While it seems the P-Square's feud is gradually being
resolved, Peter Okoye's tells it all interview has surfaced.
Peter granted an exclusive interview to the NetNG on
Thursday March 17 about the genesis of the problems within
P-Square, Jude Okoye and their wives. He talked about how
his brothers ganged up against him.
It is a very long interview but it's worth reading. Read below:
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
'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'.
