User:Obihoja

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I am Mr. Betrand Obi Ezeilo, a Legal Practitioner specializing in copyright law. I have been practicing law in Nigeria since 1989. I had worked with different law firms. Now I work with Nigerian Copyright Commission which is the government agency responsible for the administration, regulation and enforcement of the Nigerian Copyright Law. I was part of the Expert Working Group set up by Nigerian government to develop the draft Copyright Bill 2019 which will hopefully by passed into law. I have also participated in several training and conferences on copyright in different countries. As part of my work in the Commission, i have supervised several anti-piracy law enforcement actions and prosecuted many pirates. I also provide legal advice to stakeholder in the copyright industry

I am also the Chairman of Igbo Language and Culture Institute Ltd/Gte. This is an institute which is dedicated to sustaining and developing Igbo language and culture of the Igbo people. The igbo people inhabits the South Eastern part of Nigeria. However due to their dynamic nature the Igbo people has migrated that settled in almost every city in the world. An average Igbo person carries out one kind of business or the other and their business pursuit have taken them to all parts of the globe. This institute reaches out to Igbo people in different parts of the world and seeks to sustain the development of Igbo language and culture in everywhere that the Igbo person resides.

I am happy to be a member of the wikimedia foundation. i believe in the concept of free and open knowledge. while this appear to run contrary to the concept of copyright, i believe that there is a greater need for knowledge to be available and easily accessable to all if we intend to make this world a better place. This to me is of greater value to humanity than the restriction of knowledge. while making knowledge available, it is still possible to develop systems where creators still earn a living out of their creativity which is what copyright intend to achieve.

I am therefore happy to contribute content to different projects including wikipedia, wikidata, Igbo wiktionary and wiki commons. i have also participated in a number of edit a thon projects.

Obi Ezeilo participating in an edit a thon project in Abuja
Obi Ezeilo in a group picture after an edit a thon
Obi Ezeilo in another edit a thon
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