About two years ago, Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) had a major disagreement with the Nigerian broadcast industry under the aegis of BON and IBAN. The disagreement led to several court cases and the announcement by BON and IBAN that the music of about 100 of Nigeria’s best known artistes who are members of COSON had been banned on radio and TV stations across Nigeria.
As chairman of COSON, I was in the eye of the storm. When the broadcast stations attacked me from every angle, those who did not like me celebrated.
They could not see how I would survive the onslaught. As the big guns of the broadcast networks boomed, all the small people with one issue, hatred, envy or spite, lined up and fired their own pot shots. It was open season for anyone who did not like Tony Okoroji, the organization he heads or the company he keeps.
Free air time was available in abundance to those who wanted to join the cause and if your preference was to be quoted in an internet blog, there were those available to fix it. For weeks, one network had something negative about me and COSON in their news bulletins practically every day. It was not pretty.
A very well read magazine in Nigeria suggested that I had gone into hiding to avoid the sharp bullets from the many machine guns targeted at me. Funny, but some people on the other hand said that I was walking around in public arrogantly and opening my mouth too wide as if I was beyond destruction.
At the airport in Benin, on an official visit to the Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, I was asked by a journalist what my reaction was to the relentless attack on me. The lady seemed shocked when I said that my real focus was on the up-coming work that the music and broadcasting industries in Nigeria must do jointly for the good of our nation.
Long time ago, I learnt that hatred of anyone is a very destructive emotion. It eats you up. If you hate someone, you will probably find it difficult to sleep at night as you nurse the disease while the object of your hate may indeed be snoozing away and living a good life. Who is the loser?
I have trained myself to stay away from hating anyone. We carry too many burdens as it is; why do I want to add another burden on my shoulder? I might not like a situation or an action but I will not hate the person behind it.
When you think of it, a lot of people who do evil should be pitied and not hated. When you analyse them, they are sick: driven by ignorance or fear of some sort – lack of self-esteem; religious or tribal bigotry; jealousy or envy, etc.
Because of the passion I express for what I do, I have found myself being the victim of hate by all manner of people. I am aware that there are those who pray all the time that I fail in what I do. The fact that the Almighty has not answered their prayers drives them mad and makes them to even hate the more.
There are those who were so sure that COSON and Okoroji would crumble as a result of the onslaught by the broadcast industry. To their chagrin, we came out stronger. The people in the broadcast industry who attacked me are today my good friends. There was absolutely no malice in the positions we took.
Why is it that all the bazookas targeted at us did not have the expected impact? It is certainly not because we are smarter than everyone else. The answer may be found in the words, ‘God is love’.
I know that what drives the work that I do is love: the desire to do the greatest good for the greatest number. I have discovered that when what you do is driven by love, it is impossible to fail because you do not work alone.
Several years ago when I was president of PMAN, someone wrote me a letter commending me for the great progress PMAN was making.
He went on to say that he was happy that I was putting so much energy into PMAN to lay the foundation for my entry into partisan politics. Poor guy! For over 20 years, he has waited for the day I declare for PDP, APC, CPA or any of the political contraptions in the country.
Some interesting things happened when I lost my father a few years ago. Atta, my village in Imo State, was invaded by journalists of all kinds. There were those who truly had come to commiserate with me at the loss of my dad.
There was also a good number who came, camera in tow, because they thought providence had provided them an opportunity to establish that which had been rumoured: my opulent mansion and fabulous wealth allegedly acquired on the backs of the musicians that I led.
There was no one in my village who could speak any measure of English who was not interviewed as the reporters scrambled to find the facts of the nonexistent wealth and mansion. I joked with some of them that the mansion was built underground and all I needed was to press a remote controlled button for the trees to part ways and the ground to open and the mansion to appear!
I have met many in Nigeria who are driven by love and the desire to do good for the greatest number. The problem is that bad people believe that everyone is like them.
They cannot understand how someone can sit down and think of how to better the lives of people he does not know.
They believe that when we announce that COSON is distributing millions of naira to thousands of musicians, it is a scam. In their heads, they cannot imagine how anyone can give away millions of naira to people who were not there when the money was made when he can use the money to acquire new property for himself. ‘How can someone give away that much money without pocketing some?’, they ask.
I find that with such people, no explanation is good enough. The fact that you are driven by other values than lust for estates and money makes no sense to them. They shoot at you from every corner expecting you to crumble. When you don’t crumble, they conclude that you must have a very strong juju man working 24 hours a day for you.
I know those who keep whispering to my colleagues that they are ‘being used’ and that some abracadabra that defies common sense and mathematics is going on under their nose.
When you are driven by hate, you can never experience true happiness because there is always something new to hate. Every day, I create something new and something beautiful and I make sure that love and the good of the greatest number are central to what I do.
Why hate when you can love?