COSON Holds Stakeholders’ Forum in Kano

Mary Ekah

Several top personalities gathered in the North-Western states of Nigeria recenytly as Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), the nation’s wave making copyright collective management organisation for musical works and sound recordings in Nigeria successfully held its Select Stakeholders’ Forum for copyright owners and users in Kano.

The stakeholders’ forum was preceded by a courtesy visit to the Emir of Kano, His Excellency Muhammad Sanusi II at his palace. Receiving the COSON delegation led by the COSON Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji; the Emir, H.E Muhammad Sanusi II welcomed the COSON team to the ancient and historic city of Kano, in Kano State.

The Emir expressed his admiration for the COSON Chairman, Chief Okoroji for continually spearheading the drive for the respect of intellectual property in Nigeria and ensuring that creative minds reap from their creative works through royalty collection which COSON has paid to right owners since inception. The Emir also noted that the visit to Kano simply showed that COSON is an organisation for all irrespective of location, religion or sentiment.

The delegation then proceeded to the extraordinary event which witnessed a historic gathering of Northern artistes, songwriters, composers, music publishers, performers, record companies, broadcast stations, hotels, night clubs, restaurants, transport companies and Disc Jockey’s from Katsina and Kaduna. The forum which lasted over five hours, afforded music users and music stakeholders the opportunity to understand the concept of copyright, and the importance of the respect for intellectual property in the new knowledge driven economy.

Speaking after the forum, COSON Chairman, Okoroji said, “The Kano State Select Stakeholders’ Forum provided us an opportunity to interact with the people on whose behalf we work. COSON continues to take giant strides across the nation and across the world. One of the key reasons for the rapid growth of COSON and the significant stability that this great organisation enjoys is that COSON is stakeholder driven.”

Speaking also on the stakeholders’ forum, COSON General Manager, Mr. Chinedu Chukwuji said, “In the last seven years, COSON has continued to redefine the music copyright licensing landscape in Nigeria as it continues to push for better education of music users to ensure better copyright remuneration for music copyright owners, and the Kano stakeholders forum was an avenue for us to achieve this. We are committed at ensuring that Nigerians begin to understand the importance of the respect for intellectual property.’’