Legendary Nigerian musician and songwriter Onyeka Onwenu has announced her membership with the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria (MCSN).
The septuagenarian, who has a lengthy and successful music career which kicked off in 1981 while working with NTA, announced her membership at a media briefing at the MCSN corporate office, Ikeja, Lagos, on Tuesday.
She told PREMIUM TIMES that her decision to rejoin MCSN was born out of alleged mismanagement of funds by the leadership of the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON).
The music star lamented how COSON collected her music rights and royalties on her behalf but never remitted them to her.
She said: “Since 2011, I’ve never gotten any kobo from music. After a series of efforts, why would a collecting society withhold my sweat?
“COSON has a music rights collection agency that is unfortunately roughly managed. COSON is no longer a CMO recognised by the government. There is nothing like COSON.”
Speaking on why she has decided to join MCSN, Ms Onyeka noted that MCSN’s experience as a collecting society is vast. Explaining that the collecting agency is internationally recognised and should be left behind or not recognised and not allowed to keep doing what they are doing well is wrong.
COSON, MCSN warCOSON has now been embroiled in a lingering crisis for years.
The ongoing confusion started after an impromptu meeting of COSON on December 7, 2017, declared Efe Omoregbe as the successor of former chairman Tony Okoroji.
At a press briefing in June 2018, Mr Omoregbe, widely known as 2baba’s manager, decried what he described as Mr Okoroji’s access to and abuse of funds belonging to members.
The body has been divided regarding leadership, with Mr Omoregbe and Mr Okoroji crying infringements and treachery, respectively.
The crisis took a new dimension on May 5, 2018, when the Nigerian Copyright Commission suspended COSON’s operating licence.
In the last decade, MCSN has also been inundated with several challenges.
The most prominent being a longtime battle with its fierce rival, COSON, over royalty collections.
In January 2019, the Supreme Court affirmed the legal status of MCSN to operate as a collective management organisation for music (musical work) and sound recordings in Nigeria.
MSCN leadership respondsThe CEO of the Music Society of Nigeria, Mayo Agilaran, affirmed the pleasure of having Mr back at MCSN.
He said: “Today is one of my happiest moments. Our sister is back to where she belongs. Onyeka Onwenu is one of the founding mothers of today Nigeria’s Music Industry. She was and is a founding member of MCSN.
When MCSN was at the founding stage, when we were trying to understand the collection society, she was ably present with us. It brings so much pleasure to have her back on board today.
During an interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Agilaran said the collecting society now has an app that can be used to monitor radio, television and their use of music intellectual property.
He said the initiative dubbed GoCreate would make the collection and tracking seamless.
This applies to both the organisation in question and the music artists, producers, songwriters and all other resource persons who worked on a particular project.
