read it all! I’d have to go back to read the rest, so Join
me!
Peter Okoye had an explosive interview two days ago,
before his twin brother Paul Okoye’s emotional plea
today, and he revealed a lot of messy details! I hope
y’all are ready to be amazed!
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’.
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.’
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.
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’.
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!’
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’.
HOW I FIRED JUDE OKOYE & CALLED HIM OUT 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’.
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’.
ABOUT HIS WIFE & 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’.
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