Introduce copyright subject into primary school curriculum to end piracy—Babaeko

Steve Babaeko, the Chief Executive Officer, X3M Ideas Limited,  has advocated the introduction of anti piracy subject into  primary school curriculum as one of the ways to completely exterminate the  scourge from the Nigerian system in few years. He made this submission at the September 25th breakfast meeting organized by the Nigerian American Chamber of Commerce, NACC, which held at Lagos Continental Hotel with a theme: Promoting Creativity in the Contemporary Nigerian Talent Industry; the Challenge of Sustainable Intellectual Property Protection.

Piracy should be introduced as a subject in primary school. This will help to build the spirit of “let me buy the right one instead of pirated one” into the teens generation, a development that would naturally make pirated works unattractive to consumers in the years ahead, Babaeko , who was among the panel discussants, suggested.

He added that there is an urgent need for more protection of creative efforts in music, software, broadcasting, craft, architecture, film etc.

Over the years, the creative industry has been subjected to unwholesome abuse, resulting into loss of millions of dollars. Regrettably, the protection of intellectual property in the creative enclave has been a herculean task to successive governments and its regulatory agencies.

Lamenting the development, John Asein, Director General of the Nigerian Copyright Commission, NCC, who was the guest speaker at the event,   explained that “to grow the industry, the agency’s biggest challenge is awareness and education. We have been conferred with the power of police to arrest but how do we enforce arrest without uniform and gun? We have the power but no muscle. This is a problem.” As a remedy, Babaeko admonished NCC to collaborate with advertising agencies for sustainable public sensitization of the menace.

Earlier, in his remarks, Ikenna Nwosu, NACC board member and chairman, Government and International Liaison Committee, stated that there is no better time than now to discuss piracy. He called on all the stakeholders to collaborate in the pursuit of lasting solution to copy right abuse which has defiled all remedies in the last 30 years.