Peter and Paul Okoye had settled their
differences and Psquare was back on Here
and Here, Paul had however granted an
exclusive interview with the Net.ng on
Thursday March 17.
Peter Okoye used the medium to let fans
know that this issue was no publicity stunt
and there have been serious issues with the
group, with his twin brother and older
brother ‘working’ against him.
Enjoy the interview, it’s long but it clearly
explains what has been going on with
Psquare through Peter’s detailed narration.
The issue was the fact that I was in Psquare and it felt like I was in fear. If I don’t do this, Psquare will break-up, if I don’t do that, Psquare will scatter.’Four years ago, I told Jude that he needs to step down as our manager, because I didn’t want to disrespect him as a brother, but this is business, we have to structure it. And Jude said to me that there’s a way I’ll talk to him, and he’ll slap me. So I kept quiet’.
‘So, a few hours after, Paul came to me and
said if I want Jude to step down it’s not a
problem, but it’ll mean that he (Paul) will go
solo. The the first time word got out about
Psquare breaking up, a lot of people called
us, senators, governors, and people like that.
In fact three of us were once in a private jet
to go and see someone who wanted to
resolve our issues and we didn’t speak to
each other all through the flight. At the end
of the day, I swallowed my pride for peace
to reign and allowed Jude to remain as our
manager’.
On living with his brother Paul, he said
I and Paul stay together in this estate
and the last time I saw him was about aweek ago.’Truth is, I’ve not been in
talking terms with Paul since December 2015 and that was why I travelled in January because I had a lot on my mind.
last year that broke my heart.Now listen
to this, Psquare featured on songs with
J-Martins, Bracket, LKT, 9ice and these 4
songs were done by Paul alone, but
guess what, did I appear in the videos,
YES’.
‘Now hear this, we have other collabos
with Kaha, Darey, Ruggedman. I did
these songs alone. How come they don’t
have videos? Paul refused to appear in
the videos’.
‘So I told Paul that when next he does
collabo alone, he should be in the video
alone, because it got a point where
artistes began to feel if they do a collabo
with Paul it gets a video but if it’s me it
doesn’t get a video.
The last collabo we did was with
Flavour and I refused to do another one.
Even Flavour had to speak all the Igbo
he knows to convince me before I
agreed to do it. Only for my brother to
come and tell me that ‘shey I thought
you said you won’t appear in any video
that I did the collabo alone? Why did
you appear on this one?’. I was sad but I
knew another one will come’.
had gone to do a song with her, not the
campaign song they are promoting now,
another Psquare collabo entirely. So she
called me that she’s been trying to reach
Paul to get the CD of the song from him that
he’s already done his part, so I went to
Paul’s house to help ask for it and tell him
that I want to go to their studio to do my
verse and he said he doesn’t know where
the CD is’.
‘I went to the Mavin studio to meet Tiwa,
when I got there, she asked for the CD and I
told her Paul didn’t give me any CD, so I
called him again and gave the phone to Tiwa and told her on phone that the CD is at
Omole, so I got into the studio recorded my
verse and when I finished, everybody was
clapping. I was surprised only to realize that Paul had gone to tell them that I don’t sing or write songs’.
‘I felt really bad and betrayed, but I covered
up for him. I jokingly asked Teebillz if they
gave him Red Label and he said yes, so I was like you guys caused it, and we laughed over it. So when my assistant went to pick up the CD, Paul and Jude started shouting at him tot Peter that what is he doing at the Mavin studio? He knows how we work. The next day, I went to Paul and told him how I felt when I heard what he said. Only for Jude to say that he made Paul the lead singer of Psquare 8 years ago! A leader leads, he doesn’t destroy.’
Peter says in spite of all these, Psquare had
zero structure.
‘When it comes to decision-making, it
has always been a Triangle formation,
and the highest vote wins. I never used
to complain because we were all okay,
but what has changed now is the fact
that we’ve grown. You can make a
certain decision based on how we used
to do it and it may affect everyone as an
individual, but it gets to a point when
the decisions taken never gets to be my
own and I began to wonder if anything
is wrong’.
‘I always get Ideas, most of Psquare
ideas come from me, and when I say
Idea, I mean materials we need to put
out for people to see, video, stage
performances and all. But when I come
up with them, nobody wants to accept it.
