By Ken Nwogbo The government is a big sprawling place and there are lots of people acting in it. Though some people in government...
By Ken Nwogbo
The government is a big sprawling place and there are lots of people acting in it.
Though some people in government act nobly, it is hard to say that everyone always does.
Particularly disturbing is the growing complaints about intellectual property theft by the government officials. They plagiarize ideas.
Instead of helping small business commercialize their products, the government is the one eating her own young.
The stark reality is that Nigeria wastes entirely too much money and time chasing after looters of public treasury when it should be doing something about intellectual piracy instead.
It is worse than crimes like burglary, fraud, and bank-robbery. This is because it kills the owner of the idea and his immediate family instantly.
Intellectual piracy, that is stealing of the ideas of others and claiming them as your own is the commonest crime in Nigeria today and one that is threatening all the fabrics of the country’s life.
The name piracy or counterfeiting is a too benevolent term that doesn’t even begin to adequately describe the toll that the theft takes on Nigerians.
And unless corruption, stealing and lying being consciously put together in brazen manner in government circles are stemmed; majority of Nigerians will continue to be crushed under the merciless weight of poverty because the same government whose job it is to protect the intellectual property of its citizenry is usurping other people’s ideas; using same; and not giving credits to the originators of the ideas.
Stealing of ideas by ministries, departments and agencies of government is so widespread now that it is threatening to overtake the menace of counterfeit drugs in Nigeria. It is a cankerworm.
In Nigeria, government and its functionaries practice: ‘do what we say and not what we do’. Shame!
In other climes, governments enforce strict Intellectual property laws and that is why their economies are growing. Intellectual property fires the kiln of production.
But Nigeria has continued to go in circles because when government officials steal from Nigerians, they lack the important resources and skills to execute the projects. Look at the white elephant projects that litter the country.
Government officials’ gluttony and corrupt practices are causing Nigerians thousands of jobs and companies’ profits.
Most companies and individuals who dare to contest their intellectual property rights are harassed; hounded and chased out by the officials who operate like organized crime groups, and terrorist organizations.
This is call to action on the Nigerian government of Muhammed Buhari to stop this senseless robbing people of their ideas, inventions, and creative expressions.
The government should borrow from the United States of America which has made prevention of intellectual property theft a top priority.
That country’s key to success is linking the considerable resources and efforts of the private sector with law enforcement partners on local, state, federal, and international levels.
. Ken Nwogbo, Editor-in-Chief/CEO of Nigeria CommunicationsWeek wrote in from Lagos.
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