Renowned gospel act and Glo Ambassador, Sammie
Okposo has renounced his membership of Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON),
due to what he says is the lack of transparency and accountability on the part
of the CMO. This is coming barely two weeks after he carpeted NBC for its
failure to reach an agreement with COSON while also calling for transparency at
the CMO.
In the statement made available to the media, the
multiple award winning artiste who has been an avid member of the CMO since
inception declared that COSON should desist from collecting royalties and
acting on his behalf with immediate effect. “I, Sammie Okposo, a proud
Nigerian artiste wishes to notify the general public and all stakeholders alike
that I have stopped being a member of COSON.”
Reiterating his earlier statements, Okposo insisted
that for COSON to be taken seriously, the need for transparency and
accountability could not be overemphasized. “The registration of COSON is
commendable and may have set the Industry on the path to growth and consolidation
but accountability and transparency is very important. My facts reveal that
there is nothing in COSON’s constitution that limits the number of terms the
Chairman of the Board could serve and this is extremely dangerous. I read
Onyeka Onwenu’s interview and she cited it as one of the reasons she left the
board of COSON. All effort must be made to ensure COSON does not end up the
property of one man. COSON is now delving into awards and competitive
activities that are not related to its core responsibilities and this is a
distraction".
Advancing reason why he chose to part ways with the
CMO, the singer said “The leadership of COSON must also desist
from pursuing selfish interests of some of its members and our artistes must
get their due respect and recognition. The organization needs to imbibe the art
of transparency in the disbursement of funds. How do you disburse royalty
payments without showing the artistes the logs? It’s unacceptable. This issue
must also be looked into with a view to ensuring that monies collected actually
go to deserving artistes”.
Okposo finally called on government to beam its
search lights on the activities of peculiar organizations like COSON through
the enactment and implementation of laws and oversight function. He also called
for the registration of another CMO with a view to breaking the monopoly
currently being enjoyed by COSON.