I didn’t complain because people still
love what we do, but then again, there
wasn’t much competition in the industry
back then’.
As time goes, we should get better, it
shouldn’t be same triangle deciding,
because if we continue that same way,
we’ll lose it. All I want is a proper
structure in the sense that, we need to
have proper management, business
managers and all’.
‘As I speak to you right now, we don’t
have any office, no structure. When this
issue started about five years ago, our
lawyer told us the way we run our
business is wrong without a structure’.
‘I’ll give you an instance’.
and because I had a slight argument
with Paul, he said he’s not going. The
show was the wedding of the President’s
daughter, because some times when we
perform for some certain people, they
always talk to me, they don’t call Jude’.
‘I didn’t even know until we got to the
airport and at the end of the day we
missed the reception, but we finally
performed at the gala night, because
when I got to the airport my brother
wasn’t there, and I became confused on
how I was going to explain to the
President that we can’t perform?
So I made up my mind to go with the
band, perform like that and lie that my
brother was sick. So we left for Abuja
and when we got to the hotel dressing
up my assistant manager called that he
was on the way to the airport with Paul,
so we had to wait for them to land in
Abuja and that was why we couldn’t
make it on time to the reception’.
‘The president was mad. In fact Mama
Peace (Patience Jonathan) was really
mad. But we eventually made up for it
with a performance at the Gala night.
Only for Jude to say Paul said he wasn’t
going for a show and I still went on it
with’.
‘Imagine if Jude had a proper structure
and we had contracts? That wouldn’t
happen. And it was more because the
show came through me. If the show
came through Jude it wouldn’t have
happened. I don’t have a problem with
doing things as a family, but then the
structure and proper organization is
important too. The name Psquare is very
big outside but inside we have no
structure, I see people like Audu of
Chocolate City, Mavin Records, even Ubi
Franklin and I wanted us to have a
structure like that. Psquare is just up
there because of the grace of God.’
So I made up my mind to go with the
band, perform like that and lie that my
brother was sick. So we left for Abuja
and when we got to the hotel dressing
up my assistant manager called that he
was on the way to the airport with Paul,
so we had to wait for them to land in
Abuja and that was why we couldn’t
make it on time to the reception’.
‘The president was mad. In fact Mama
Peace (Patience Jonathan) was really
mad. But we eventually made up for it
with a performance at the Gala night.
Only for Jude to say Paul said he wasn’t
going for a show and I still went on it
with’.
‘Imagine if Jude had a proper structure
and we had contracts? That wouldn’t
happen. And it was more because the
show came through me. If the show
came through Jude it wouldn’t have
happened. I don’t have a problem with
doing things as a family, but then the
structure and proper organization is
important too. The name Psquare is very
big outside but inside we have no
structure, I see people like Audu of
Chocolate City, Mavin Records, even Ubi
Franklin and I wanted us to have a
structure like that. Psquare is just up
there because of the grace of God.’
On being labelled a dancer ‘It’s really sad that people have labeled me ‘Dancer’, and people don’t really know what I do for Psquare. Kudos to Paul, I’m not a good songwriter, in-fact I’ll rate myself
30%, so when it comes to song writing, I
give it to Paul 100%.
‘However, not writing songs does not
disqualify you from being a musician. I can
tell you for free that a Nigerian wrote two of the songs on Rihanna’s new album. I’ve
travelled a lot and most times people ask,
‘which one are you, the singer or the
dancer’? And it’s really sad’.In Psquare, I
am the creative person, I can sit-down and
tell you what people want to hear, what they want to see and what they want to learn from Psquare. But it’s not something to brag about’.
‘Jude directs all our videos’.
‘This whole thing began when Paul went
online and started post lyrics of most of our
songs on Instagram that he wrote them all,
just because Peter brought in something to
the table’.
‘I’ve been trying to bring more business for
Psquare I didn’t know it was going to cause
problems. I sent my manager to a meeting
in Senegal to meet with Universal music
about getting us deals, and when he came
back, the way they responded to him wasn’t
encouraging’.
So I had to send Diouf, the footballer to
help get the documents and convince my
brothers before we could pull through
with the deal. And after some months,
we started making money. Meanwhile,
while filling the forms, Jude filled
everything as Psquare. So the first
money came, we shared it. The second
money was bigger, it came and we
shared it too. That was when Paul said
we had to re-fill the form and give proper credit to the songwriter (Himself) and if the form is not brought back, he’s going to expose me and tell the world that he writes all the songs’.
