How Nigerians made the best of COVID-19
Nigerians are rated as the happiest and most creative people in the world considering the economic hardship faced by its 200 million population. Happiness for Nigerians comes from all genres of entertainment such as music, movies, games, arts and technology. The creative energy of Nigerians has produced globally recognized names, products, brands and businesses in all areas of entertainment. Nominations and awards by Nigerians in Africa and beyond are testimonies to the high level of creativity in Nigeria. The recent nomination of a Nigerian music artiste for a Grammy award has motivated other highly skilled individuals to showcase their ideas in a variety of format and using different platforms to reach a larger audience.
Nigeria’s teeming youthful population are the driving force behind the information technology content and solutions in the entertainment industry. Creative solutions from Nigeria such as comedy skits, product sales, music launching, online radio stations and animations have filled the digital landscape. Digital platforms for communication, sharing, creating text, audio and video content are used on mobile devices and smartphones.
The digital content from Nigeria decreased as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The major economic, political and entertainment hubs in Nigeria like Port Harcourt, Lagos, Abuja and Kaduna were shut down. However, Nigerians who are never idle found new ways to create entertainment content and share using digital platforms. A review of the digital content however shows that the content are copies or slight modifications of each other. The copyright information is not available and sharing permissions not explicitly stated.
Creative Commons License for Covid-19 Memories Documentation
The Community Activity Fund (CAF) of the Creative Commons Global Network supported a project to document memories about Covid-19 in Nigeria. The project used the competition strategy to get participants to share their memories during the Covid-19 pandemic. An online portal was set up using Google Forms to collect registration details, activity submission and introduce Creative Commons (CC) license to participants. Participants had a month to submit entries in 4 categories — audio, video, text and images. Publicity for the program was done using digital marketing and one-on-one contact. Students in a secondary school participated in a class on CC licenses.
Artistic skills aided by technology such as graphics design, picture editing, video editing and desktop publishing were acquired by students online and used to create content for various digital platforms from their mobile devices.
Project examples:
Olumide shared daily motivational tips using memes created on his laptop and uses his social media handle on the memes as a form of protection and marketing. There is no sharing permission stated for his works thus limiting the reuse of his work. The project introduced him to CC licenses, and he plans to use them in his future works.
The Oyo State chapter of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) inducted new engineers shortly after the lockdown in a small ceremony. Idris does not share personal content online but with the rights provided and enforced by the CC license he consented to share his picture with the world.
Bernice Oyeleke organized the first Deaf Literacy Debate program at Ibadan, Oyo State in August 2020. She shared her experience of the program which had been reported by some news outlet. The photos shared are from her mobile phone. She is interested in global attention to her efforts and wants to grant permission to others to share her work while acknowledging her.
A recent graduate of Library Studies, who participated in the competition is aware of copyright issues and CC licenses. The young graduate, Bukola James, who submitted video content about the services of the Kwara State Library Services was careful not to break copyright rules. The work created is used to promote library services, promote reading and advocacy.
A video of some selected memories is available on Google Drive at
The project was supported by the Creative Commons Communities Activity Fund.
Seyi Osunade teaches at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He is an advocate for open source and open technologies. He is a member of the Creative Commons Global Network.
