My war against piracy is unending — Nigerian Copyright Commission DG
By Ogbonna Amadi
Published: December 9, 2006
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Adebambo Anthony Adewopo is an authority when it comes to copyright administration little wonder he is presently occupying the number one seat at the Nigerian Copyright Commission where he has succeeded in challenging the powers of pirates who hitherto ruled like lords. A renown scholar who has held several key positions in the academic world, Professor Adebambo has continued to wage a never-ending war against piracy in Nigeria. He spoke to Ogbonna Amadi on his journey so far. It ‘s very revealing interview. Enjoy it.

How far have you gone with your campaign against piracy?
The campaign is going on course but I would have expected a much more robust support from the industry (corporate sectors) for this anti-piracy campaign. The result of our campaign definitely is to benefit not just the industry, but the entire nation. What I have observed is something more of the lukewarm attitude from our corporate citizens but unfortunately what we are doing now is not just a sectorial thing, it’s a national campaign. What we are doing affects the society as a whole and I believe we ought to have received a more robust support from them, not necessarily material, but in terms of lending a voice to the campaign, in terms of sponsorship of some of our activities. So, l am looking forward to a much more and principled support for our anti-piracy campaign, that’s the point I’m making.

Are you not also worried that stakeholders and right owners have relatively done nothing in the past to support your campaign?
What I have seen is that a lot of our stake holders actually pay lip service and this is what I have observed in the last two years in office. For us at NCC, we can go as far as the right owners themselves because we exist to help the right owners. We exist to help them by creating the enabling environment for their rights to thrive and if they are not able to appreciate the evil of piracy and be able to launch veritably into it, then it’s very unfortunate.

What we are recommending to them is that l think by now, most of the right owners and stake holders should have anti- piracy budgets where they can deploy those resources to fight piracy. How can you be complaining of piracy and at the same time you don’t have any arrangement or any facility within your own industry to combat this evil either as a corporate organisation or association? .
There is nowhere in the world were government fights piracy 100 percent.And for your information and this is the first time I’m indulging this to the public, government current thinking is those right owners themselves have the primary responsibility to combat piracy. Government will no longer provide funds for you to fight piracy.

Government is already making a lot of effort, more than any previous government in this country to strengthen and empower NCC. And when you say empower, is not just about giving money or giving billion naira yes, we are now at the situation where right owners themselves can actually take this thing up and make NCC be what they wanted to be in terms of these campaigns. Never before has this campaign been launched the way it’s launched and never before have we been able to deploy all these that we are doing. So, what we need now is a serious synergy, I know and believe that many of them are serious and are genuine about piracy war. But they need to take it to the next level that’s the only way we can dislodge these people.

And it’s so pathetic to know that the industry of piracy is more organised.
Where we are not fighting each other, we are being fragmented, polarised while the pirates who are organised, are strengthened every day.

So the industry of right owners must now take a critical review of their position so they don’t lose the current tempo that NCC has already attained. They can key into it and we can take it to the next level.

This is my observation and it’s not tragic rather, it’s just that they have to be a little more proactive than before.

Could the problem of the Alaba traders be not being enlightened?
Let me say this to you and bluntly too, the Alaba people are not serious. I have stretched the olive branch privately and we’ve set up committees to tackle the problem of piracy with them and we’ve set up meetings, but they are not serious. And frankly speaking its not yet over with the Alaba people. We have made overtures and we’ve made contacts yet they are not playing balls. What I’d expected them to do by now is to be knocking on our doors if they are genuinely serious about this. I have not seen the level of seriousness I expect to see from people who are ready to combat piracy. I will not say they are not serious instead, they still have unrepentant people in a market where they are people complying. This means that, we have a job to ensure that those who are complying are not wasted.
We are really taking a second look at that place to make sure that the law is enforced to the letter.

Inspite of your drive, the police role in this whole issue is still suspect, why is it so?
The thing about the synergy of effort particularly as it concerns the police is that it must be evolving by the day. It’s not a once and for all thing. The police is huge and we don’t have an outstanding anti-piracy force in the police. And each time we are constantly having new regiments in the police, that means there are succession too in the police and this must be on - going.

What we have is the greatest of support from the highest command in the police, perhaps in future this will go down the ranks. But this is not something you can achieve in a hurry. For instance we have a team that is going on a routine inspection with us meaning that we required a dedicated anti-piracy regiment of police men to work with.

The most important thing is that we don’t relent with this effort and that we remain committed to the campaign and get government to know that there is need for a dedicated regiment of anti-piracy policemen to work with us.

Recently some of your men graduated from the NDLEA institute, are we looking at having armed enforcers for the NCC and how are they going to operate?
It was a landmark achievement for the NCC and perhaps for the first time we can truly say that our copyright inspectors can be truly enforcement officers for the first time in more than twenty years existence of the commission. It is telling us in turn that these people doing the job in the past were not really trained or equipped for the job. And this is just the beginning, it’s not as if that training is to make them perfect but at least they are seeing for the first time a glimpse of how enforcement officers should be.

Now on the issue of arms, you should know that we are not the only agency that is no carrying arms and so I don’t think that should be an issue. And to be an arm carrying enforcement involves a lot of processes, a lot of reviews and all of that, but it’s something we are really looking forward in the long run. But the most important break through we are looking forward to is the synergy with other law enforcement agency. For instance we had contact with NAFDAC recently and we are going to be approaching EFCC. We are going to be having synergies with them on the ways to checkmate piracy in the country and you know what this means.

We need a high-powered enforcement capability to be able to checkmate this menace. The pirates have seen in the last one year (and this you can’t take away from us) that it can longer be business as usual. These will have to watch their back on a daily basis because we cannot be complaining about incapacity inadequacy when these guys are having a free ride to the banks.

Let’s go back to what you said earlier about government’s decision to soft pedal on funding the war against piracy, what’s going to happen since we know that despite all the effort, it’s not even enough to provide all that you need to combat piracy in the country?
Public private participation is the key and that in itself is one of the imperatives of modern government all over the world. Private sector drives the economy, government provides the policy framework and the enabling environment. The synergy must be critical and that synergy must be attained in our case here.

Government has set up the NCC as a regulatory agency to support the industry and that in itself is a sufficient indication. If there was no NCC, then right owners may as well be dealing with a police that has so many functions to keep them busy.And frankly we must underscore the importance of the public private participation in this sector, it’s something that should not be undermined. It’s very important for us to be able to come to a level of zero tolerance to piracy.

How far have you been to tackle the lingering feud between the PMRS and the MCSN?
We have gone very far and I believe perhaps farther than we have been on this issue. It is true that they had talked before, some ten years ago and since they re talking now what’s new about their talking. I can tell you that for the first time in may years the parties are on the same table. Yes you cannot remove the element of mutual suspicion because they have been fighting each other for so many years they cannot be friends over night. And besides are we talking about personalities or the interest and livelihood of hundreds of thousands of right owners. And it beats me hollow when I see people grand standing because we are talking about a huge resource that will not only contribute to the livelihood of the right owner but to the industry and the entire economy of this country.

What we have done considering the trouble this has cost the NCC is to bring them back to the roundtable to negotiate. They have come with respective submission and positions and we are harmonising and playing the role of unbiased umpires to see that what comes out of the decision is fair and acceptable to the entire nation. The most important thing is that both parties have expressed the desire to work together and that alone is a good sign for an industry that has over the years suffered selfish and conflicting interest. I must commend them for the effort.

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