Piracy will soon come to an end –FG

’Nonye Ben-Nwankwo and Ademola Olonilua

The Federal Government of Nigeria has promised that the issue of piracy which has ravaged the creative industry in the country would soon come to an end.

According to the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Federal Government has constituted a committee that would tackle this scourge and bring it to an end.

Mohammed said this during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Federal Government and the Tony Elumelu Foundation to strengthen the creative industry.

However, Mohammed urged the members of the industry to be united in order to ensure that the efforts of the Federal Government to tackle piracy would yield fruits.

 “I have had private meetings with the members of the creative industry and I think what we need more is unity of purpose. You need to come together as one. There are so many chiefs in this industry. Everybody is a president and I do not see any subject. A group will come to my office for one courtesy visit and in less than one hour; another group will call and say that the first group was fake. This is a big issue that has to be resolved.

“However, I am of firm belief that the days of piracy are almost at the end. You don’t fight piracy with the old tools that you have. You must fight piracy with new technology. The moment we are able to migrate from analogue to digital broadcasting, it will become more difficult for anybody to pirate your work.  The president was so concerned about piracy and he said he would constitute a committee to fight piracy; so piracy is on its way out, we will control it to a level where those who invested their hard earned money would not end up as paupers,” he said.

Meanwhile, the MoU is basically a framework for bringing creative industry stakeholders together with investors, financiers and business leaders to transform the creativity of industry entrepreneurs into a profitable sector capable of attracting international collaboration and contributing consistently to the national economy.

 While speaking at the event, Chairman of Heirs Holdings and UBA Plc, Mr. Tony Elumelu said, “Without doubt, Nollywood is a global leader and our young musicians are emerging as international sensations with serious earning potential. This partnership will provide the framework for building business capacity and attracting sustainable investment.”