A Nigerian lawyer is urging veteran highlife singer Gentleman Mike Ejeagha to sue skit maker Brain Jotter for using his song to earn millions of naira while offering only N2M in compensation.
This call to action follows Brain Jotter’s search for the highlife singer after a skit featuring his 2010 song went viral.
Taking to the X platform, a legal practitioner identified simply as Nupe Lawyer emphasized the implications of copyright infringement.
He suggested that Mike Ejeagha would gain more by suing Brain Jotter than by accepting the token compensation of N2 million naira.
“I hope the man has a good lawyer😀 you can’t use someone’s song for content raking millions and offer to give the man “2million” as if you are helping the man🤷♂️,” he wrote.
The post has since sparked mixed reactions from social media users, with some arguing that the music had been dormant and had not generated significant income in the last 14 years.
Reactions as lawyer urges Mike Ejeagha to sue Brain Jotter
bigmorsh said: “Not sure the man go do any case sef after 2 million. Since the song has been there, did it fetch him 2m?”
OritogunM penned: “He danced to the song; he didn’t utter a single word, didn’t change the lyrics, didn’t change the tone, didn’t perform the song on stage, the man’s name appeared on the original song tag on instagram. Now he has to pay royalties? Megan Thee Stallion is presently trending on TikTok; she should also demand royalties from people for dancing to her song?”
IdanFederal opined: “People are funny sha. person dance to song and be blow. if na so he dey be you know how many artist go don blow?…nobody claimed any intellectual property here like say e reproduce am.”
Creed_printz stated: “Wtf is two million, we ain’t serious in this country.”
revelationrabbi noted: “The funny thing is that the same Nigerians who can’t wrap their heads around the infringement of intellectual property as theft are the same Nigerians who want to protest against bad governance.”