Following the Okoye family saga, we all have our different views as to who was actually at fault... Paul sent out an apology today to his twin Peter but the whole situation is deeper than we thought... I mean 'waist deep'. What you are about to read is very lengthy, but it would be worth it. Ugh... It might change how you see the whole picture too....
Peter grants an interview to NetNG on Thursday the 17th... See here!..
THE GENESIS OF THE ISSUE
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 PAUL
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.
ON COLLABOS WITH OTHER ARTISTS
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.’
DESPITE THEIR IMMENSE SUCCESS ,PSQUARE
HAS 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’.
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’.
ON SIGNING SOLO ENDORESMENTS
‘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
‘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’.
