Rockson A. Igelige, Esq
Everyone who encountered Rockson knew how passionate he was about intellectual property rights and entertainment law. Long before these emergent areas of law became familiar, even to lawyers here in Nigeria, he had gone to the University of Westminster in the United Kingdom and obtained a Master’s in the field. His zeal was almost missionary and soon we were talking about how to popularise IPR beyond the courtroom. He had, in fact, gone as far as conceiving a non-governmental organisation for the purpose. He was the moving spirit behind Friends of the Creator (Artistic) Foundation, the first (and, to my knowledge, only) Nigerian NGO to be accredited by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), with him as founding Executive Director and I as chairman, board of trustees.
Friday, morning, 21 August. As soon as I switched my phone back on, it began to ring. It was a call from a childhood friend of Rockson’s, bearing the worst news of the year, guaranteed to be an instance of the worst news I will ever hear in my life, however long God grants that I remain on earth. “Rockson is dead!” he said, barely holding back tears, apologising for being a bearer of bad news. The caller whom I know very well and his tears, which he could no longer stop, did not permit the false hope of “You’re joking, not so?” or “Tell me it is not true.” I brought the phone from my ear, as if to distance the tragic news from me, stared at the screen, and wished I hadn’t powered it back on.
