What I told House of Reps about Mohbad- Pretty Okafor, PMAN

Call him a miracle worker; you will not be far from the truth. Pretty Okafor, of the famous ‘Junior and Pretty’ music duo, after taking over as the authentic President of PMAN, has transformed the once crisis-ridden union to a dignified one with an imposing edifice tucked inside Chevy View Estate, located at the high brow Lekki area of Lagos State . He speaks more in this revealing interview with ORJI ONYEKWERE.

PMAN has been peaceful since 2016, when you took over. What did you do differently?

From that 2016 was when we did the election and the other factions now took us to court from 2016 to 2019 and we were in court until 2020. My judgment tenure started in 2020.

From 2020, we had a window of peace and tranquility and were able to change the perception and thinking of practicing musicians towards the union via corporate bodies.

We changed the way people see us as bunch of never-do-wells. What did I do differently from others? I was born a musician, but I was lucky to come from a business background which gave an edge over others.

They were calling me a miracle worker during the election; it’s just that I am a very focused, dedicated and sincere person. I want to leave a mark in this industry and tell my children who are also musicians that’ I was there and I made an impact.

I wanted to do something different that will work and survive the younger generation and that was the main reason why we achieved things. We also carry everybody along and ensure that what is due for the musicians are given to them and what is due for the union is given to them.

The difference between my predecessors and I is also technology. I came into the union with a background in technology, creating a data base and a biometric ID card.

I created a system that once you register, you get medical insurance; and via your phone, you can search for the hospital close to your neighborhood. I created another scheme where you will be covered with a life insurance or a pension plan, if you retire from active performance, once you are 65 to 75 years, you will be getting N100,000 monthly.

The scheme started working for itself and did not wait for other people to drive it, which is the advantage. I was doing most of the drive because I am a business man and I wanted things to work the way it works with corporate bodies.

When we got in, we found out that we were not even an association but a trade union and this gave me a different mentality that we have so much power that we can go around with. In all, we were able to deliver because I was running it as if it was my own firm, not leaving anything undone and not getting excuses because of this mentality that’s not my father’s business, so why should I kill myself.

That’s why I went all out to change the perception and structure of PMAN and being able to create visibility. For the past 40 years, PMAN never had any place they called their own. Now they own a property in their name in a high brow area of the state.

There is also PMAN FM which has never happened, it’s not just coming in Lagos, but in Abuja as well, and also a TV station, these are all work that we are creating because we are a media interwoven organisation.

If we don’t create a system where we will promote ourselves and other musicians what are we in existence for?

Ordinarily we are not supposed to be promoting musicians because we are just for the welfare and protection of musicians, however, I thought it wise that we start making money for ourselves while also promoting our works as well. It was a huge investment or should I say ambitious, it’s already running, you have seen the studio.. You can go to Google play store and download PMAN FM.

Won’t pensions for the musicians clash with the work of the collecting societies?

Pension is not for royalties but for the structure we created once you are a member you have a purse. People register with a token. There is a purse we normally put for that pension. How many veterans will retire in a year it will not be much. But whoever wants to retire starts getting N100,000.

You appeared before the House of Representatives. What was it all about?

They had been calling and sending me letters while I was in America. I told them I would not make it until I come back. They were in the fourth session when I appeared because I was actually in America when Mohbad died.

They asked if PMAN was the trade union for the music industry why did it not address this issue of Mohbad?

And I told them that I can pull up the data base of PMAN anywhere on my phone and I clicked and I could not find Mohbad’s name anywhere but if they were registered PMAN members, then PMAN could, otherwise, the constitution restricts us from acting.

Both parties to the issue- Marlian Records and Mohbad, are not associated with PMAN. So our hands are tied. They were surprised and wanted us to have an inclusive PMAN that would carry everyone, artistes, promoters, managers and the likes along in order to prevent this kind of scenario in the future. I could not have dealt with it.

But they said we should be able to handle this issue especially when it concerns musicians and I told them that we have a constitution. Eventually, they wanted to know how we could help get Mohbad’s royalties, but then we are not a collecting society.

They can still register him posthumously?

We dealt with that few days ago because some people wanted us to register him posthumously, but there is nothing like that in our constitution. We might look at a way of getting him to register with the CMO, the collecting management organization which is MCSN. COSON is not functional again because they don’t have licence to collect royalties; we took the licence from them because they could not give account of what they were collecting for the past 10 years. NCC is the regulator.

Do these musicians know about these royalties?

That’s also a major work I have, I have been doing that for some time but the problem we have is the artiste managers and the record label. They tried to form cabal and deceive these young people that PMAN is not a good union that will collect their royalties but with all these I mentioned you find out that PMAN has nothing to do with royalties or their performance. So I don’t know where they got that from.

I had a meeting with record label association, ENPAM, artistes’ managers; they will tell you that they don’t know about PMAN, the new structure and other things. People like doing things on their own, we don’t like collaboration.

