By Emman Ovuakporie
THE book Legislative Plagiarism And Infringement of Copyright In Bills And Statutes, is a serial publication under the Legislative Information And Knowledgment Enhancement Series (LIKES).
A handbook on transplant of bills and statutes, it is a collection of articles written by legal professionals, lawmakers and academics to enhance legislative knowledge in Nigeria.
The handbook addresses ills associated with plagiarism by legislators and how to avoid the pitfalls while at the same time it ensures that legislations don’t end up with implementation difficulties.
In the five chapter book, Rep Kingsley Ogundu Chinda, a third-timer in the House of Representatives, leaves no one in doubt as to his mastery in editing. Chapter one was anchored by Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja who clinically handled the Method of Transplanting Bills And Statutes To Prevent Plagiarism And Copyright Infringement.
Jaja adopted the methodology of Keith Patchett, a professor of law and an expert in legislative drafting at the University of Cardiff, Wales. He espoused a system of legislative drafting that was applied for Eastern and Central European countries.
The chapter examines how Patchett’s method can be applied in Nigeria’s legislative drafting processes to minimise legislative plagiarism. Giving an insight into how bills are drafted, Jaja likened production of a government’s bill (legislation) to that of a cake production by a firm of bakers, noting that it all depends on the ingredients. He stressed that better quality of ingredients impacts on quality of the cakes.
He observed that in the absence of indigenous methods of legislative drafting, majority of legislators in developing countries, including Nigeria, now resort to the practice of copying or transplanting of bills and legislations by other developing countries.
Jaja held the view that poorly drafted statutes were burdens upon the entire state, noting that while judges struggle to interpret and apply them, attorneys find it difficult to base any sure advice upon them, while citizens’ earnest desire to conform is confused.
In recent times, plagiarism and copyright infringement of bills and statutes have emerged as some of the issues that have resulted in litigation for legislators and the legislature. For example, a former senator recently instituted a law suit against the Infectious Diseases Bill, 2020. The bill was supposedly sponsored by a former speaker in the House of Representatives. Among other allegations, the said bill is said to be plagiarised considering that 98 percent of its contents were copied from the Infectious Diseases Act, 1977 of Singapore.
In the second chapter, Chukwuka Onyeaku,focused on Legislative Plagiarism in Nigeria: Examining The Legislative Status of Bills And Acts of The Legislature. Onyeaku apparently dug into intellectual property rights adequately using Nigerian Copyright Act as basis to determine what constitutes literary work. The chapter is divided into six sections for easy comprehension. It delves into what can be adjudged plagiarism in the legislative parlance using Nigeria’s Control of Infectious Diseases, 2020 as Nigeria’s legal framework to drive home his point. In concluding the chapter, he noted that under Nigeria’s legal framework it can safely be said that the Singapore Disease Act,1977 cannot be plagiarised because copyright is not attached to bills or Acts.
In the third chapter, the author examined Consequences of Transplant of Bills, An x-ray of the Senate: Nigerian Health Emergency Bill 2020 And House of Representatives Control of Infectious Diseases 2020 transplanted from the Infectious Disease Act of Singapore 2018. Here, Rep Chinda vividly analysed both bills with sharp comparisons. While commending drafters of both bills, Chinda explaindd, however, that following poor transplanting the bills did not fulfill the spirit and good intentions of the drafters, because the letters of the law were inconsiderately couched or transplanted in a way that the bills do not suit Nigerian realities.
He argued that it is almost impossible for both bills to have different titles, similar errors and be highly identical. According to him, in reading through both bills, one wonders if the drafters in both legislative chambers were under Pentecostal anointing and inspiration such that both bills could be drafted separately with 95 percent of the sections being verbatim. The look-alike bills displayed so much resemblance that they had no difference. In subsequent paragraphs he outlined all the minor differences and the identical twin-like appearances of the bills which heavily gave credence to the conspiracy theory associated with them.
He x-rayed the bills in a clause by clause style and listed their distinctive ambiguities and similarities. Abnormalities associated with both bills and the concentration of excessive powers on the director general of NCDC and the Minister of Health were adequately thrashed out in subsequent paragraphs of the book. In his conclusion, Chinda advised drafters of legislations to first and foremost consider the citizens so that they do not end up protecting governments.
The fourth chapter is devoted to legal practitioner’s view on legislative plagiarism.
Here, the author, Ekene Chuks-Okeke, examined ethical issues as they related to plagiarism and the way forward using events surrounding recent plagiarised bills as a case study. He cited the event of February 2020 on the floor of the House of Representatives where Hon. Nicholas Ossai reportedly raised an alarm over a Bill he sponsored in 2018 but was allegedly replicated by the Deputy Senate President as Billl on Orogun Polytechnic but without credit. Ossai, however, warned against allowing lawmakers to plagiarise, stressing that since it is not allowed in a university dissertation or a pupil’s assignment it shouldn’t be normalised for lawmakers.
The last chapter focused on whether Statutes and Literary Works Are Protected By Copyright In Nigeria. The author of this chapter, Bankole Shodipo, presented a tailor-made argument using contemporary examples to buttress his point. He submitted that the only thing that was expressly excluded from the list of literary works was judgment of courts. Law reports are expressly mentioned but court decisions are excluded from the Act. Suffice to say that in most African countries, statutes are not protected by copyright not because they are not literary works but because they are specifically excluded from protection.
Nigeria is a signatory to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and has incorporated its provisions into the Copyright Act. Article 2(4) of the Berne Convention provides that member States are at liberty to determine the protection to be granted to official texts of a legislative, administrative and legal nature and official translation of such texts.
In conclusion, the book is a veritable tool for those in search of knowledge on legislative plagiarism and copyright laws. It is recommended for law students, legislative studies students, lawmakers, practicing lawyers and students of political studies. It is a well referenced and easy read book because of its flow.