SPECIAL FEATURE: Award Winning Gospel Musician Sammie Okposo Renounces COSON Membership

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.