Last week, there was a media briefing which was called by a group of stakeholders opposed to Chief Tony Okoroji who wants to continue as Chairman of COSON. After the conference, past four, City People’s Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL, sat the founder of NOW MUZIK and elected Chairman of COSON, Efe Omorogbe, down for a chat. He once again reiterated his desire and that of his team to ensure that COSON is properly run. He also shared candidly what he thinks of the former chairman and his chances of taking back total control of COSON.
Like you already said at the conference, you and the rest of the team will do your best to explore every sensible option available and ensure things don’t get any messier than they’ve already done, but I’m sure you know that Chief Tony Okoroji is not the kind of person that will go down without giving you guys a fight, so how do you hope to do this?
Our focus is to do our own thing. Our focus is to do the right thing. We’re trying to build a world class CMO and if someone stands in the way, we remove them. And you know, he’s been removed as chairman and so we move on. We didn’t get here overnight, we didn’t drop out of the sky, we have been in the trenches. Building COSON to this point has been a long hard battle and if we’re not committed, if we’re not marathon runners, we would not be here. So, we’ll be fine.
Everyone believes Tony Okoroji is COSON and COSON is Tony Okoroji and he’s getting quite some emotional support out there because he believes he’s labored and toiled hard for the COSON success story as we know it today. I’d like to know, much support are you getting from the music practitioners, whether it’s the old breed or the new breed, because some people think this is like a battle between Tony Okoroji and the new breed?
It is very clear. We responded to a petition that was written by gentlemen who are largely from Tony Okoroji’s generation, some are even older than Tony Okoroji. It’s important to track the story properly. We are a sitting board, we got a petition indicting all of us on certain counts, so we sat down as a board to examine the issues. Most of these issues were infractions committed by the then chairman. We did the responsible thing, asked the guy to resign, he declined then we voted him out of office.
There’s no drama involved. The guys who signed that document, they’re alive, they’re kicking. Uncle Laolu Akins is here. He’s older than Tony Okoroji and he’s just as important as any stakeholder. So, we’re having a conversation that was initiated by Evangelist Ebenezer Obey and I’m responding to it because I know there’s a lot of truth in their assertion and the people that I represent are of the opinion that this person is unfit to occupy that position of trust, so where is the controversy?
What I keep saying is, this is not a transition tussle, this is not even a generational thing, this is not about tenures or about handovers, this is about misdeeds, infractions. This is about unethical practices. You are chairman of the board and you do things you’re not supposed to do, then you’re found out and what do you do? You resign, but you refuse to resign, so people have no other choice but to call you out. It’s not a perspective thing, that’s what Obi Asika just said. It’s annoying when people trivialize these things. It’s not, ‘he said, she said,’ it’s more serious than that. Would we have gathered Evangelist Ebenezer Obey, Uncle Laolu Akins, Mr. Toju Ejueyitchie, Mr. Bode Akinyemi all the way down to Baba Dee to sit down and say Okoroji did something that he didn’t do?
So, these are about misdeeds, and with misdeeds, there are punishments. There are consequences. There’s nothing political about this, I know this is what Tony Okoroji would like people to think. There’s nothing political about it, there’s no shades, it’s black and white. The Law would take its course. We’ve petitioned the NCC, we’ll do the needful to make sure that COSON is rid of the virus that’s Okoroji. It’s simple. If it’s established at the end of the day that we’re wrong and he’s right, then fine, we will apologize. But of course, he’s a litigant, so he’ll go to court and would probably press for damages that we defamed him. So, that’s the simple thing. It’s very simple. If these things are false, Okoroji’s lawyers should be after us by now. Okoroji should sue all of us, starting from Ebenezer Obey, he should sue all of us.
I’d like you to give me a direct response to this, supposing you exhaust all avenues available to you to put this brouhaha to rest and it’s not working, would you, like some people have agitated, give the option of forcefully occupying the COSON House a shot, if push comes to shove?
Our approach is different. First and foremost, there has to be a consensus. The decisions we take, we don’t take them as individuals. There was consensus that we were tired of Tony Okoroji’s crap, there was consensus that he had to go, there was consensus of the person to replace him, there was consensus of every other thing we needed to do because we want to do things the right way.
