The Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) has rejected the presidential manifestos made public by the presidential candidates of both the All Progressive Congress (APC), President Muhammadu Buhari and that of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
Rising from a meeting of its Board held at the COSON House on Monday, COSON said that after reading both the #NextLevelNG manifesto of the APC and #TheAtikuPlan manifesto of the PDP, it is shocked that none of the candidates appears to have a plan to grow or develop the immense talent that exist in the Nigerian creative industry such as music, movies, theatre, fashion, content etc an area in which the Nigerian nation has significant comparative advantage and the youth have tremendous flair for.
“We are no longer going to stand on the sidelines,” COSON Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji said.
“This is the era of the knowledge and creative economy and we will do whatever is necessary to make sure that our country is not just an onlooker in this new world but a key partaker and serious player, starting from 2019. We mean business”
COSON has said that the lack of strong policy positions in this area is evidence of the disconnect between the leadership and the followership in Nigeria. This is not withstanding the significant contribution said to have been made by the Nigerian creative industry when the Nigerian economy was rebased a few years ago under the Jonathan administration.
COSON has announced that the organization is inviting serious politicians to the COSON Arena to come and educate stakeholders in the creative industry on the concrete plans that they have to deploy the assets that the country has in this creative direction. It is the interaction of the industry with the politicians that will determine whom the thousands of members of COSON will endorse, support and campaign for and recommend to their fans to vote for.
