![Copy of Ip press blog posters (29)](https://storage.googleapis.com/theippress/2025/01/04cd1370-copy-of-ip-press-blog-posters-29-678x381.png)
The Nigerian music industry has become a global sensation,[i] providing a platform for artists to express their creativity and export Nigerian culture. This is even more glaring in the case of the gospel music industry which has garnered more international acclaim in the past ten years than it has in its entire history.[ii] It is therefore not uncommon to have disputes on who-owns-what as is usually seen in most thriving industries.
For example, disputes have sprung up between gospel singers; Osinachi Egbu (Sinach) and her producer, Oluwole Michael (Maye),[iii] Jude Nnam and Five Star Music with its affiliates,[iv] Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) and Akande Akinbode[v] with the most recent (public) being between Mercy Chinwo, one of Nigeria’s most famous female artistes and her manager, Ezekiel ThankGod, the CEO of EeZee Conceptz. In this writing, I will give you a breakdown of the facts in issue and some legal implications.
The Facts In Brief
Mercy Chinwo, one of Nigeria’s topmost gospel artist filed a complaint against her former boss, Mr. Ezekiel ThankGod, the CEO of her previous record label on grounds of fraud and financial mismanagement. The complaint was filed to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigeria’s law enforcement and anti graft agency for investigating financial crimes.
According to the artist, the CEO has diverted over $345,000 (N525,462.600,00) accruing to her in royalty from different streaming platforms. In response, the CEO countered that he has nothing that belongs to the artist except that which is rightfully his. According to him, he invested his “blood, swear and hard-earned money” into her music yet she sought ownership of catalogs she had made no financial input to—despite their 50-50 agreement.
Record Labels vs Artist disagreements are common in the Nigerian music industry.[vi] Popular artists such as Kizz Daniel, Wizkid, Cynthia Morgan have had their fair share of record label drama. They seem to have generously handed the baton to the gospel artistes, and in this case, Mercy Chinwo.
Typically, artists, who usually have the creativity but lack the financial resources and time to exploit it, reach out to music publishers to sign them to their record labels. These record labels are like businesses which must run at a profit. They invest in an artist’s music by recording, marketing and promoting their songs. Then, the artist pay them back with a percentage of royalties earned (usually a 50-50 agreement). Although who-owns-what depends on the terms of the contract signed, in reality, the record label has an upper hand and is often able to retain ownership of the intellectual properties, funds and other assets tied to the music. Most artists are too naive to understand the music business and in their bid to acquire quick celebrity status, they do not consider the implication of the rights they sign away.
The Nigerian Situation: What The Law Says
Although copyright is not at the heart of this dispute, it however touches on the question of who owns the accruing royalties. Let’s explore this question a little.
Nigeria, as a signatory of the Berne Convention, protects copyright in musical works and sound recordings provided some efforts have been expended to give them an original character and they have been fixed on any medium of expression. This provision found statutory expression in Section 2 of the Copyright Act of 2022. Section 28 vests this copyright in the author. It will lead us to the most pertinent question: ‘who is an author?’ Section 108 comes to our aid. Who is an author depends on the work concerned. In the case of a sound recording, it is the person by whom the arrangements for the making of the sound recording were made. Section 108 further defines sound recording as “a fixation of a sequence of sound capable of being perceived aurally and of being reproduced…” The Act does not define an author in the case of a musical work but from its definition of musical work as a “musical composition, irrespective of the musical quality,” it can be implied to mean the musical composer himself. This distinction is important because it is not uncommon to find cases where the copyright in the sound recording and the copyright in the musical work are owned by different persons. In most cases, the copyright of the musical work is owned by the artist, the musical composer while that of the sound recording is owned by the record label which must have gone extra miles to put the song together including bringing in other creatives. However, as already mentioned, the artist, in most cases signs away his rights for industry perks such as licensing deals, promotion, branding, marketing and distribution packages.
The legal implication ensuing from facts of this dispute is: unless the artist signs his rights away, whoever owns the Copyright owns the royalties. This is because royalties are a natural consequence of the exercise of the exclusive rights provided under Section 9 and 12 in the case of musical works and sound recording respectively.
Thus, to know who-owns-what, the parties have to make recourse to the contractual agreement binding them. Since we are not privy to the said agreement, it is difficult to answer this question—so one can only speculate. However, it does imply that the pacta sunt servanda rule will apply. Pacta sunt servanda is a legal principle which can be translated to mean that agreements are sacrosanct and thus, must be kept. The implication is that when interpreting the documents, the court assumes the parties meant what they stipulated and intended the contractual terms to be binding on them. This position found statutory expression in Section 128 of the Evidence Act and gained judicial affirmation in a plethora of cases including A.G Rivers State v. A.G Akwa Ibom State,[vii] Owoniboys Technical Services Ltd v. UBN Ltd,[viii] Fidelity Bank Plc v. M.C Ind. Ltd.[ix] As a result, the courts readily enforces parties’ contractual obligations. The big takeaway then is that it is important that artists must do their best to involve lawyers to properly protect their interests, especially the revenue sharing clauses before signing to rec
[i] Premium Times, ‘How big is the Nigerian music industry?’ (16 February 2023) https://www.premiumtimesng.com/promoted/582338-how-big-is-the-nigerian-music-industry.html?tztc=1> accessed 24 January 2025.
[ii] Ayo Yusuf, ‘How Nigerian Gospel Music Industry Has Impacted Global Scene,’ (This Day) <https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2024/08/17/how-nigerian-gospel-music-industry-has-impacted-global-scene/?amp> accessed 24 January 2025.
[iii] Tolulope Fasuan, ‘Sinach sued over alleged copyright infringement’ (Punch Newspaper, 30 November 2024) <https://punchng.com/sinach-sued-over-alleged-copyright-infringement/?amp> accessed 23 January 2024.
[iv] Ima Ekanem, ‘Court Dismisses N500m Copyright Infringement Suit against Musician, (This Day) <https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2024/10/01/court-dismisses-n500m-copyright-infringement-suit-against-musician-kcee-e-money/?amp> accessed 23 January 2024.
[v] Socrates Mbamalu, ‘RCCG Facing N350m Lawsuit Over ‘Copyright Infringement’ by National Praise Team’ (Foundation for Investigative Journalism, 11 March 2021) <https://fij.ng/article/rccg-facing-n350m-lawsuit-over-copyright-infringement-by-national-praise-team/> accessed 24 January 2024.
[vi] Tofarati Ige, ‘Artistes that have fallen out with record labels,’ (Punch Newspaper, 30 May 2020) <https://punchng.com/artistes-that-have-fallen-out-with-record-labels/> accessed 24 January 2024.
[vii] (2011) 3 MJSC 1 at 120 Paras A-C
[viii] (2003) 15 NWLR (Pt.844) 545 at 585-587
[ix] (2022) 7 NWLR (Pt 1829) 251 at 373, F-G
Authored by: Ogonna Annette Onwudiegwu
She is a recent law graduate of Nnamdi Azikiwe University with interests in intellectual property and technology transfer. She is committed to advancing interdisciplinary research that connects law, technology, and innovation. She has numerous publications to her credit. Ogonna loves to tell stories. You can find her blogging about them at www.ogonnannette.com.
![](https://storage.googleapis.com/theippress/2025/01/79f1bbeb-image.png)
Leave a Reply