Why Tony Okoroji Will Quit COSON Chair after Three Years

The Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) has said that Chairman of the society, Chief Tony Okoroji will quit office as chairman after serving his mandatory four years in the organisation.

General Manager of COSON, Mr. Chinedu Chukwuji made the revelation while reacting to reported resignation of gospel crooner, Sammie Okposo from the society, stressing that the musician will return to the fold. Chukwuji said article of association of the society stipulates a tenure of three years per director, adding that Tony Okoroji is first of all a director subject to the same rule.

“Mr Chukwuji said that COSON which is less than four years old strictly follows the rules as laid out in its Articles of Association which limits the tenure of any Director to three years except re –elected. According to him, the Chairman is first, a Director; and is bound by the same rules”, Senior Executive New Media, Mayree Uket said of Chukwuji in a statement.

Chukwuji said the musician will return to the fold when it dawns on him that there are few Nigerian institutions that are run with a level of transparency, accountability and professionalism available at COSON.
He said Sammie has not availed himself the opportunity of visiting the COSON office and is clearly unfamiliar with the quality of personnel, the technology and processes put to work at COSON.

He said COSON has not received any resignation letter from Okposo adding that COSON has thousands of members and hundreds of thousands of affiliates.

“We do not join issues with our members on the pages of newspapers and certainly not with Sammie Okposo, whom I consider a personal friend. Since Sammie has made his statement public, we have a duty to clear any misconceptions about COSON before they become accepted as facts”, he said, adding that he finds it curious that Sammie had to issue a public statement about withdrawing his membership of COSON at a time when members of COSON are engaged in a historic struggle to liberate the Nigerian creative industry from servitude.

According to him, ‘Mr Okposo has unlimited access to me and I believe he is a very close friend of the Chairman. I have asked our Chairman if Sammie ever complained to him and his answer was negative. Sammie never asked me for any information that was not provided to him. I cannot remember seeing Sammie at any COSON meeting and he has not been to the COSON office to ask any question’

On the statement made by Ms Onyeka Onwenu which Mr Okposo said was responsible for his action, Mr Chukwuji said, ‘Sammie should know that the statement made by Ms Onwenu after she was not re-elected during the COSON elections of May 2012 is the subject of a defamation action in court. I believe that as a democrat, Sammie should have been patient to find out whether the court will determine that the statement is justified or not before relying on it’

With respect to royalty payments, Chukwuji said that the process of royalty payments at COSON is 100% transparent.

“COSON is probably the only CMO in the world where the entire members’ debate and vote to approve every royalty distribution scheme. Elsewhere, management devises the royalty scheme and implements it. Every member of COSON who has issues with his/her royalty statement has the right to audit the process and this right has been exercised several times’