What I can assure you is that we will do what we believe is in the best interest of COSON. It’s not a personal conversation, whatever we need to do to sort out COSON, we will do. We are committed to it. If it takes weeks, months, we’re here, we’re not going anywhere, we will sort out COSON, that’s what I guarantee. The exact process, the exact day, I don’t have control over it, but we will sort out COSON.
I know I have heard some artistes complaining that they’ve not received any royalties from COSON ever before, surely, those artistes would be pleased at this sort of development, but I’m surprised I couldn’t find any representation of performing artistes here today and they, in my opinion, would be the biggest beneficiaries if everything falls into place at COSON at the end of the day.
No, everyone who was here today came on specific invitation. This is a press briefing, it’s not an open COSON forum to discuss the issues. However, if any member has not received due royalty, my question would be, what have you done about it? Who are you speaking with? You might find out that there are a couple of them who have not received royalties and have not bothered to go the COSON office to even make enquiries. You might find out that they probably went to the office once or thereabout and the person says give me a week or a couple of days to find out what the issues might be but they never went back.
Just like there are people who have registered for their voters card and have not picked up their PVCs, so the system is not perfect, however, everybody has the responsibility to make the required moves to find out what you need to find out. There are a lot of reasons why one may not receive royalties. One, you might not even be properly registered, there might be issues with your documentations, the society might not have your bank details, there might be cheques out there lying and waiting in there for you to collect, there might be all kinds of reasons.
So, the first thing you do is to go out there and get information, engage COSON and if nothing is done, you can escalate until something is done. There’s no excuse for ignorance. There are some people who are not members of COSON but who are expecting money because they’re musicians, like there’s a way, through magic, that COSON will just credit every musician’s account. That’s not how it works.
Like you have said repeatedly, this is not about Efe, but tell us, in another couple of years from now, where would you like to see the COSON of your dreams? If in another week or so all of these dusts settle down and you guys get cracking, what are some of the things you’ll be bringing to the table?
The task we’ve set for ourselves is very simple. We want to establish an effective process to grow a strong institution. We want to strengthen management. Over the years, the role of the General Manager/CEO has been usurped by the former chairman. Being the COSON Chairman is not a 9 to 5 job, it doesn’t require for you to be there every day from morning to night.
You should have the right staff under competent, proper management. The day to day running of the society is the job of the GM, who’s the Chief Executive. We want on board the best technology, we want the best possible auditing process to assist distribution. We want to ensure that COSON is run in such a way that makes it very solid and can make it last for as long as possible.
That is our primary goal. If I get that done working with the rest of the team in three months, in one year, the job is done and we’ll probably set another target. But here and now, it’s just to revamp the process and ensure that we have a virile institution. We want to build an institution, we don’t want to build something that’s only associated with one personality or individual.
You can’t grow anything like that, it has to be about the organization and not about one individual because individuals come and go. And it’s a public trust, not your personal business. If you build your own business with your own money and sweat and you have a huge record label and you’re doing all that it’s excusable because that’s your private business. It’s your investment, you can do what you want with it.
You cannot come to a public institution that’s owned by the generality of the people, you’re entrusted with managing the commonwealth of everybody and you build it around yourself and your person and you act like it’s about you, no, it’s unacceptable. That’s the problem. Okoroji should build TOPS. Let TOPS be the biggest agency, let TOPS be a company that’ll be reported by CNN and Aljazeera. Be very successful, be Dangote, all on your own terms. Don’t front and use everybody’s collective catalogue and position yourself like….no, it’s not right and it shouldn’t be done.
The question a lot of people are asking now is, if Tony Okoroji remains sacked, what happens to TOPS? How would he survive if TOPS isn’t bringing in money for him? And I guess this is why many believe the man certainly won’t go down without a fight.
Seriously, I think it’s a tragedy, and for me, that’s the biggest tragedy. Because you have someone who is very hardworking. You have someone who is very talented. Okoroji’s very talented. Okoroji is great in a lot of ways, but the problem is the core. The time and resources that Tony Okoroji has expended to create this elaborate scheme of manipulating people, if he invested 20% of that effort in building TOPS, he’ll be running a monstrously successfully company by now. If he chooses to, he can actually put his abilities and qualities to positive use. It seems like what drives him is to work people to create all of these to appropriate to himself.
It’s a tragedy. There are not many people out there who are smarter than Okoroji, so why is it that he can’t get TOPS beyond what it is on its own? For me, that’s the biggest loss and it’s a tragedy. The biggest person Okoroji has stolen from is himself.
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