He once came hard and furious at MCSN, an organization in which I am also a Director, and laid low their habitations without mercy. Using his considerable resources as a Govt insider in the Jonathan Govt, he branded the major executives of MCSN as criminals for daring to exploit the musical copyright of their members under international law. He used enormous resources, and his friends in the Press, to control the narrative and give very wrong impressions of what the fight is all about to the public. Using his awe-inspiring gestapo-styled propaganda machine, and a team of well-paid attorneys, he successfully painted himself as the savior of music in Nigeria and cast Mayo Ayilaran and his team of MCSN executives as the villains standing between musicians and their prosperity.
Dr. Ope Banwo, Founder and chief Executive Officer Nollytainment
Since officers of MCSN did not have the level of resources he had to fight him by themselves, they apparently took his matter to God. Like Sennacherib, after all their attempts to placate or get Okoroji to see reason failed, they took his case to the altar of God.
For a while it looked like God was not going to get involved in the matter as Okoroji ran rampage over them and their over 1 million music repertoire. They were arrested. They were jailed. Royalties due to MCSN artistes were collected by COSON at will with no accounting and not remittance. MCSN offices were closed up. For several years, the MCSN people could not operate. They were afraid to go to their offices for fear of NCC raid. They could not pay their staff and they could not earn any royalties for their thousands of artistes.
Even my own attempt, as a Market Ombudsman, to go visit him to see if we could work out a compromise, ended up in direct physical assaults on my person. The whole world watched in living colors, as I was pushed, shoved and harassed by his staff at the gate of their offices. I barely escaped with my life. The staff of Tony, presumably with his support, mocked me publicly thereafter, and called me unprintable names, despite the fact that I had sent out a live video in ADVANCE, where I explained clearly that I was going there to make peace). Out of embarrassment, I retreated to mind my own business.
At some point, the MCSN as a body became almost hopeless as every victory they secured in court either got appealed, or simply disregarded by the Govt that seemed bent on their extinction. Even judgments awarding damages against NCC and Tony Okoroji for violating MCSN rights were ignored as the persecution raged
Then, when all seemed lost, God showed up BIGTIME.
Before our very eyes, in just a matter of weeks, God decided to make an open show of Tony Okoroji before all his friends and enemies.
In a stunning reversal of fortunes, Tony Okoroji the Hunter has now become the Hunted, not even by MCSN but by his former allies.
– First his COSON Board, composed mostly of his own Personally Loyalists, turned against him without warning and KICKED HIM OUT. They fired him as their leader and Coson chairman in a meeting he himself had called. God is indeed mysterious and fearsome.
– In panic and shame, he then ran to his other allies in Govt, the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), the same organization he has basically used as his personal gestapo for years to raid, oppress and arrest officers of the MCSN at will. Unfortunately, the NCC, having seen the handwriting on the wall when a new Attorney General who did now ‘KNOW’ Adoke, their former protector, signaled he was going to be fair to all, chose to turn their backs on him TOO.
– Now, the same NCC that had stood by him like the rock of Gibraltar for 9 years, are now sending out strong signals that they are not just interested in having him removed as the chairman of Coson, but that may also be interested in sending him to jail for violations of the law. Ha!
– The embattled Mr. Monopolist, Mr. Okoroji, who now has over 30 DIFFERENT cases in court against all his enemies, real and perceived, (most of them being paid for by the ROYALTIES COLLECTED ON BEHALF OF MUSICIANS), has taken to the courts to sue his former allies, his former buddies at NCC, and even the office of the Attorney General that he once used to perpetuate Monopoly in music collection in Nigeria for almost a decade. The first court DISMISSED his claim and had strong words of advice for him .wow.