It was an open door and they could not come forward and I found out they were given a different message. In 2017, we were at the floor of the National Assembly and we were pushing for 70/30. We were pushing for 30 per cent contribution from the corporate bodies as opposed to be contributing 20 per cent of their earnings for the creative industry.

These record labels and music managers stopped it. The bill passed first, second and third reading and public hearing but they stopped it. It was at that time I said I was not going ahead because I was doing it for them but they don’t want it.

The hospitality business too?

Yea, it’s PMAN’s business. We are building in Abuja. We are building a two star hotel, an amphitheater, a concert capacity hall, shopping mall and a cinema hall too.

How will these be maintained after your exit?

These structures you are seeing including the radio station are under a PLC. It’s owned by PMAN but run under an arrangement. It has an organogram with an MD, marketers and others that’s why it’s running. I will make a big mistake to leave the radio station for PMAN. I was born a musician and musicians are not business men. That’s why I moved all these structures including the hospitality business under a PLC. Meanwhile there will be a board of trustees. so no president can come in say they want to sell any of the properties without going through the trustees who are business men and well to do in the society, and you cannot bribe them to say you want to sell any of the properties.

Is it true that some musicians are cultists? Is there anything like illuminati in the music industry?

It’s not true. There is no truth in this assertion. If you are telling me that some of them are doing drugs, I will tell you yes because I have caught a couple of them and I have warned them. But if you say cultism…no. How many of them have the nerves to do cultism? If you say clique or they have their groups, fine. They go in circles, groups, that’s music for you, but when you say cultism, I don’t see any of them that has the guts to run the trend of cultism. I grew up as a musician in Ajegunle and so I can tell you what the culture was. If the culture was about Igbo and others then now it will be igbo and synthetic drugs. So what we should be dealing with is the NDLEA and how to cut it down. Cultism is over exaggerated.

The PMAN awards how it is going to play out?

I really don’t know if we are going to do PMAN Awards. If we do, then, it’s going to be the Grammy of black music. I don’t want to discuss it because my nature of doing things is that I let mature before I speak about it. Once we are having a press conference concerning it, I will let you into it. It’s in my to-do-list.

You created a distinct folklore mixed with comedy rap genre that made you distinct and acceptable at that time. After you and Junior stopped, no other musician was able to follow up?

I believe they took it up from where we stopped, maybe some of them could not do it the way we did it. That’s what created Afrobeat that everybody is singing. Now it’s a blend of folklores, love, harmony and peace. What we have been able to sell to Nigerians then was happiness. Then we were doing hard core rap which was mostly about violence and I and Junior thought it wise to change the trajectory. We were doing stuff to change what we met. We wanted to outsell reggae and hip hop. We could not do the highlife, fuji or pop because Alex O was there. So we wanted to something we can create and control and we started playing around with all brands of music, bringing them together, that’s what gave birth to that afro hiphop. The afro hiphop was a blend of long chorus like a song and interval rap, which is not the hardcore rap but our indigenous language rap, pidgin, Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa that were infused.

But it reverberated among the youths?

Yes, the youths were following it. It was at a carnival that a record label saw how excited the whole crowd was and that was how we got signed. Before then, we had been doing our demo tape submitting to recording companies, Polygram, Ivory, and Sony, they all rejected until we signed while we were performing. From that time, it changed things. I was in America when they did the 50th anniversary of hip-hop and they said on stage that afro beat is their problem because afro beat has dusted reggae and dancehall like three year back, but their issue is that afro beat has dominated hip hop, and that if care is not taken, hip hop could be struggling, and I was happy when I heard that. I am the creator of that brand of music they are talking about. I am the happiest person because what we did 30-something-years ago has been sustained and it has taken out reggae.

Eventually while the ovation was still high, Junior and Pretty went off the scene, what happened?

We did not go out of the scene. Then we were the youngest acts that featured in Benson and Hedges Golden Tone Concert at Trade Fair. We could not feature in that concert until I was 19 years old. They could not allow us until they found out I was 19, because it was a British company and they were following the rules. The first gig we played, overwhelmed everybody and the white guys now signed us to tour with them everywhere to the extent of going to the West Indies. I am talking about the music group, Red14. While we were touring with them, they found that we were likable by the youths and they gave us another deal that we should come to promote the brand to the youths. That’s when we came up with the first ever experiential marketing; and give it to Skid Ikemefuna, got the white guys. Skid brought us into Benson and Hedges, he was my boss. Skid was also sending Junior and I on courses. Everything I learnt running my business, I learnt from Skid. That’s why after I left I set up my firm. I did concerts from Bendon and Hedges to Mega Jamz, until the brawl between 50 Cents and Eedris.

Within that time, Junior had an accident while we were touring and so I became the only person running the whole thing. We went off the scene when Junior passed. I had so many responsibilities to deal with. While he was alive, he was married with 3 kids, I was not married. So I had to concentrate on his family, but my mother had to insist that I also should get married because if I don’t get married, I may just concentrate on Junior’s family without raising my own family. I got married so that we can train everybody together.