured and spread to tarnish the image of our great organization. Fortunately, despite all the stones thrown at COSON, our organization continues to stand firm. Despite the many attempts to derail COSON, our organization continues to stand strong, proving the fact that the Nigerian creative industry finally has an institution with roots strong enough to withstand the rascality that has caused our industry great instability and destroyed creative industry institutions in our country.
This success is not just due to the leadership but also to the membership which has overwhelmingly shown unflinching support to COSON and those of our licensees and partners who have continued to pledge their faith in COSON.
As we commence a new stage of our journey, COSON has announced key changes in the management of the society with Ms. Bernice Eriemeghe, a well-trained and experienced professional accountant taking over as General Manager from Mr. Chinedu Chukwuji. This transition has been done in a very friendly manner with strong camaraderie and warmth, once again proving the maturity of the leadership available to COSON.
Going forward, the COSON Board has directed the management team to be laser focused on making COSON a first class international organization driven by data, digital technology, transparency and accountability with the clear objective being the happiness and well-being of our members and other stakeholders.
I have no doubt that once again we will deliver and make the members of COSON proud. We will also make all Nigerians who appreciate good things in our country happy.

My heartfelt thanks to all of you.

CHIEF TONY OKOROJI
Chairman, COSON
May 20, 2020

HOW OKOROJI SHARED THE =N=200,000 HE COLLECTED FROM EFE OMOROGBE

EXCLUSIVE!!!

HOW OKOROJI SHARED THE =N=200,000 HE COLLECTED FROM EFE OMOROGBE

It will be recalled that Justice Josephine  Oyefeso of the High Court of Lagos State in Ikeja, last year ordered Artiste Manager, Efe Omorogbe of Now Muzik to pay COSON Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji a total of =N=200,000.00 as cost for truncating  trial in two undefended defamation cases brought by Chief Okoroji against Omorogbe. Just as the trials were about to begin in Justice Oyefeso’s court, Omorogbe’s lawyer rushed to court to beg the judge to suspend the trial so that Omorogbe could file defence to the suits.

For over 9 months, Mr. Omorogbe struggled, failed or neglected to pay the money prompting Okoroji’s lawyers to write to him warning him that if he did not pay the money within two weeks, Garnishee proceedings would be commenced to levy execution on Omorogbe’s property over the debt. As a result, Efe Omorogbe rushed to pay the sum of =N=200,000.00 to the account of Whitedove Solicitors, lawyers to Chief Tony Okoroji.

Unknown to many, the =N=200,000.00 was treated as war bounty at COSON House and Okoroji’s TOPS Ltd, both in Ikeja and among Chief Okoroji’s friends and relations. To many of Okoroji’s people, the money was seen as appetizer in what they consider to be the fruits of a main dish of damages to come as a price for  Omorogbe’s audacity to organize a failed ‘coup’ against the man considered by many to be his mentor and friend and the attempt to widely rubbish the name and character of the most respected former president of PMAN.

Tony Okoroji, the master of copyright royalty distribution, took the position that the money did not belong to him but to the many people who have stood by him in the war declared against him by the Efe Omorogbe led gang.

A source close to Chief Okoroji says that over one hundred people got a share of the Efe Omorogbe ‘loot’. Among those said to have got a piece of the action are Okoroji’s wife, his driver and housekeeper and every member of the COSON Board. On the day the members of the COSON staff got their share of the money, there was wide jubilation at COSON House. In unison, they thundered out the COSON mantra, “let the music pay!” Thereafter, some of the staff spent their money on recharge cards, others on pepper soup and drinks. At Okoroji’s TOPS Ltd, the scene was repeated. We are also informed that several of Okoroji’s close friends such as Patrick Doyle and his fiery lawyer and friend, Mr. James Ononiwu, did not miss out in the bonanza.

Said our source, “you will be surprised that some journalists got their own share of the money and so did some staff of the NCC who are pretending to be fighting Chief Tony Okoroji. ‘Presido’ did not spend one naira of the money on himself. I am not sure that he is interested in Efe Omorogbe’s money. I believe he just wants Efe Omorogbe to learn a bitter lesson”.

P.M Walker for TOPS

Culled from dailynewscover.com

COSON APPROVES ADDITIONAL =N=22.5 MILLION FOR NIGERIAN MUSICIANS AS CORONAVIRUS RELIEF.

COSON APPROVES ADDITIONAL =N=22.5 MILLION FOR NIGERIAN MUSICIANS AS CORONAVIRUS RELIEF.

As a result of the extension of the lockdown across the country which has increased the hardship of the citizens and made entertainment activities impossible all over the nation, the Board of Nigeria’s biggest and most respected copyright collective management organization, COSON, has approved an additional sum of =N=22.5 Million as Anti-Coronavirus Emergency Relief Distribution to its members. This is in addition to the =N=50 Million originally approved.

Speaking on the development, COSON Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji said, “starting immediately, with the co-operation of the banks, each of about 4,500 qualified members of COSON will receive an alert for an additional sum of Five Thousand Naira added to the initial sum of eleven thousand naira in the Anti-Coronavirus Emergency Relief (ACER) General Distribution. Those who for any reason have not received the initial Eleven Thousand Naira will receive a straight-forward Sixteen Thousand Naira. If this helps some of our members to buy some garri or some rice, we will be happy. We truly wish we could do more and we would have been able to do more if not for the constant irrational harassment and the many obstacles placed on our way by a government agency which has completely misunderstood its mandate. Is it not terrible that in these hard times, no one apart from COSON appears to be doing anything for the Nigerian artiste?

“I am in touch with many members of COSON who are in need of continued assistance. Other members of our Board are receiving similar messages. It is our sacred duty to provide for our members and we will not shake that duty. COSON must continue to be responsible and responsive to the needs of those we serve and there should be no excuse not to help them wade through these very difficult times.

“I am once again proud of the quick response of members of the COSON Board who have shown great understanding that we must continue to be our brothers’ keeper. I am also proud of the COSON management team of Vincent Adawaisi, Isa Aruna, Anthony Imuse and Tolu Balogun who have ensured that every instruction of the Board is executed with dispatch”.

Said Chief Okoroji, “From the beginning, we took a decision that COSON would be a world class organization, transparent, accountable, credible and totally focused on the well-being of its members. Once you walk into the magnificent COSON House in Ikeja, you cannot but feel an organization run on the cutting edge of management and technology. The well laid out sparkling clean environment and the quality of the staff will immediately tell you that this is not your typical Nigerian organization. That is why some cannot stop themselves from throwing stones at us.

“I know that we cannot please everyone but we are working very hard every day to lift up the musicians of Nigeria, promote and defend our industry and provide visible solutions to the challenges of our members. I very well know that much of the attack on COSON is a product of envy. We have consistently done that which many thought was impossible in Nigeria. We have absolutely no interest in the cantankerous name calling and rabid character assassination which many appear to dwell in. We are not interested because none of the squabbling will provide one cup of rice for the Nigerian musician or one cube of sugar for his tea”.

Concluded Chief Okoroji, “I know that questions will be asked whether COSON can afford this additional palliative in the light of the present circumstances. My answer is that with prudent management, we can. It is fraud and stealing that make things impossible in Nigeria. In keeping with our tradition, no hanky-panky or shady dealing will be tolerated in the disbursements. I will continue to provide consistent updates. At the end of the exercise, the minutest details of the disbursements will be brought before the Board and the General Assembly for thorough examination and ratification”.

Peter Asiegbu