ENTERTAIMENT INDUSTRY IN NIGERIA

Entertainment been one major area where people make a lot of money in Nigeria in recent time, considering the high level of unemployment among youths hardly will you meet ten (10) youths and nine (9) out of them won’t be into one area or the other in the entertainment industry from acting , singing, producing, scriptwriting, editing, event planning and so on, but I can tell you that few or none of them have a lawyer representing them.

I hope the ongoing litigation and court injunction between Brymo and his former record label chocolate city will be an eye opener to all in the industry.

If you will ever make a living in the entertainment industry then you need the service of a lawyer who will pay attention to every legal aspect of it to protect your interest at all time.

As an entertainer, take musician for example every song you produce, you need a copyright and if not copyright then royalties on your jobs so that when such jobs are used you get paid, it is only in Nigeria that hit songs are used as sound tracks in movies and all the producer gets is an acknowledgment i.e. we thank Sir Shina Peters, is this all he is entitled to for job that took him so much to produce?

So how do you get paid and have control over what rightly belong to you (your jobs), then the service of a lawyer is required.

Why do I need a lawyer?

As an entertainer you need a lawyer to enter into valid contracts on your behalf, so that whenever there’s a breach of such contract your right will be adequately protected and enforced,failure to get a lawyer to help review contracts and you enter into one ignorantly such contractual agreement remain binding on you because ignorant is not an excuse in law neither will uproar by your numerous fans on the street affect the decision of the court in enforcing such contracts.

A lawyer will understand the legal implications of your industry while helping you to promote yourself without sacrificing your artistic integrity.

They will represent clients from intellectual law capacity, defending victims of copyright infringement, individual deprived of their unique creations and innovations.

What are the rights open to you as an entertainer?

Despite the fact that entertainers who attain a degree of prestige or celebrity status in their respective talents naturally relinquish certain individual rights to privacy, still you have a constitutional right in law to protection from blackmail, violent threats ,undue deprivation towards personal and intellectual properties, targeted defamation to mention a few.

For those who don’t know what copyright is, this falls under the intellectual property law. It is used to protect the owner from undue deprivations towards original creations providing immunities against various violations involving ’reproduction’ ‘public performance’ ‘distribution’ ‘reproduction’ ’adapting a novel to screen play’

Royalties are usage based payment made y one party to another for the right to an ongoing use of an assets (intellectual property)

Oyenike Alliyu-Adebiyi Llb (hons)BL

CHILD'S CUSTODY

There’s a presumption that the child’s custody matters in Nigeria will be decided in

PATIENT'S RIGHT (MEDICO-LEGAL)

The attitude of medical practitioners and supports staffs in most hospitals and health centres is unprofessional and contrary to the ethics of that profession. It is common place in Nigeria to hear of hospitals where medical professionals are rude to patients neither do they provide quick medical attention expected of them. The basic obligation of any health professional is to listen calmly, carefully, respectful and trustworthy to their patients.

Their conduct fall short of international standard and must be properly addressed and adequate punishment for any medical practitioner that fall below standard because this has lead to untimely death of some innocent patients.

The medical and dental council of Nigeria’s code of medical ethics requires doctors to preserve life whenever possible, to hold in confidence communications with patients, to put professionalism above profit making and personal interest must not at anytime conflict with their job.

The medical and dental practitioner has a disciplinary committee that is charged with the duty of considering and determining any case which engages the attention of the tribunal, any medical or dental practitioner found guilty shall be punished accordingly.

Medico-legal issues are less common in countries like Nigeria unlike other western countries because patients are not properly educated of their rights against medical practitioner. 

The National Health Bill includes right to emergency care, information about treatment and confidentiality but this is not strictly adhered to because there’s no adequate awareness to that effect neither do people know that they have a right to enforce their right and adequately compensated when need arise, it is the right of every patient to seek legal action when necessary against any officer that fall sort of the code of conduct and ethics of medical practitioner.

Oyenike Alliyu-Adebiyi LLB(hons)BL

LEGITIMATE AND ILLEGITIMATE

A legitimate child is one regarded by law as a child born with full rights and it confers on the child certain rights against the man whom the law regards as his father and generally against the society.

Children born out of wedlock are referred to as illegitimate child.

For a child to be seen as a legitimate child there must exist a valid marriage between the parents of the child ,statutory marriage ,customary, Islamic or church marriage, where non is present then the child is an illegitimate child.

      Section 42(2) of the 199 constitution FRN provide thus;

  No citizen of Nigeria shall be subject to any disabilities or deprivation merely by reason or        circumstances of his birth.

From the foregoing a child born out of wedlock can as well become a legitimate child through subsequent marriage of his parent or by acknowledgment by his father after the date of his birth. It is also a way of making legitimate which was not originally so through statutory procedure.

It is important to determine the status of an illegitimate child to assure the succession right as against a legitimate child.

Legitimacy is of great importance in that only legitimate children can inherit their father’s estate and also enjoy the status incidental to legitimate children which includes the right to maintenance, custody amongst other rights.

This is an important topic and an aspect of law owing to the growing number of illegitimate birth popularly known as ‘baby mama’ that has been on the increase in recent times where more than one third of the birth in Nigeria are mostly of unmarried mothers.

