Peter Okoye had an explosive interview two days ago, before his twin brother Paul Okoye’s emotional plea today, and I hope you all are ready to be amazed by all the revealing, messy details he dished out. –
Fighting back tears, Peter became the first of the Okoye brothers to approach a media outfit and reveal all that has been a private issue for years. He told Thenet.ng that Psquare fans must understand that this is the end of the band, as they know it.
‘The truth is’, he says, as his daughter Aliona comes in, seeking help to fix her toy, ‘the fans should be happy that we were able to drop the ‘Double Trouble’ album in 2014. What’s happening now should have happened then.
‘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.’
To be honest with you, I feel if our mum was still alive, we would have pushed her to her grave with this whole thing. It’s really sad that even with everything going on, I still stand with Paul’.
Peter spoke with Ayeni Adekunle ( TheNet.ng publisher) and Dayo Showemimo ( Thenet.ng Chief correspondent).
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’.
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.
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’.
‘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 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’.
‘I and Paul stay together in this estate and the last time I saw him was about a week ago.’
”But you live in the same premises. Why is this so?” – Thenet.ng asked him
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.’
Those close to the Okoyes say their elder brother Jude is central to the band’s problems. Howie T, their first manager admitted as much in an exclusive interview with THENETNG’s Dayo Showemimo early this week. But industry watchers insist Jude was the reason the group became profitable and premium in the first place.
Psquare are known to bill more than anyone else. When other A-listers were comfortable with N3-5M, they moved up to N6.5m. When artistes were happy to go overseas for peanuts and the promise of promo, they insisted on up to $120K. They turned down major shows if the price was wrong. It soon became an industry standard – if you wanted Psquare, you had to put big bucks on the table.
When Globacom, a Nigerian telecommunication company, signed an endorsement deal with them six years ago, the total fees went up to N240m. No Nigerian artiste has in recent times, matched Psquare in billing. Very few can hold a candle to them when the subject is live performance.
But 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.’
Thenet.ng asked: You’ve said a lot about Jude being the problem, and how you’re the minority. But, really, as Peter, what do you bring to the table?
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!’
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’.