As controversy continues to trail the yet-to-be released book, There was a Nigeria, a civil war memoirs authored by Chinua Achebe, former Head of States, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, has said that he doubt if the writer would make money from the book.
The literary doyen in the book accused the Federal Government under Gowon and the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the then Minister of Finance, of starving Igbos to death during the civil war.
Speaking in Abuja on Thursday, Gowon wondered if the author of the Things Fall Apart would make money from his intellectual property, saying it had been pirated.
The former warlord said this in Abuja at the presentation of the Reform of the Copyright System in Nigeria organised by the Nigerian Copyright Commission.
Gowon claimed that he saw hawkers selling copies of the book in Abuja recently.
Gowon said, “When I was coming to the hotel yesterday (Wednesday) I saw people selling copies of Achebe’s book, you know the one I am talking about.
“I don’t know if the chap knew I was the one inside the car – he wanted to get my attention.
“I said to myself, ‘so this book has already been pirated and is being sold in the streets?’
“I don’t know if Achebe will be getting any penny from that book.”
It would be recalled that Gowon earlier described Achebe’s civil war memoir as the most controversial publication on the war.
Gowon, who was the chairman of the event, lamented that it is unfair to steal another man’s intellectual property
He said, “The underlying philosophy of copyright protection, as I have come to understand, is the need to adhere to the fundamental rule of natural justice that every person be guaranteed the fruit of his or her labours. The corollary to this axiom is that no one should be allowed to steal another’s work or unduly exploit the sweat of another’s hard labour.”
Gowon recounted how his administration masterminded a review of the old copyright law the country inherited from the British colonial masters after independence.
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