Why Writers May Not Be Rich By: Abdulrasheed Ibrahim

There are many reasons why a writer may not be rich in this part
of the world. When we talk about a writer not being rich, we are
not saying a writer is not rich in knowledge or wisdom which he
must have in abundant to write beautifully well.

When you hear the word “RICH” what will immediately come to you
mind is “MONEY” which is actually what we want to talk about here
this week. By the 1999 Guinness Book of Records which I stumbled on
in my library, it was said that a novel titled “The Road Less
Travelled” written by M. Scott Peck was the longest on the
bestseller list because it spent 694 weeks on the New York Times
paperback bestseller by the time it exited on April 6, 1997. At
that time more than 5 million copies of the book were in print.
Also in the said 1999 records it was written that:

“The top-selling fiction writer is Agatha Christie, whose 78
crime novels have sold an estimated 2 billion copies in 44
languages. The top-selling living author is British novelist Dame
Barbara Cartland with global sales of more than 650 million for her
635 titles. Horror novelist, Stephen King is the richest author in
the world ,with an estimated worth of $84 million .His top-selling
works include Carrie (1974), The Shining (1978), Pet Sematary
(1983) and Misery (1987), all of which have been made into
movies.”

The above analysis was done in 1999 when Nigeria returned to the
constitutional democracy. One of the problems that confront a
writer in the black world particular in this country is that he
lives in the midst of people many of whom do not want him to be
rich or benefit from his sweat and efforts. Unlike in other parts
of the world where writers are laughing to the banks, the same
cannot not be said about our writers here. Although some writers
may be very fortunate in making it big during the public
presentation of their books.

If a prominent person writes a book or one is written for him
and decides to formally launch or present it to public, the
possibility of his laughing to the bank at the end of the day can
be rest assured as many people in the society will like to show up
faces to identify with such the author no matter what the contents
of his book may be. Such writer may not feel the negative impact of
those black sheep who may pirate his book and sell it to the
unsuspecting public for their own personal gain of harvesting from
where they did not plant. You can prove me wrong by asking the
likes of OBJ about his “MY WATCH”, El-Rufai about his “ACCIDENTAL
PUBLIC SERVANT”, Okonji-Iweala about her “FIGHTING CORRUPTION IS
DANGEROUS”. Olusegun Adeniyi about his “AGAINST THE RUN OF PLAY”
and Bolaji Abdullahi about his “ON A PLATTER OF GOLD” on what have
been their experiences. This is just to mention but few.

When the late Professor Chinua Achebe wrote probably his last
book titled “THERE WAS A COUNTRY”, before the old man came out with
his printed copies to the public, the market was already flooded
with the pirated copies of the book. Such is the irony in this part
of the world where the Nigerian writers or authors find themselves.
Not very long ago, a young man was arrested and arraigned before a
Magistrate Court on allegation of pirating and selling the Nigerian
Weekly Law Report (NWLR) of the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) to
lawyers. Some law book authors are now complaining and lamenting
the high rate at which their publications are being pirated and
sold to the public. In this kind of situation, how do you expect
authors and writers to be rich or benefited from their sweat and
efforts in this part of the world?

Apart from the issue of book piracy, another problem confronting
the authors and writers in this part of the world is that of
dishonest booksellers and distributors. Some publishers are
complaining bitterly and publicly disowning some booksellers for
their refusal to remit money of books sold to them. You have a
situation where people who did not contribute anything to the
production of the books are being given books to sell, take their
own commission and remit the balance to the publishers. Many of
these booksellers will sell those books and remit nothing to the
publishers. When you ask them, they will lie to you that their
customers bought the books on credit and are yet to pay them. That
is the end of the story. From my personal experience, a bookseller
sent me the following text message:

“Gudevening Barr. Abdulrasheed I av been waiting & expecting U
as promised for the past 2 weeks. Lawyers are asking for d Practice
Kit, which u promised to bring and we settled d previous. Am
expecting sir….Thanks”

This was a bookseller I tried to put on trial. I gave him copies
of the books worth N70, 000 to sell. The arrangement was that upon
selling all the books, he should take N10, 000 and remit N60, 000
into my account, and then I would make available to him more
copies. The man sold the books and only paid N20, 000 into my
account. He then started disturbing me with calls and text message
but I decided to be diplomatic with him. My reply to his above text
message was as follows:

“Thanks Sir why U didn’t see me is that my printer has refused
to release more books bcos am owing him money. Can U pls pay into
my account for me to pay him?”

