Last week on this column, I had
written about my experience in the beautiful island of The Seychelles and how
Nigerian music, especially P-Square’s music, had conquered that island nation
and enthralled her youths.
Little did I know when writing
that piece titled, ‘How Nigeria Conquered The Seychelles’ that I would be
devoting another column yet again to the Okoye brothers. But as they say, when
it rains, it pours.
The twin brothers are again in
the news, not for their collaboration with each other, but because of their
confrontation with each other.
From what I gather, Peter wants
the group to split up and go their separate ways, while Paul and their brother,
Jude, have a slightly different agenda. The disagreement culminated with a
fight at the offices of the recently coronated Senior Advocate of Nigeria,
Festus Keyamo. The fight which was ostensibly recorded by Peter, showed the
trio (including Jude, their brother/manager), using gutter language that belied
their status as international super stars.
The whole drama reminds me of a nursery rhyme I learnt as a child:
The whole drama reminds me of a nursery rhyme I learnt as a child:
Two little blackbirds
Sitting on the wall,
One named Peter,
One named Paul.*
Fly away Peter,
Fly away Paul.
Come back Peter,
Come back Paul.
Sitting on the wall,
One named Peter,
One named Paul.*
Fly away Peter,
Fly away Paul.
Come back Peter,
Come back Paul.
Why do P-Square remind me of this
nursery rhyme? Because this is not the first time they will quarrel and if they
do reconcile, it will also not be the first or the second reconciliation. They
have flown away before and they have also come back again.
That is the reason why I am not
so bothered with their family quarrel. You see, the Okoye brothers are first
businessmen, before they are artistes. They are not in the entertainment
industry. They are in show business, with particularly reference to the word
‘business’. To them, they are not entertaining their fans. They are providing
them with a service that they are willing to pay for.
In short, as they say in America, it is all about the Benjamins! I personally believe that when it is explained to the Okoye brothers what they stand to lose, they will adjust their attitudes faster than you can say Bank Alert!
What do I mean? Let us learn from history.
The Beatles were once in a
similar position as P-Square. And just like some suspect with Peter and Paul,
it was women, (Yoko Ono for John Lennon and Linda McCartney) that came between
them.
The women fed their individual
man’s ego until he thought he was bigger than the group. Even though the
Beatles were making hundreds of millions as the biggest group in the world,
they allowed themselves to split over women on April 10, 1970. But the rude
awakening was to come when the individuals who made up The Beatles began making
much less money as solo artistes than they made together. As the renowned
Nigerian award-winning international flutist, Tee Mac, has said on this matter,
“There is a lot of power in togetherness”!
Having said that, I must say that
there is a lot Nigeria as a nation can learn from P-Square.
I believe that it is not that the Okoye brothers want to split up as it is that they desire a more perfect union. Not a Union where Peter works and Paul chops or one where Paul has oil but it is Peter that has oil blocs.
I believe that it is not that the Okoye brothers want to split up as it is that they desire a more perfect union. Not a Union where Peter works and Paul chops or one where Paul has oil but it is Peter that has oil blocs.
P-Square – wants to restructure
from unitary form of partnership to true federalism. You are Peter, I am Paul.
Together, we are P-Square. Even if we part, we are still Okoyes. If Peter and
Paul cannot live in peace, is it our own little Republics that will
automatically lead to peace?
Perhaps restructuring is a better
option than dismemberment. Perhaps God is using the drama taking place between
P-Square to teach us a lesson on the options before Nigeria – division,
restructuring or family fight. Already we are seeing that the oil, that has
made many in Nigeria insist on the status quo, is soon reaching the end of its
shelf life.
Maybe no one has told us, but
largely due to free oil money, our population has exploded at the fastest rate
of increase the world has ever seen. And now we have almost 200 million people
that we will not be able to cater for in five to ten years if we do not look
for alternative sources of income.