‘And the next day he went online to post
those lyrics. So my question is, when he
was doing that what did Jude do about
it? Absolutely nothing!’
Paul is Weak
I remember I once told Paul something,
when Jude was using the term ‘Our Money’ when he just became our manager, that was when we made our first 1 million. I called Paul and told him that our former manager used to make about 15%, now that Jude is our manager, let’s think of a percentage that we’ll be giving him and put it on paper’.
‘Paul was like, it’s not necessary.
Probably, he went to tell Jude about it.
I’m sorry to say this, but I think Paul is
weak’.You know they say change is
constant, you can’t stay at one spot, as
the industry moves, you move. So I
won’t say the problem we have is money. I think everybody is just dragging power unnecessarily. Imagine Jude telling me that he’s in charge of Psquare and there’s nothing Peter and Paul can do about it, and I look at Paul he’s quiet about it’.
‘I’ve never seen where a manager talks
to his artistes anyhow. If there’s any
issue you should call us aside quietly to
talk about it’.
WHY I CALLED OUT JUDE ON SOCIAL
MEDIA
First of all, if I as an artiste tells you to
step down, and you say Paul and I cannot do anything, then there’s no other way I can take you out than going public’.
‘On December 14, 2015 we sat down to
have a meeting hoping to be able to set a
proper structure in place, but Paul noticed that it wasn’t working the way he wanted, so he said he wants to tell us that he’s starting a new group.
I thought he meant he wanted to start a
record label, and he was like no, he’s
starting a new group that he belongs to.
And Jude simply said, ‘anybody stop you’? He picked up his phones and walked out of the meeting. I felt it had already been discussed behind me’.
‘I later found out that Paul is already recruiting the group and Jude is their
manager. At the moment I heard they
are called ‘The MVPs’ I don’t know what
it means yet’.
‘So how do you expect me to be managed by the same person we’ve been having issues with, who is now the manager of the other group. There’ll surely be conflict of interest’.
‘And it actually happened two weeks
ago’. ‘Jude called me, after I had said he’s
fired. He called me on a Thursday to say
‘Hope you know we are going to the embassy tomorrow for that show in
Holland’. I know about the show, it was
already booked before the issues started, so I told him, ‘Bro you are not my manager, talk to my manager’. He said, ‘Noted’. And the next day, they went to the embassy with the new group members, which means they had already set up their interview at the embassy because it’s not possible to get an
appointment in less than 24 hours’.
‘So I traced the organisers, and told them that Jude does not represent us, he
represents only Paul. I told them this is
what it takes to get Peter and Paul, Peter
alone or Paul alone’.
‘So I went on social media to protect our
careers, because if I didn’t do it, Psquare
will not release any materials anytime
soon, they’ll be busy promoting their
artistes’.
And I remember going to talk to Paul
about it before I went on social media, I
went to his house he was in his room with his friend, and I was like can he excuse us, I want to talk to you and Paul said, no, his friend should stay, anything I want to say should be said in front of him. So I said, no, you know we are brothers and he was like, ‘oh, na now you know say we be brothers’.
So I said, I came to talk to him about what’s been happening, but it was turning into an argument so I left and I travelled out. I was away for over a month, knowing that we didn’t have any show at that time. I went to Turkey, London to rest my mind, my friend
Samuel Eto’o invited me to come’.
HOW I FIRED JUDE
‘The day I fired Jude was at a concert. It was
the day I came back, we had a show, so I
went straight to the venue in Lagos and told
Jude I want to talk to him, and he said I
should say anything I want to say in front of
everyone. I was like that was the same
attitude Paul gave me before I travelled’.
‘So Jude was like if I like I should get out, and I was like guy don’t embarrass me. He said who are you, because you think you are Psquare? So I told him openly that if he cannot resolve me and Paul’s issue, he doesn’t deserve to be our manager, and he said I should get out. There and then I told him ‘You are fired’! He looked at me and said, ‘You fit fire me’?’.
‘That was when I entered my car and
started Tweeting. How else can you take
him out?’
