While it appeared earlier on yesterday, that 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 a week 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.
Something happened at Mavin Studios 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’.
So Tiwa Savage called me, apparently Paul 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
to tell 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’.
We had to go perform somewhere once, 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’.
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| Peter and new manager Olatunde
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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
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| The NetNG publisher Ayeni withPsquare
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‘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
‘People think we changed when we 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
When I set up P-Classic records because 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’.
. Tell Uncle @iam_Davido you’re sorryy
