Psquare Peter Okoye tells it all – How
My brothers ganged up against me
Today, it appeared after a their public split , P
Square is back on.This comes after Paul openly
pleaded with his brother, Peter, to forgive and
forget .However, the issue is deeper than we
thought. Peter Okoye already granted an
exclusive interview to the NetNG on Thursday
March 17,..It gives an insight into the problem
between the brothers ..Very long but worth
reading..
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
L
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’.
Peter and new manager Olatunde
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
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
‘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’.