‘Long before I made up my mind, Paul
already said there’s no more Psquare, If
Jude leaves he goes with him’.And
before I announced my management, I
wanted my mind to be clear, so I went
back to Paul, this time we were alone
and we spoke a lot, I told him I had no
issues with him, but he needs to stop
letting Jude use him as a shield. Both of
us started shedding tears, and when we
finished he still said he hopes I’m not
here to tell him that I still want Psquare
and I told him I want to move on,
because he already has a manager (Jude)
and I don’t, so I had to structure myself
too’.
‘And I didn’t want to allow the Psquare
name to fade before moving on. Look at
Don Jazzy and Dbanj, when they broke
up, they waited for like 6 months and
had to start again. Now, that Psquare
just broke up, let me use the name to
move on quickly, because there’s no
time’.
‘Before I did the Olympic deal, I’ve brought
some deals for Psquare but the people
endorsing Psquare only see Peter and Paul,
but behind it’s Peter, Paul and Jude so the
price goes so high that it never works’.But
when a deal comes to my table, it’s not like
they called Jude and I went behind to talk to
them, the deal came directly to me from
Jude’s friend. He called me and told me
about it, and before then I had already
established my own beverage factory and
the deal coming was from PZ, which means I could do more business with them, so
should I lose that deal because they didn’t
call Jude?’
‘And I asked them that why me and not
Psquare, they said they couldn’t afford
Psquare and more so the brand was tailored to fit one person. So I went back to tell Paul and Jude and they didn’t say anything, they didn’t ask me not to do it.
Don’t get it wrong, we’ve been doing
different private businesses, the only
difference was that the Olympic deal had to
come out public. I’ve been doing mass
housing projects on my own, Paul has been
doing real estate, Jude has been doing his
own thing, he even went to do Northside
record label, so it’s not like it’s the first
thing I’m doing alone. It’s just the first one
that went public’.
‘So even when I decide to open my beverage factory, people will still say why am I doing it alone without my brother’.
IT IS NOT A PUBLICITY STUNT
The NetNG publisher Ayeni withPsquare
‘I hear lot of people think it’s all a stunt,
and that’s what I really want to put an end
to. It’s not a stunt at all. It has been going on
for a while’.
‘When Jude didn’t come to my wedding,
people started saying we broke up and then
others said it’s a stunt, then when Paul
posted those lyrics stuff on Instagram people thought it was a stunt too, but the truth is that, this is not and has never been a publicity stunt’.
‘I am telling you the truth, I am moving on
because people are already getting tired of
this Psquare brouhaha, now I have my
manager Olatunde Michaels and I expect
everybody to respect that. I am a family
man, a musician, singer and dancer, if I
don’t move on, Psquare will collapse and
there’ll be nothing left’.
‘Already Paul has done two songs without
me but no one is saying anything, he did a
song with his artiste ‘Muno’ with his name
as Rudeboy did they feature me? He did a
song with Tiwa Savage, did they feature
me?’
‘Last week Yemi Alade sent me her album
track list to help her share on Instagram,
guess what I saw, she had a song with
Psquare that I didn’t even know about. Only
Paul did it’.
The NEXT LEVEL
‘Because I announced a new management, people feel am the one going solo, but Paul has already gone solo, he’s moved on and didn’t need to announce any new management because he still works with Jude, so I had to announce mine and believe it or not, people are booking me for gigs
already’.
‘And guess what, I’ll still perform
Psquare songs, nobody can stop me,
nobody can stop Paul too, we didn’t
have a contract with Jude, so I have the
right to perform Psquare songs
especially the ones I took part in’.
‘I’ll also consider releasing solo songs
and even albums. Truth is – in the last
album Paul did some songs alone, I did
some songs alone. ‘Bring It On’ was Paul
alone, ‘Eje Ajo’, ‘Shekini’ was done by
me alone’.
‘Remember the 4 songs ‘Free For Fans’
that we released, those songs were
removed from the last album and I
leaked them’.
‘I have some songwriters already, V-Tek
writes for me, and I’m still bringing up
more’.
THEIR PROPERTY
Peter Explains.
‘Because of what was happening, it was
like two against one, so I said let’s share
our properties. When I said that, Paul
said if we want to share our properties,
Jude must get the same share with us
otherwise Psquare will split and I was
like ‘SPLIT-AGAIN?’
‘Our lawyer came and told Paul that it’s
wrong to share it equally with Jude, but
he insisted, so we divided every
property we owned in Lagos, Jos,
America, Abuja. In-fact the right and left
wing of the Square Ville mansion
belongs to Paul and Jude now.
