TELECOM OPERATORS DEFRAUDS NIGERIAN ARTISTES D’BANJ REVEALED, BECKONS ON REPS FOR INTERVENTION.
The ongoing war between music artiste in Nigeria and Telecommunication companies who have been accused of short changing artiste whose hit songs are used as ring ” Back Tones” by various telecommunication platforms in Nigeria, while nothing in terms of cash remunerations gets to artistes, took a new dimension as the act was exposed by the music genius, D’banj in a Public hearing in National Assembly.
The Chairman of the Ad-Hoc Committee on Telecommunication in House of Representatives, Hon. Ahmed Abu has pointed the need to amend the content laws guiding the Activities of telecommunications companies in Nigeria to give content providers, like Music artiste benefit for their intellectual properties.
In an interactive session with some correspondents in Abuja on Tuesday the Niger state born lawmaker lamented that some of the submissions made to the House Ad-hoc Committee points to the fact that some Nigerian artistes whose songs are used for various promo’s have been cheated.
“If we have entertainment laws in this country, I am afraid they are not being implemented, If these laws are implemented some of the things happening in the industry will not be happening”
If you listen to big names like D’banj some of the issues he raised have raised concern about the manner the entertainment industry is ruined in Nigeria”. United Kingdom for example, their entertainment industry is huge, U.S state of California for example, the entertainment industry gulps in over 400 million dollars in terms of revenue”
Why I am so passionate about their course is simple, these are young men and women who created something out of nothing, if these guys have not created these properties they would be out there writing applications” he said.
“We cannot speak specifically that this or that amount has been taken from an artiste but one thing is clear, Nigerian artiste are being taken advantage of”
“The loopholes in our laws cannot even be referred to as loopholes any longer, it is just like the Telecommunication companies decided to neglect the intent in our laws”
“They have created an industry which can likely, (if we have the right laws) compete with the telecommunication industry itself”
“I don’t know whether it is a deliberate action to suppress on their creativity’’ he said. “When these boys create their material, it runs into billions of naira, they don’t have access to these monies, these companies take these materials, in a manner I don’t want to term ‘Capital Flight”.
“We plan to meet with key players in the entertainment industry to talk about the lotteries, promo’s and what have you, next week”.