It was a very sunny afternoon and I had just taken a minute off work to surf through Instagram when I stumbled upon a video in which the Nigerian singing duo known as “Danfo Drivers” were complaining bitterly about the theft of their intellectual property right in a yesteryears hit titled “jogodo”. Their complaint was based on the fact that another artiste who goes by the stage name “Tekno” had made a replica of their song without reaching out to them. To be honest, I was unperturbed by the interview attributing it to the usual Nigerian disregard for intellectual property rights. However, my reaction to the video changed quickly upon reading the comment of Ubi Franklin, the head of Tekno’s infringing record label in which he made a joke of the situation and casually said he tried to reach out to the Danfo Drivers but to no avail.
![](https://thenigerialawyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/idrinstitute.png")
Upon reading this comment, blood rushed to my head!! How can you treat the theft of another man’s intellectual property with such levity? A fitting analogy to the record label’s defence would be to suggest that one’s reason for walking out of a grocery store with groceries that had not been paid for is the unavailability or failure of the sales attendant to reach an agreement with the (prospective) buyer, there is no gainsaying that such a buyer would be liable for theft. In relating this analogy to the issue under discourse, the record label, artiste and all involved in the recording of the song in question have all contributed in one way or another to intellectual property theft.
The most worrisome part of this occurrence is the shameful ignorance amongst practitioners in the entertainment industry. How else can one explain such comments from the record label boss??? It’s obvious from his comments that he either does not understand intellectual property law or does not appreciate its importance. This goes back to the over-flogged issue of proper record label management and having appropriate separation of duties particularly the employment of an in-house counsel to monitor the compliance of record labels with relevant laws. Some days earlier, another Nigerian musician, by the name Adekunle Gold, had posted a movie clip online in which his sound recording had been used as a movie soundtrack without his consent. There is, therefore, an urgent need for a change in this trend.
It is important to note that one of the rationales for the protection of intellectual property rights of authors and creative people is to create some form of reward system which incentivizes creativity in the society. Intellectual property law recognizes the tendency to rely on previous works for the creation of future works hence the reservation in the right holder of a right to license his work to third parties for a fee. That fee is in itself the incentive.
For the sake of clarity, it is important to mention that the copyright law in Nigeria grants the copyright holder an interest in the work for their lifetime and for 70 years after the copyright holder’s death. In the case of Danfo Drivers, being a group of two, the copyright subsists for the lifetime of last surviving member of the group and 70 years after the death of the said last surviving member of the group. The third schedule of the Copyright Act provides a right holder with a right to a percentage on the retail selling price of the record. Danfo Drivers have various rights under the Copyright Act which include inspection and confiscation of infringing works, damages as well as a right to simultaneously maintain both civil and criminal actions against the infringing parties. It is also important to mention the moral right of the Danfo Drivers which is their right to always get credit as the authors of the sound recording, a right which subsists in perpetuity.
Intellectual property law on its own is a major source of income for creative people. It is therefore important that practitioners and persons dealing with intellectual property rights of other persons seek proper counsel and obtain appropriate licenses before using protected works. It is hoped that Danfo Drivers will not settle for a paltry sum and would even be disciplined enough to see this matter to trial in order to foster a culture of compliance and respect for the intellectual property rights of others. Also, record labels are particularly advised to employ in-house counsel with adequate knowledge of intellectual property law to ensure that they not only protect the works of artistes signed to their record labels but also prevent the violation of the rights of others.
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