By Fredrick Femi Robinson
 Published
December 28th, 2008
I read in one of our newspapers that a certain office owned
by some Chinese nationals was raided by the Piracy and
Copyrights commission and I wondered what that would do to
discourage intellectual piracy and cheating of creative
materials in this country. Until we realize the our TV and
Radio stations are the greatest cheats and pirates of
intellectual and creative materials in Nigeria we will only
be paying lip service to controlling piracy. Who is the
primary consumer of creative, intellectual and entertainment
materials in Nigeria? It is obviously the TV and Radio
industry. How much have they invested in production of the
creative materials for television and radio since
independence? Nothing, they started by foraging and pirating
of productions by foreign stations like B.B.C , British
Council, French Cultural and German Institute. Those were
the first ever known documentaries in those days. Since then
we have been copying and plagiarizing creative works of
local and foreign artists.
I am not surprised that Nigerian Television and Radio
stations have no local standard for creativity. This is
because after independence TV and Radio Stations in Nigeria
depended on foreign programs and program contents to
survive. Any program that did not have a foreign taste was
not easily accepted for production or transmission unless
there was a company or an organization willing to spend
money to have the program transmitted. The Village
Headmaster series which the Nigerian Television Authority
prides itself of could no longer be produced because
management could not fund it. Is it an irony that NTA has
not been able to secure a sponsor all these years for a
program the nation claims was the best local series? If a
Nigerian producer or artist wanted to be accepted he or she
had to copy or plagiarize. Some time he has to mortgage his
creativity to attract sponsorship. Listen to the music of
many Nigerian Musical artists today; they are completely
devoid of the African rhythm. All that is African are some
commercial lyrics added to ensure they can sell their music
to so some major ethnic groups in Nigeria. Watch the so
called Nigerian movies; the stories are sometimes. How do we
expect our entertainment and tourism industry to attract
foreign dollars when Television, Radio and Cultural
Institutions in the country seized to invest in the
performing arts since Independence?
How do we expect our tourism to develop when it is obvious
TV and Radio Stations are not interested in well researched
products. How do we expect the Industry to develop when
Television and Radio Stations have succeeded in convincing
performing artists that they are doing them a favour playing
their music or showing their videos on air? I begin to
wonder when performing artist in Nigeria will realize that
they can like it in America force TV and Radio stations to
spend money on production by refusing to allow their works
to be used for at least one month. This will expose them for
what they are. Let’s all starve for some months if it will
bring some sanity to the industry. To date all some radio
and Television Stations spend money only on is gathering
news. This dependence on news items to cover up airtime is
heating up the polity. Not everybody is interested in
politics. People are interested in how to put food on their
table. Documentaries on why people can make millions as a
farmer not how you can drink as many bottle of alcohol to
win a jack pot prize. Our TV and Radio Stations have
brainwashed Nigerians to believe that all they need is find
out how some people are sharing money in Abuja. It is time
we spend some time investigating organizations and
Institutions who may by their operations be sabotaging
efforts of government. Some thing has to be do
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