REPRONIG board member, Dr Wale Okediran, during an engagement with heads of tertiary institutions and other stakeholders in the South-South geopolitical zone held in Port Harcourt. Photo: Dennis Naku
The Reproduction Rights Society of Nigeria has urged universities, polytechnics and colleges of education across the country to adopt its licensing programme to protect authors’ intellectual property and ensure they receive royalties from the photocopying of their published works.
A board member of REPRONIG, Dr Wale Okediran, made the call during an engagement with heads of tertiary institutions and other stakeholders in the South-South geopolitical zone in Port Harcourt on Saturday.
Okediran said many Nigerian authors were unaware that they could earn additional income when their books were photocopied, lamenting that the widespread reproduction of textbooks often deprived writers of financial benefits.
“Many writers don’t know that. They still have other sources of making money from that book or script,” he said.
He explained that REPRONIG planned to work with tertiary institutions to establish licensing arrangements based on estimated photocopying activities, rather than attempting to monitor individual business centres.
“What we are trying to do is that every university or college of education or polytechnic, we appoint what they call an officer in charge of this copyright,” Okediran said.
He added that the designated officers would serve as contact persons between their institutions and REPRONIG, using the society’s mobile application to register, provide information and facilitate the licensing process.
Okediran said some institutions had already begun the process, expressing hope that more would make progress in the coming weeks.
He said institutions would be given time to comply, potentially until the end of the year.
The REPRONIG board member warned that unauthorised reproduction of copyrighted works could attract legal action, although the society intended to prioritise sensitisation and voluntary compliance.
“We are not intending to punish anybody,” he said, adding that university lecturers who authored textbooks would also benefit financially from the programme.
Citing Ghana as an example, Okediran said the country generated more than $100,000 annually from reprographic rights, expressing optimism that Nigeria could unlock similar benefits for authors.
He added that the initiative would cover indigenous-language writers and traditional poets whose creative works were reproduced without compensation.
Okediran also urged aspiring writers not to abandon their literary ambitions because of unauthorised photocopying.
“Go, that book you have been planning to write for 10 years, go and write now,” he said.
He called for a balance between students’ financial difficulties and authors’ rights, acknowledging that some students resorted to photocopying textbooks because they could not afford original copies.
Also speaking, a REPRONIG board member and former Chairman of the Association of Nigerian Authors, Camillus Ukah, said the organisation was prepared to address copyright infringement involving books registered with the society.
“REPRONIG is the answer to whatever copyright infringement that is going on now. We are saying that institutions and interest groups together with individual creatives should register with REPRONIG. What REPRONIG needs is that interface,” Ukah said.