Piracy ahem!

Lately the nation has been entertained with tall tales of how top Presidency hands were caught in one of the greatest international robberies of all time. But the culprits were damn lucky. Their great luck is that Nigerians are not generally aware of the enormity of the evil these rogue fellas have perpetrated in our names and against us. To put it simply, plagiarism is the greatest moral and material degeneracy and thievery today.
The details are as follows: Originally, plagiarisms were taken as the mere moral offense, something a “rogue boy’’ does. But as industries and economic prosperities migrated up from the sweatshops and factory pits, to the design studios and brainboxes, the concept of intellectual property took a new and vibrant turn. It is now the greatest source of material wealth around the world.
To have an idea of it, let’s say you bought a smartphone for N1 million. The fact of it is that the cost of material and manufacture would have been less than 25 per cent. That is what is paid the Chinese firm that mass produces it is, less than N250,000 apiece. The rest is in intellectual, including creative, property. So to steal the intellectual property (IP) in a smartphone is to have stolen value more than if you pilfered N1 million physical smartphones. And the dam-bursting surge in our Nollywood (IP) dollar revenues is also a pointer. The world is richer it appears because Genevieve is alive and acting!
And this matter is reflected in the logic that today most companies’ greatest assets are their IP, including their brand equities. And while intellectual property is generative, non-IP assets are often inert. So it is taken that to steal intellectual or artistic property or aspects of it is the greatest act of criminal brigandage in the modern world today.
However, most Nigerians are still of the ancient regime when IP theft was taken as petty stealing. But that is wrong. So plagiarism, which is an arm of IP stealing, has to been seen with modern eyes. Plagiarism is the theft of the greatest assets of the modern era. Thus it may be said that any man who can steal IP can do any crime.
But there are other questions to ask. We may all recall that Dr. Chris Ngige, a minister at the temple of the APC, was out at Enugu and was explaining how it was that President Buhari couldn’t hire many Easterners. According to Ngige, they were not trustworthy for hire by the President. For him, Buhari needed to work with only those he could trust. So, is Ngige now saying that President Buhari trusts plagiarists who are the worst of thieves? Ngige Ronu, please don’t wound yourself!
The other is that the President used the plagiarisms during the launch of an ethical and moral reawakening. The point is, how does one explain that, to trigger off a new and higher morality, the same Presidency is indulging in IP thievery, even if by mistake as claimed by Garba Shehu, presidential motor-mouth? Is the whole “Change Begins With Me” circus not now a fraud, even if by mistake? Should it not be junked?
The point must be made that the Presidency, or what the British calls the Cabinet Office, should be the epitome of deliberate and programmatic excellence. The margin for error must ordinarily be reduced to zero, especially for set pieces. Literally, one can go to the bank with every word that comes forth from the Presidency and not be turned back, for insufficient funds, forged signatures or plagiarisms. This is because the President is not acting in his personal capacity but on the behalf of 190 million Nigerians and their resources therein.
If there is a plagiarist within, I am afraid for the safety of the Presidency. A plagiarist can do anything including betray his master as he does his sources. And the latest charge of Boko Haram that they would kidnap the President alarms one further. This is when it is remembered that a plagiarist is at play in the most secret places of the Presidency.
Already, the plagiarism drama is making bold international headlines and embarrassment. It makes Nigeria a country that is not serious, a country whose presidency plays schoolboy thievery games. The last time two German ministers were caught as plagiarists, Chancellor Angela Merkel sacked them almost “online real time.” There is no time to waste. The Presidency must ‘cut heads’ and serve them to the public on a platter of what remains of her tattered integrity.