The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami SAN, has vowed to ensure the reformation of the copyright system in the country so that the system can effectively protect and promote creative enterprise in the nation and ensure that the Nigerian economy benefits from the creative ingenuity of Nigerian citizens and those interested in investing in the creative industry.
The minister who was speaking in his Abuja office recently during a meeting with a delegation of the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) led by its Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji, said that as part of the reform, the Nigerian Copyright Commission will be energised without delay so that it will pivot from its present analogue approach to the enforcement of the copyright law to a new and muscular digital approach.
While addressing the AGF, Okoroji said that his delegation was in Abuja at a time of national economic distress to engage critical policy makers in the President Muhammadu Buhari administration on how to harness the potential contributions, which Nigerian creativity can make to the development of the Nigerian nation. “For a long time, there has been too much talk without action and people are getting disillusioned. In the present economic environment, the Nigerian nation must recognise the necessity to fully deploy the substantial comparative advantage, which Nigeria possesses with its creative industry.
It is doable to use this sector to provide hundreds of thousands of well-paying jobs for the teeming masses of Nigerian youth who parade the streets of our country almost hopelessly and which hopelessness invariably attracts them to become labourers in the devil’s workshop.” He said further that the era when the Nigerian economy was almost completely dependent on oil and gas was in the nation’s past and will not come back and Nigeria’s future will have to be built on the creative ingenuity of the Nigerian people.
He said that the ingenuity could be seen in how wide Nigerian music, movies, literature, fashion, programming, and similar products of the creative endeavour are in demand across the world. Okoroji emphasised that the nation must not only ensure that the demand for Nigeria’s creative products around the world is met but that in meeting the demand, appropriate value is received by Nigerian citizens. The minister pledged that the creative sector would soon see developments arising from the meeting.