If twin brothers like Peter and
Paul can fight, let us not deceive ourselves that Nigerians love each other
enough not to fight each other.
Our present leadership may not
have the intellectual capacity to know that the various tensions in Nigeria are
not really about religion or ethnicity as they are about an increasing number
of people competing for a reducing quantity of resources. As the British
political economist, Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus, propounded in his 1798
book, An Essay on the Principle of Population, Nigeria is caught up in what is
known in economics as the “Malthusian trap”.
The “Malthusian trap” is a
phenomenon where a nation utilizes a sudden abundance for population growth
rather than for maintaining a high standard of living, and when that abundance
disappears, the population growth remains and becomes a problem to the nation
because in the absence of the abundance that led to the population growth, the
nation dissolves into conflict, skirmishes, crises and even war which happen
naturally for the purpose of reducing that nation’s population to match with
its post-abundance economic resources.
President Muhammadu Buhari may
not know it, but what I have described above is what is currently happening in
Nigeria.
Except the price of oil increases
faster than the rise of Nigeria’s population, it is only a matter of when, not if,
that there will be an implosion in Nigeria. The only way to stop this coming
implosion is if Nigeria restructured itself along the lines of true federalism
and becomes a fiscal federation. As long as we are assured of free oil money,
we will keep on marrying and giving our daughters away in marriage and popping
out babies without a care to how they will feed tomorrow.
But if we have to pay taxes to
run our federal, state and local governments, we will cut our family size to
match our pocket size. Why is this so? Because as Reverend Malthus puts it,
“The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to
produce subsistence for man”. And Reverend Malthus did not come up with that
idea out of thin air. Being a man of the cloth, like I, he got that idea from
the Holy Bible.
Reverend Malthus was only
reechoing the words of King Solomon (Nabi Suleiman in Islam), who said as
follows in Ecclesiastes 5:11: “When goods increase, they are increased that eat
them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of
them with their eyes?”
Flowing from the above should we
thus be surprised that the Okoye brothers’ fight restarted again after Paul
announced in July that his wife had given birth to a set of twins? More mouths
to feed requires more resources which in itself puts a strain on the one
required to provide the resources, whether in a family or in a nation.
Quote: Having said that, I must
say that there is a lot Nigeria as a nation can learn from P-Square. I believe
that it is not that the Okoye brothers want to split up as it is that they
desire a more perfect union. Not a Union where Peter works and Paul chops or
one where Paul has oil but it is Peter that has oil blocs. P-Square – wants to
restructure from unitary form of partnership to true federalism. You are Peter,
I am Paul. Together, we are P-Square. Even if we part, we are still Okoyes. If
Peter and Paul cannot live in peace, is it our own little Republics that will
automatically lead to peace? Perhaps restructuring is a better option than
dismemberment
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Very Intelligent surmise and forecast. Sadly, we would either insult your write or use religion to cover it up..I pray we are wise enough to do the needed adjustments . God Bless Nigeria
ReplyDeleteReno ,u claim to be a pastor but choose to make mockery of twin brothers who have challenge. U are a disgrace to the pulpit.. U have no idea what their issues are but due to ur desire to always mislead, the people u have assumed and concluded what d issue is and started making mockery of them..God will shock u..U people have resold Christ for far less than Judas sold him..shame
ReplyDeleteGuy... I can not believe this your view about the write-up. Please try and read it all over again and capture the the problem with nigeria and his advice. But if you still did not get the message let me help you. one of the biggest problem Nigeria faces today is population explosion and this is due to the fact every state comes to centre to collect free money. Most norther governors have refuse develop their state, the local government is an avenue to share money and because of this free money they manufacture unwanted children. Now the free money is not enough to go round and solution to this true federalism.
DeleteI am not against restructuring, but my question is why is restructuring just coming out now, it was not mentioned or supported by the previous administrations.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThey didn't restructure or talk about restructuring for 6 years when they were in power. Mumu article
ReplyDelete