So that was how we shared all our
properties equally among the three of us
about two or three years ago’.
‘After sharing everything, I called Paul
again and spoke to him about a proper
structure. We’ve been with people like
Akon and co and we see how it’s done.
Right now, Psquare has millions of
dollars in royalties hanging in the air’.
‘All our endorsement and shows are
shared equally between the three of us
as well’.
‘After what it took to share our
properties, I was embarking on a
project, so I needed more money and I
wanted to sell my house in America and
buy something smaller, because I spend
close to $30,000 to maintain that condo
every year’.
‘So I called my caretaker to begin the
process and she told Jude and Paul to
send their data page and passport
photographs, but they refused because
they know I wanted to the sell the
house. And see the value of dollars now.
The house was valued at 100M then, but
if I sell it now, I could make extra
250M’.
‘And we already signed paper works
and document of the house that it
belongs to me but Jude ignored it, so I
called our lawyer, Festus Keyamo to
inform him about the development. He
called them and they both refused to
pick his call, so he sent them a text and
requested that we should have a
meeting, but Jude replied him and said
no need for a meeting that the America
house will be sold’.
‘Paul said we agreed and signed on how
to share but we haven’t really shared it
yet, after all Jude is still holding on to
the documents’.
‘Three of us have properties close to
each other in Parkview and that’s why I
want to sell my own and move to
Banana Island’.
‘I can’t really understand why they
don’t want a structure, to me I think it’s
ignorance, and if I decide to do it, it’ll
seem like I’m looking for trouble’.
MY WIFE AND MY MUM
started having wives. Before my mum
died, she was at St Nicholas hospital on
the island, and my sisters were living in
this house (in Lekki), and every morning
before my wife goes to work, she’ll leave
home at 5am in the morning to go and
stay with my mum even before we get
there ourselves. And when she closes
from work, she’s back with her again’.
‘So I just laugh when I hear people say
my mum didn’t like my wife. It’s my
wife and sister that prepare my mum’s
meals in the kitchen’.
‘Now let me shock you: our wives, the
three of them are the closest set of
people you can imagine. Even with all
that’s going on. It’s really surprising.
Somehow, they respect themselves and
stayed out of the whole drama and I
respect them a lot. And that’s somehow
what has kept us together for this long,
otherwise Psquare would have ended
like two or three years back’.
WHY CYNTHIA MORGAN WON’T GET A
PSQUARE COLLABO
people were saying Psquare haven’t
helped anyone, I saw the success of
Tiwa Savage and I was close to signing
Cynthia Morgan and Simi. Ask them
they’ll tell you’.
‘I remember Paul came to the studio and
said he heard I’m signing Simi and
Cynthia, I said ‘Yes’, and he was like
‘What will people see Jude as’, and I
gave him example of Drake and Young
Money, Cash money’.
‘Oscar (Producer of ‘Collabo’ ft. Don
Jazzy) called to tell me that they can’t
sign the deal, because he heard it’s
causing problem in Psquare. Meanwhile
Cynthia and Simi were both going
through the contracts I gave them only
for them to return it two days later that
they can’t do it’.
‘Two weeks after, I was shocked to hear
that Jude had signed Cynthia Morgan,
and she knows deep down that she’s
never going to get a Psquare collabo’.
CONCLUSION
‘The truth is I feel happy it has come,
because I’ve been staying in Psquare in
fear for the last four years. The situation
now is, if you want Psquare to perform,
you’ll have to get in touch with two
management, I don’t care if you pay
Paul’s management more than they pay
me, once we are able to agree Psquare is
still there’.
‘I just don’t want to have a management
that feels he’s in control because he’s my
elder brother’.
‘And because of the legacy that I want
Psquare to be remembered for, that was
why I went to talk to Paul the last time. I
don’t want us to start doing beef songs,
or we see at the clubs and we don’t
greet each other, or ignore our kids and
stuff like that. And even if Psquare
breaks up, I still want us to have our
relationship as brothers. If I’ve regretted
anything in my life so far, I swear to
God this is not one of them, I’m happy
because I’ve been in pain for a long
time’.
‘It’s good if we go and do stuff
separately so that even IF we come back
we’ll have respect for each other. I wish
Paul the best and I wish Jude the best as
well’.
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