Entertainment can give Nigeria more money than oil -Sammie Okposo

Sammie Okposo is one of the pillars of the Nigerian music industry. He has been consistent at the top of the gospel music sector for years and continues to remain relevant. Now, as he prepares to release his latest album internationally, he tells OSEYIZA OOGBODO BLOG that the potentials of entertainment should be tapped in Nigeria.

What’s the latest about you?

The latest? Chineke. It’s about my album, The Statement. It’s about to be unveiled. It’s a 22-track album with three bonus tracks, that’s a total of 25 tracks in one album. It will come out on the third of August at the Shell Hall, MUSON Centre, and it will be distributed internationally by a label based in Oklahoma called TMG Records. Proper distribution, all the contracts have been signed, in fact it’s a miracle, so we are getting ready to release it internationally and locally and that is what I’ve been working on all these months, so we are ready to go now.

So are you unveiling with a concert or just a launching?

Definitely. It’s an album unveiling concert where people are gonna come in to listen to almost all the tracks on the album. People will also have the opportunity to go home with the CD that day, people who attend because the CD will not officially come out until the end of August.

You mentioned proper distribution. Was it that you were not having proper distribution before?

Do we have distribution in Nigeria, that’s the question. We don’t have the structure for distribution that’s accountable. It’s not like albums are not being distributed. We are doing it in the way we know how to do it. But trust me, artists are not being properly remunerated for their works in Nigeria because the distribution structure is terrible. And that’s why you see artists are always releasing album after album after album because they want to remain relevant. But in the Western world, you see an artist that releases one song and he just keeps getting his royalties from Billboard charts, radio airplay because there’s a system that works. The artist does not need to struggle to be releasing albums every six months. That is what I mean by proper distribution. So for this distribution deal that TMG is going to do for me, I think my fans in America and the Caribbeans are going to be able to pick up a Sammie Okposo CD from anywhere.

Since TMG is taking care of the international release, what are you doing to ensure proper distribution locally?

We are still releasing it the way we have been doing here before because Nigeria is my home regardless of what we are going through or whether there’s structure or not, I still love Nigeria and this is where my music career started from. I will never release an album and forsake my people because it was because my people in Nigeria patronised me that the whole world started hearing about me because your people must take you up first. If your people don’t appreciate you, I don’t think anybody’s gonna hear about you. And from my first album, they took to Wellu Wellu, in fact some people call me Wellu Wellu, they don’t call me my name so charity started from here. And now that we have an international release, we are still gonna take care of the home front, and trust me, the content’s not gonna change. We won’t release some songs abroad and not release them here, no way. It is just going to be packaged differently, that’s all.

Talking about royalties, which collecting society do you support, COSON or MCSN?

Well, in terms of using the word support, I am a member of COSON. And I think so far I have been getting what we call royalties for my work as a COSON member. From time to time, I get cheques when my songs are being used for reality shows, I get paid, oh yeah. I’m not saying that because I’m trying to promote COSON or trying to downplay MCSN. I don’t have any problem with MCSN. I do not think that there is a law, I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong, is there a law that says there can only be one collecting society, I do not know. But as long as whatever collecting society that is out there is doing what it’s supposed to do for the people who are their members, I have no problem.

When will there be an end to the distribution and piracy problems?

When the government decides to come in, because you cannot combat piracy as an artist, as an entertainer, you will never be able to be successful. When you look at America and countries in Europe who have a proper distribution structure in place, you will see that the governments of those countries are very, very involved, because there’s also the issue of taxes. The practitioners in their entertainment industry pay their taxes, so the government makes money from that industry so the government has a duty to protect that industry. But in Nigeria so far, the government looks at the entertainment industry and they like it and they know it’s an industry that is doing something good but they have not taken out the time to do a proper feasibility study of the financials of the industry. If they do that, I dare say and I beat my chest and put my feet down that the kind of money the government will realise from the entertainment industry, oil and gas cannot give it to them, I say it with all conviction in my heart. It is very possible because the amount of wealth that is in the industry in Nigeria has not been tapped yet, and it is not something that the entertainers themselves can do. The government needs to come in. By so doing, I as Sammie Okposo will be paying my personal tax. Any movie I’m on, they will get their tax. Do you know what’s going to happen if every entertainer starts to pay tax to the government? I mean as Nigeria as big as we are, if the whole entertainment industry starts to pay tax, but they are not looking at it, they just see it as okay we like the industry …

They see it as an industry for riff-raffs?

No, not really, they know that it’s not for riff-raffs, they know that one, if not they wouldn’t be getting us involved in what they are doing.  I mean, they invite us to come and do stuffs with them, to come and be part of what they are doing in government, so they know that the industry in Nigeria, there’s something about it.

What are you doing to make the government do something?

We have different bodies and different presidents that should be in the forefront of this crusade. I don’t even know what PMAN is doing. PMAN is a joke. In fact, sometimes I don’t even want to speak about them. Since the days of Chief Tony Okoroji, after those days, I don’t know what happened to PMAN. And that’s why COSON is doing as well as it’s doing, because of Chief Okoroji’s involvement. But if the PMANS, the MCSNs, the COSONs, if they come together, then the different guils in the movie industry put one voice, because it is only unity that can solve this problem, they all have to be united and present a common front, then the government will begin to look at us because I think that one of the reasons why they are not looking at us is because of the division, too many factions, so they don’t know who they really have to deal with regarding sorting out the issues in the entertainment industry. I’m not saying there will not be different organisations but they should all have one voice.

What would you say has been your most substantial contribution to the music industry?

Oh wow! As I am right now, I run my own company called Zamar Entertainment, and we look at upcoming acts because, I mean, it was quite a difficult road for us to rise in our days. And it was just because of the mentors who took it upon themselves without wanting any financial gains to just identify a talent and see how they can help that talent up. So at Zamar, we have been able to do that. We were part of the whole promotion and packaging of the artist Jodie. She blew out there … it was not that she was signed on to our label, but I saw Jodie as someone different and I said to myself that any way we can assist as Zamar Enteratinment and as Sammie Okposo, I would do that just to find a way to push these artists forward and help them find their feet so those are one of the things we are doing and I think it is a huge contribution to the entertainment industry because we don’t have too many people who just want to do that without expecting any financial gains.