Alibaba, Tee Mac question Goodluck

Alibaba

Showbiz personalities played host to Mr. President, Goodluck Jonathan, last weekend and it was a delightful occasion. The event tagged, Showbiz interactive session, was anchored by veteran actor, Richard Mofe Damijo and major stakeholders in the Nigerian entertainment industry flew in from several parts of the country to grace the occasion.

During the interactive session, king of Nigerian comedy, Alibaba, questioned the president on what he was doing to curb piracy in the country. He mentioned that it was the topic of debate between him and the late Amaka Igwe before she died.

Tee Mac further pushed the question to the President, highlighting how Nigerians could gain a lot if the menace was curbed.

In his reply, the President said, “The issue where artistes do not get the maximum benefit they are supposed to get from the music, I think this problem is for government and society because, if people are in the industry and creative, they are supposed to actually benefit from that. What I am promising the industry is that we will work together in the fight against piracy. I think the security agencies are not really giving the attention they are supposed to give. We will work together on that. I will have to nominate some people to work with us.

“What the government will do is to work with you and people from the private sector. It is even to encourage people to build more cinemas. I believe that if we have public places where people will go to watch movies, piracy will be reduced. But in terms of combating piracy, it is like armed robbery. It is a crime with proper intervention but people are still committing robbery. Just like I told you, we must continue to work together; we must continue to use superior intelligence and technologies. It will be difficult for you to say that we have all it takes to wipe out piracy. The key thing is working with people who are in the industry; at least they will know more about the industry. They will work with the government and we will continue to suppress it. I promise that we will set up a small technical committee to work with the government because there are certain things that those in the government will not know. So, we need the private sector to work with us.”