Paul and Peter Okoye make up the award winning duo known as Psquare, but 2 years ago, Peter Okoye started signing SOLO endorsement deals without his brother.
It began when he was unveiled as brand ambassador for Olympic Milkand fans thought the duo had split up. Since then, Peter went on to sign more SOLO deals with sportswear brand, Adidas and another solo deal with GLO on his Dance with Peter reality show.
With the recent troubles in Psquare’s camp, pundits expressed concerns that the solo deals may have contributed to the current fracas and in his exclusive interview with NET, Peter Okoye explains the reason for the solo deals.
In his words, ‘It still boils down to the fact that Psquare was not structured. Music is like football, Messi has his manager, Neymar has his manager, Suarez has his manager, but when they get to the pitch, they play as a team’.
‘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’.