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Chioma Nnani: IP Theft is still Theft

So, I'm back! :) I went on an enforced hiatus, as I was was without my laptop for THREE MONTHS. They felt like eternity! My laptop is basically 'the great love of my life', so I'm not sure how people used to cope before laptops came along …

Another thing that's been a shock to my system, is seeing Nigeria grind to a halt – because of … you got it, the elections! So, there are people who haven't been paid since the elections malarkey – smear tactics and other shenanigans in the run-up to the elections, postponement of the elections, the actual elections, allegations and counter-allegations of electoral malpractice, obligatory legal suits, inauguration of the new administration – began. Some people still haven't been paid salaries for months. This is despite the constant tweeting of one of our blissfully-out-of-touch senators-elect. Mr. Ben-Bruce (the tweeting senator-elect) did make a point about how in order to have a shot at financial independence, Nigerians need to focus on other non-oil-related assets. Because these assets exist. Like I said before, he does have a point.

Creativity is just one asset.

Yet, ironically, I've heard a lot of people complain about how Nigeria has a way of killing creativity. That is true.

One of the ways is through theft.

My career was launched because someone tried to steal from me. A thief, who actually faked a friendship with me from 2006, showed their hand in 2010. They started to claim they wrote my work – the original manuscript for what turned into my first novel, a stage production script, a movie script, and two television pilot scripts for different television series. They were determined to walk away with FIVE different pieces of my work that I'd been working on, long before I met them. They studied 'Producing & Directing' at the New York Film Academy, and returned to Nigeria to become “the Tyler Perry of Nollywood”. The problem is – Tyler Perry can write; they couldn't. They still can't. I told them, “Nobody in their right mind will believe you wrote my work. You don't sound anything like me, in person or on paper.”

They replied, “Nigerians are stupid; they won't know the difference. I'll make money with your work, and fight you with the money I make from your work. I'll tie you up in corrupt Nigerian courts for the next five years, and by the time anyone suspects the truth, I'd have made my name. Because you are nobody and your family is nobody.”

I cried to an old school-friend, who just went crazy when they heard the part about me being nobody. My friend got my work back … and I started shopping seriously for a publisher. The free-fame thief is still hustling in Nollywood, by the way … and hurtling from one scandal to the next. That pesky thing called Karma, eh?

The arrogance of intellectual property thieves is something I will never comprehend. These sentiments were stirred up again when I learned about a Franklin Awodiya – who had hijacked Nigeria's most popular food group on Facebook: “So You Think You Can Cook”, over the past weekend. He was made an admin of the group, barely eleven months ago. He somehow deleted all the other ten admin members of the group, and genuinely did not understand what he had done wrong. He still doesn't. He actually believes he has a right to steal. He reportedly got some sort of deal with Konga, as a result of the theft. It took a two-hour session on Twitter, for him to be ousted from the Facebook group. His brazenness takes the cake, biscuit, akara, whatever. I find it very sad that for every black person legitimately working at their hustle, there's a Franklin Awodiya sitting on the sidelines and thinking about how to rob them; common thieves giving all hardworking Africans a bad name.

Some people don't see intellectual property theft as a big deal. There's something about the fact most of the time, it's not as tangible as physical cash. What really gets my goat (and that of any other creative who has been in this position) is that it is one of the most insidious kinds of theft. It's like pre-meditated murder, not manslaughter – because it's always planned. It is that serious. Intellectual property theft doesn't just rob a person of the fruits of their hard work, as well as their dignity, and their children of their inheritance; it also strips a nation's economy in the most insulting way possible.

Chioma Nnani is the award-winning author of FOREVER THERE FOR YOU. She holds a Law (LLB) from the University of Kent, Canterbury, was nominated for a BEFFTA in 2014, and has a Postgraduate Certificate in Food Law from the De Montfort University, Leicester. You can connect with her via facebook.com/ChiomaEstherNnani and @ChiomaNnani 

 

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