I never got any response from him on this. Now I want you to be
a judge. How does a writer or an author become rich or benefit from
his sweat or efforts in the midst of this kind of booksellers in
this part of the world? This is just one of such people. We live in
a society that does not encourage people with ideas and want to put
the ideas into reality. Even if the idea is eventually put into
reality there are parasites on the ground ready to frustrate the
idealist. Or what can you say about a writer or an author who
struggle to produce a publication with the high hope of benefiting
from such project only for that project to be hijacked by
unscrupulous people who believe in pirating other people’s works
for their own selfish gain. Is such act not discouraging to the
real copyright owners to do more?

We equally live in the society where many of those who are well
to do are not encouraging or assisting those who are seeking for
their moral or financial support. In the other part of the world,
the writers or authors are always encouraged by the great people.
In 1992 when the late Hon. Justice M.O. Onalaja sent a
complimentary copy of his book titled COMMENTARIES FROM THE BENCH
to the great Lord Denning, the Master of Rolls in his letter dated
20th November 1992 to Justice Onalaja whom he addressed as “My dear
Judge” continued:

“I am afraid I may not have written to you to thank you for the
“Commentaries from the Bench” which you sent to me as long ago as
May. I have kept it by me and have been reading it again. I am most
interested in the profile of the author showing all you have done
in and for law in Africa, and I would like to thank you greatly for
it. I am sorry for being so long in writing to you but Lady Denning
has been very ill and died as recently as October 22nd .But may I
take this opportunity in wishing you happy Christmas and New
Year.”

Could there be anything more courtesy or encouraging than this?
This was an eminent English jurist replying and acknowledging a
black Judge in a very wonderful way. This is a great courtesy that
we must all learn from as in this part of the world, this kind of
thing is very rare as a time you write letters to some prominent
people here but such letters are ignored and nothing is said in
response. In everything we do we must show high level courtesy and
regards to others. Although we cannot completely deny the fact that
there are wonderful prominent people in this part of the world who
are very receptive, but they are very rare as you can count them on
your finger.

To help authors to benefit from their sweat and efforts, the law
must be made to be more effective to protect copyright owners
against the aggression of those engage in the business of piracy or
stealing of intellectual works of others. Those engage in such
activities rather than continue to embark on such act in hidden
should be bold enough to come out and approach the copyright owners
to strike a clean deal that will be beneficial to both sides. To
continue in illegality, they should bear in mind is very dangerous
and the consequences may not blow them good wind. The problems
being faced by writers and authors in this part of the world are
countless but let us stop here for the moment.

REMARKABLE PRONOUNCEMENT ON MODE OF ADDRESSING JUDGES

“It is common ground that the trial judge in this case was a
lady and the word, “she” in Issue 2 referred to the learned judge.
This is a very bad way of showing discourtesy to a lady judge or in
fact any judge at all by referring to him or her in third person
pronoun. It is absolute unethical and unpardonable and whether the
judge is a “he” or “she”, reference should be made to the “learned
trial judge or learned judge or even Hon. Judge” I was disturbed
and disappointed that this brief was coming from the chambers of a
respectable Senior Advocate of Nigeria. I hope this type of thing
will never happen again.”
Per KALGO, JSC in Global Trans. Oceanico S.A. Vs. Free Ent. (Nig)
Ltd (2001) 5 NWLR (Pt. 706) at Pg. 442 Paras A – C

THE SETTLED PRINCIPLE OF LAW

On when appellate court is not bound to consider issues placed
before it

“The general rule, it is now well settled, is that an Appellate
court has a duty to consider all the issues placed before it.
Albeit, where it is of the view that a consideration of one is
enough to dispose of the appeal, it is not under any obligation to
consider all the other issues posed.”

See 7 UP BOTTLING CO. Vs. ABIOLA & SONS (2001) 6 SC Pg.82 Line
5

For more Settled Principles of Law and Remarkable Pronouncements
from our Supreme Court Jurists from 1956-2016, obtain or order for
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21st October 2018