Pretty Okafor needs no introduction to lovers of Nigerian music. He was a member of the famous Junior and Pretty musical group. The Yaba College of Technology graduate of Fine Arts alongside Junior pioneered Afro hip-hop music in Nigeria in the late ‘80s.
Okafor, who trained under RED 14, a UK-based events company as a light, sound, set and stage engineer, currently serves as the President of Performing Musicians’ Employers Association of Nigeria (PMEAN). In this chat, he talks about how the new musicians’ body will become a force to reckon with within a short time. Excerpts:
Who do you think is a true Nigerian?
A true Nigerian believes in the culture, religion, attitude, and development of the nation. Any individual that is always particular about the focus and the direction of the nation is practically a true Nigerian worthy of recommendation.
You were recently elected the President of Performing Musicians’ Employers Association of Nigeria. No doubt, your new task comes with lots of grey areas that need urgent Midas touch. What are you going to do differently that others have not done?
I have actually been doing a whole lot differently because I started with bringing everybody together as one big family. I have been able to foster mutual cohabiting among the youth, middle and the old school musicians. Moreover, the fact that I make everybody my unique friend, it was easy for me to operate smoothly. I have tried to take away ego, we have abolished selfish interests, and we have been able to install focus and direction. When we resumed, we found out that PMAN doesn’t have a database. This made it quite impossible for us to know how many Nigerian musicians are here in the country, we don’t know how many Nigerian musicians we have across Africa, neither do we know how many of them are present worldwide. Hence, we swung into action by creating a robust database that showcases the totality of Nigerian musicians around. The database was designed in such a manner that if you click on it anywhere in the world, you will get the data of musicians whether juju, highlife, hip-hop, fuji, or any other genre available. The initiative made a whole lot of people believe in us. They were convinced that ‘these people know what they are doing’, right from the beginning of our administration. We made our unity an easy effort that you can easily register with any bank wherever you are in Nigeria, and you will be duly enlisted on the database of PMAN.
Apart from some of us who know you as a very hardworking and intelligent individual, you seem to have something special that made several corporate organisations like banks, telecoms and a whole lot of others wanting to partner with PMAN now unlike before. Could you tell us the secret behind this achievement?
I showed them the sincerity of the union. I made them realise where the union is supposed to be, and I was able to convince them what they stand to benefit if they could tap and buy into the luxury of opportunities attached to the union. I know a bank’s managing director who told me categorically that his bank had never wanted to associate with the past PMAN’s administration, but his team was totally convinced with the value added opportunity we presented to them. As you know, they are commercial and profit-based organisations, it was easy for them to key into our mission. Apart from the benefit, the issue of credibility comes in. I believe they felt they could trust both the leadership and executives of the new PMAN.
Does that mean these organisations have done thorough research about you and found out that you have an outstanding pedigree that a serious organization can relate with or you were able to win them over with your sweet mouth?
(Laughs) Not that I am a perfect person or I’m the best leader, I think it is just the grace of God and the fact that the companies were convinced while researching into my personality and PMAN. Some of them actually confessed to me during the pitching that they logged into my personal website several times to get information about me. They also confirmed to me that they did several studies about me, searching for any scandalous report, but they found only my clean slate. I am a very focus person. I have a spiritual driving force to achieve result in all my endeavours. I am very positive. I don’t believe in disappointment. My philosophy of life is to always see opportunity in every disappointment. I hate negativity.
One of the things mentioned during the press conference was that there would be health insurance for every member of PMAN. Can you expatiate on the initiative?
That is one of our plans but it is still in the pipeline. What we are driving about the union is new thinking, new ways of doing things and new focus. The database gives every member a biometric identity card that would also serve as Access Bank Master Card ATM that would make you to access any nearest hospital. The health insurance scheme is a ‘safety-first’ initiative that takes care of whatever ailment you can think of. In case of emergency, there would be an air ambulance stationed at the airport to fly the musician or any member of his or her family out of the country for instant treatment. In the case of accident and death, the scheme comes as a relief for the deceased family, as it would give nothing less than N10 million to survive the gory period.
It is understandable that there are some older musicians who wouldn’t be comfortable with your administration, how do you intend to manage these people?
First, what drives human nature is communication. A whole lot of them have been coming but we have remained firm and focus. We made them realise the need to join hands to chart a new course for the growth of PMAN instead of dragging the union backward. We have been able to show them pictures of where they are supposed to be not where they are presently, and that has cleansed any vindictive thought they might be nurturing in their minds. We made them realise that, had someone had got this structure right, majority of them would have their own private jets as some foreign musicians do. They should have houses in Banana Island. Foreign musicians live comfortably because their founding fathers got the structure right years back.
If there are huge opportunities in the music industry like these, how come the past leaders of PMAN did not tap into them?
People are different, but it could be that they only thought of personal interests and not that of the union as a whole. At times, it could be as a result of distraction. You know, the activities of the union are enormous and these could easily distract anybody. But as for me, I have come to realise that when people try to distract me on anything, it is when I strive to do that thing the more.
What about the Nigerian economy? How will the country benefit from this new initiative?
Remember I said the health insurance card is multipurpose. The same card gives pension plan for the aged. Once you are 65 or 70 and you want to retire from active music, it goes into pension plan. The same money that we set aside to manage any case of demise is the same money that will go to your pension managers to foot your bills monthly. This same structure will enable every individual in the industry to communicate on an extremely cheap rate monthly. You don’t need to spend exorbitantly on recharge cards before you can communicate with your band boys, producers, marketers, promoters, show managers or any other group associated with PMAN. All you need to do is pay a token of N500 per month. Now, it translates into you having an ATM account that connects you with royalty account. The royalty account links you with media distribution network, which works with Global System-1. The GS1 is the barcode and encoding company around the globe. This means your songs would be barcoded in a way that whenever anyone downloads it anywhere in the world, they can track it and your royalty will move straight into your royalty account. Apart from the benefits PMAN members get from this structure, it would also benefit the economy of Nigeria. According to the Minister of Finance, even without this new structure, the entertainment industry contributes about N2.3 trillion to the Nigerian economy annually. That has been all on statistics; now we are putting it right to be real. We did a whole lot with Heritage Bank, UBA, FCMB and Diamond Bank. When they came up with their own statistics, they were marveled. They claimed that if we can get the structure right as we projected, the industry would be contributing about N9 trillion yearly. Statically, if our industry can contribute that huge amount annually to the economy, we are automatically above the oil industry.
The music industry nowadays affords Nigerian musicians to travel across the globe times without number. How can interested person register for PMAN membership?
It is very simple. PMAN has gone digital now. Just go to any branch of Heritage Bank, UBA, FCMB or Diamond Bank to request for PMAN registration form. You will be registered instantly. All you need to pay is a peanut compared to the huge benefits available to you as a member of PMAN.
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