Chairman Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON), Tony Okoroji, has called for the coming together of the different interest groups within the music industry.

According to Okoroji, Nigerian musicians must unite to properly tackle the problems of the industry and end the era of ‘divide and rule’ which has been deployed to pauperise the stakeholders in the Nigerian music industry.

The veteran musician and administrator made the call in a statement sent to Maggie’s Blog issued on September 1 which was declared in the industry as “No Music Day”.

Okoroji, said: “On this ‘No Music Day’, we must tell the musicians of Nigeria that our problems will not be solved until we stop the bickering and factionalization in our industry which most times are exploited to keep us down.

“We must work together in the interest of our country and the young people who look towards us for guidance.

“We must understand that in a democracy, there will be alternative points of view. Each alternative view should not result in the setting up of an alternative faction.”

Continuing, he said: “We should no longer tolerate a situation where there are diverse organisations in the industry that, upon close observation, provide no answers and do nothing for anyone except those who claim to be their leaders.”

Speaking on COVID-19 as it affects the musicians, the former president of the Performing Musicians Employers Association of Nigeria (PMAN) said:

“We have read in the newspapers and heard on broadcast media that the government is interested in providing COVID-19 palliatives for the creative industry.

“We find it odd that as the one Nigerian organization with the greatest number of creative people and undeniable structure, several months into the COVID-19 lockdown, nobody has reached out to us, nobody has asked us any questions and nobody has provided any palliatives.”

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