Other instances of legitimacy

There are other instances of a child being regarded as legitimate child of a man who is not the natural father for instance a widow who remain in the house of her late husband’s family after the death of her husband without the marriage to the late husband dissolved, any child she bears post- humously is regarded as the legitimate child of her late husband at birth. This point has been buttress in the Nigerian case of Nwaribe V President oru district court & ors, this was judicially approved as not being repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience.

It is of great importance that every child should be born during the subsistence of a valid marriage which is either statutory, customary, Islamic or church marriage.

Oyenike Alliyu-Adebiyi LLB(hons)BL

CODE OF CONDUCT FOR PUBLIC OFFICE HOLDERS

Corruption among the public office holders in Nigeria has become an order of the day; Nigeria is one of the most corrupt Nations in the world despite the provision of the code of conduct for public office holders in Nigeria in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. 

The corporate image of the country has been greatly eroded with Nigeria being rated by transparency international as one of the corrupt countries in the world.

The fifth schedule of the 1999 constitution of Nigeria made provision for code of conduct for every public office holders in Nigeria as thus;

A public office holder shall not put himself in a position where his personal interest conflicts with his duties and responsibilities....... 

Who is a public officer in Nigeria?

The President, Governors of states, members of the National Assembly, vice presidents, deputy governors, government ministers ,chief justice if Nigeria, inspector general of police to mention a few

 If the constitution provides for code of conduct for public office holders, how come our public office holders violates the provision and are never punished.

Has any public office holders past and serving been punished for violation of this provision?

Yes, but very few or rather only those who are in the bad book of the serving administration.

The bureau of code of conduct for public office holders should be given independent power to try corrupt officers without interference by the executive and legislative arms of government.

Honesty, accountability, discipline, loyalty to the people that elected you, punctuality and absenteeism has become history in our public officers.

In respect of the foregoing N225 million Armour cars procurement by the civil aviation authority, i hereby urge the three man committee set up by the president to investigate and do all they could to get to the root of the matter in the interest of justice and fair play in that failure to do so will continue to send wrong signals to the citizens and the international communities. Without judging with the evidence made public and already corroborated, there’s misappropriation of public funds and the general public are waiting for the outcome of the foregoing.

My submission, ministries and other government agencies are urged to institute clearly in built incentives for fostering good behaviors in offices and also make provision for appropriate punishment that is as grave as capital punishment for any public officer that falls short of the code of conduct required of him, this will not only deter them from looting public funds for personal use but will also ensure good governance among them. And most importantly the 1999 constitution should be reviewed.

Thank you.

Oyenike Alliyu-Adebiyi LLB(hons)Bl

WILL

Reading through one of the national dailies, I came across where the families of the late Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu the biafran war lord contesting the marriage between their late brother and the beautiful wife Bianca Ojukwu.

Without being told this proves was demanded for because of the

RAPE

One of the most common crimes in our society in recent time is rape, it baffles me how innocent victims are assaulted sexually on daily basis either by their minders, older cousins, ’uncles’ at times teachers in schools. The one that got my attention recently is that of the innocent girl Janet, that was raped in Bayelsa state,

DIVORCE

Tunji and Tolu got married on the 2^nd of April 2012 at the ikoyi registry in Lagos, Nigeria. They moved in together to live as husband and wife, after six months Tunji started keeping late nights,he gets back home drunk, all effort to get his parent to talk to him proved abortive instead he beats her mercilessly for reporting him to his parent. 

Tolu is tired of the marriage and wants a divorce.

What is Divorce? According to the black law dictionary, this is the legal ending of a marriage, a complete separation.

Marriage is a union between a man and a woman to the exception of all others, this is a monogamous marriage recognized under the act also known as statutory marriage. The law governing marriage under the act is the matrimonial cause’s act which protects the interest of the parties that is husband and wife. This same law protect institution of marriage, it does not encourage people to rush out of marriage once they realize it falls below their expectations.

Section 30 of the matrimonial causes act provides that divorce proceedings cannot be executed except by leave of court. By virtue of the MCA a marriage is considered not valid on the following grounds and can be dissolved irrespective of the fact that it is below two years:

(i)                 Where either of the parties is at the time of the marriage lawfully married to some other person.

(ii)               The parties are within prohibited degrees of consanguinity.

(iii)             Lack of consent of either of the parties(a consent obtained under duress or fraud)

(iv)              Either of the parties is not under the marriageable age.

A statutory marriage may be dissolved in the court by bringing a petition before the court on the ground that the marriage has broken down irretrievably .A marriage legally contracted is said to have broken down irretrievably on the following grounds by the provision of section 15(2)a-f of the matrimonial causes act.

(i)                  That the other party has willfully and personally refused to consummate the marriage (refused to have sex)

(ii)                The other party has committed adultery and the petitioner finds it intolerable to live with

(iii)               That the other party has behaved in a way that the petitioner cannot reasonably expect to live with

(iv)              Desertion by the other party for a continuous period of one year

(v)                That the parties have lived apart for a continuous period of three years

(vi)              That the other party has for a period not less than a year failed to comply with a decree of conjugal rights.

I believe after reading the provision of the law regarding divorce, we’ll be able to advise Tolu on what to do and how to go about it.

Oyenike Alliyu-Adebiyi LLB(hons)BL