– We all watched in PITY as Tony and 3 of his staff went and laid siege to the Federal High Court, in an ill-advised PROTEST AT THE GATES OF THE COURT HOUSE, demanding judgement be delivered in one of the cases he incorrectly presumed was going to be in his favor. When the judgement finally came, the judge ruled against him and legally smacked him in the mouth for his expectations. The whole country gasped as they read the ruling the unequivocally reaffirmed the MCSN license to compete against his COSON that he had fought for 9 years to prevent. it was a pathetic situation….. and despite our own ongoing animosity and pending lawsuits against each other , I almost felt sorry for The Monopolist.
– Having lost his first flurry of cases in court against his former friends, he has now hired SANs (Senior Advocates of Nigeria) to take the matter up on appeal for him. We all know how much these SANS AND ASSOCIATE Lawyers cost but Okoroji did not seem to mind spending Artistes money in fighting a lost cause. TONY ACTUALLY HIRED 8 LAWYERS TO SHOW UP IN COURT FOR HIS APPEAL AS COSON CHAIRMAN!). All in a bid to stay alive as the Waters of the Music Nile, to which he has foolishly pursued the MCSN, is inexorably closing over him.
Yeah, Nemesis, as they say, is a Bitch!
I once predicted on this same page that when the dust settled after nemesis had come calling, Okoroji would turn his deadly guns, his vicious unforgiving anger, and COSON resources on those same people that once allowed him to stand tall.
Not only has that prediction come true, Okoroji has fulfilled IT with a vengeance.
Instead of shooting at MCSN and its officers, his perceived enemies for years, he is now so engrossed in his OWN PERSONAL SURVIVAL FIGHT. He is so engrossed in his fight to remain the Chairman of Coson and prevent the Audit of Coson Finances as ordered by NCC, that he has completely forgotten about MCSN while running up and down Nigeria and abroad to seek support and find new allies to help him fight his former allies.
It is amazing that Tony Okoroji has addressed about 3 press conferences recently and MCSN was not even the subject of the press Releases!!
Wonders indeed can never end!
I watched his latest interview for about 35 mins and MCSN name never came out of his mouth. Wow! I would have bet someone that was an impossibility… just a year ago.
Monopolist Okoroji is now in such a bad state, and out of favour with anyone current on the music scene, that he has been reduced to waking up ‘retired’ and ‘forgotten’ music stars like Sir Victor Uwaifo who last had a hit Song in the 20th century, and people like Sir Shina Peters whose last hit song was over 25 years ago! I had to ask where are the DBanjs, Don Jazzy, Banky W and other great superstars he used to boast about. Even Tubaba, TUFACE IDIBIA, one of COSON’s biggest stars he used to boast about, recently wrote a letter TO NCC CONDMENING OKOROJI THE MONOPOLIST, WHILE DEMANDING A PROPER ACCOUNTING of all the millions he has collected on behalf of artistes over the last 10 years.
It’s really sad to see a Titan. who once stood so tall, laid so low.
So, for anyone needing serious prayers of efficacy, here are my PRAYER POINTS FOR YOU FROM THE TRAVAILS OF MONOPOLIST TONY OKOROJI:
PRAYER POINT ONE:
“Just like Tony Okoroji has been distracted from his vendetta against MCSN by his personal problems, May God give your enemies so much personal problems to deal with that they won’t have time to torment you anymore. IJN”
PRAYER POINT TWO:
“Just like Tony Okoroji and his fellow travelers in the persecution of MCSN and its staff are now confused and at each other’s throats, May God remove the binding covenants between your enemies, and confuse their tongues like those at the tower of babel, to the point they will not even remember you and your name will not come up in their meetings anymore as they fight to understand each other. IJN”
PRAYER POINT 3:
“Just like Tony Okoroji is now being hunted by the same people and organizations they once used to hunt and persecute MCSN, may God turn the Predators in your life seeking to eat you up, into Hunted Prey in the hands of their collaborators. IJN”
Can somebody please shout a very loud AMEN!!!
Mayowa Ayilaran, Solomon Arueya, King Whichlevelz, Babatunde Abdullahi Bayo, Ope Banwo II,
