Authors’ challenges beyond piracy –ANA president

National President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Denja Abdullahi has identified flagrant disregard for intellectual properties as major challenges confronting owners of various intellectual products in the country.
Abdullahi who disclosed this during an interview with journalists revealed that those that suffer most are the rightful owners of intellectual works whose articles or books are in high demand or recommended for schools or relevant examination bodies.
Abdullahi, who is a poet, playwright and Director with National Council of Arts explained that ‘’ beyond this obvious problems, there are other versions of intellectual property rights violation that is more damaging and would have been more rewarding if respected.
He cited the idea of using a book to stage a show without even giving any royalty to the author of the book used for the show, saying that it is not like that in other countries as they adequately reward author even for the little use of his/her materials.
The ANA President, therefore, called on Nigerian Government to put in place measures to deal with copyright violators and ensure that activities on the internet should be monitored so as to checkmate the incessant violation of intellectual property rights at all levels “Intellectual property theft is very rife.
In Nigeria, we see this even on Facebook where people will paste someone else’s quote attributing it to themselves.
Some of these quotes are people’s creation, yet owners are not acknowledged”.
“Even in public service, somebody will submit a proposal, an original idea to a government agency, another person will take the proposal and claim it.
All these are prevalent because we don’t respect thinkers and creative people in Nigeria” he added.
According to him, if people are rewarded handsomely for their creative work, our society will be better for it.
He said it is ridiculous that copyrights violation are not seen as a serious crime in Nigeria whereas it is a punishable offence with a stiff penalty