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Charly Boy at 70: Coming Full Circle

Jubal Kanayo celebrates one of Nigeria’s strongest social voices, Charles Chukwuemeka ‘Charly Boy’ Area Fada’ Oputa, 24 hours after his 7oth birthday…

“Solo, why you bring this kind small pikin to come interview me?” Charly Boy asked my Entertainment Editor. He said this looking me over like a toy in a shop. He wanted a thousand reasons to be in on this.

‘Solo’ smiled.

I just stood there praying my mother would not find out I had been to the home of that “evil man”, as she always called him.

“Bobo, wetin you want drink. The reverend fathers wey first you come don finish my food o.”

I begged him not to mind. I was good.

“Wetin be your name?”

I told him.

“Wetin you wan ask me, Bobo? You suppose don know my story; I stubborn, my papa send me go study law I go study communication become musician, I dey my second marriage, my papa na popular lawyer, I sabi find trouble, I know myself, I get plenty children and grand-children. E never finish? Oya, interview don finish. Bye-bye.”

He got up. I remained sitting.

“You no wan go?” He didn’t lose his patience. I felt he was testing me.

“Just one question…”

“Okay na.” He took his seat. While I was almost swallowed by the seat, he loomed larger than life.

“What happened to your pets?”

He laughed loudly and slapped his thighs.

He did have a tiger, a python – which he once took with him to his duty post as a ‘Nigerian Idol’ judge in 2013 – and other dangerous looking pets at some time. He said he sold them off and would get more when he moved to a bigger, new house.

I reminded him of one of his songs about ‘Caro’ and asked about his inspiration. “Ol’ boy, these small boys boys wey dey sing about nyansh and breasts, nobody dey ask them about inspiration o. But, as for most of my songs about the fairer sex, I thought of most of the women I have known, good and bad, gentle and brash and see how to put them together. That is a lot of trouble, if you ask me. But the Caro song was about a house-girl who would not keep to her side of the fence. Later, she just carry belle for the brother wey she dey hep buy cigar, you know.

“But, ‘Caro’ no be anything na. You don see that video for ‘Big Bottom’?”

I said I had not.

“Oh, you still be pikin. Go find that video watch, make you see why Nigerians vex with me that time. But I was just a singer expressing myself.”

When I asked him why he thinks of the Nigerian youth as feeble – this question was prompted by his visit to my NYSC camp while I was serving, where he wanted to do the ‘1 Million Youths March with Charly Boy’ or something along those lines.

He paused, turned to ‘Solo’ and said “the boy get sense o”.

“Make we go bar,” he called out, finally warming up to me.

Then I broke it to him.

“You no dey drink? Chei. Which kain journalist you be?”

“E need clear eye to edit; na editor,” called out ‘Solo’ from where he nursed his cold drink.

When we got to the bar, I asked for a can of juice. “Mortuary Standard”, I specified to the fellow at the bar. It was good for the merciless Gwarimpa sun.

We moved on to what pushed him to defy his father back then.

“See, if you wan make pikin break your heart, give am law, guidelines. E go do the opposite. I stubborn well when I be pikin. If you tell me to do this one, I go do that one.E cause problem between me and my father, but today, we don settle.

“See as the old man dey my house dey chill.” The accompanying laughter was full of mirth.

“But God dey pay me back. E bless me with pikin wey be like me; my daughter. God. That pikin na fire.” He shook his head. Even then, he could not believe he had been re-born in his daughter.

He is as hated as he is loved and worshipped but, for him, it is not his bee’s wax. He has a goal.

“No be say I dey show myself o; I just want make these young people discover them selves, as I use discover myself. As I don discover myself, no man fit tell me nonsense. It is that simple.

“E dey pain me to dey see young people wey get brain dey follow government like people wey no know their left from right. My plan na to tap dem as Jesus use tap Peter for prison, to wake up. Finish o.”

Today, he is many things – social crusader, Area Fada, find-find trouble, motivational speaker, responsible father, he has come full circle – but the son of late renowned jurist, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, first hit the limelight as a singer in the ‘80s.

“My break came somewhere around 1982 when as the then Chief Justice of Imo, my late father, who was strongly opposed to my career choice as a musician, was appointed a Supreme Court Judge and he had to move to Lagos.

“I left Owerri and went back to my village, Oguta, where I started the Charly Boy brand right there in the village.

“This is three years after completing the compulsory National Youths Service Corps programme in 1979.”

It was while in the village hibernating that late singer Tina Onwudiwe came for him and took him back to Lagos.

“God bless that woman soul, wherever e dey. If no be her, I for be village champion.”

When he returned to Lagos, his new, American biker-like looks – punk persona, leather jackets and boots, power-bikes, Mohawk and a new direction in music, combining African pop and Afro beat, glitzy skull rings, piercings of all sorts, ‘women’s clothes’ – was too good to resist. But not for all Nigerians. “That time, church people dey call me ‘Satan’. People call me plenty names. Wetin concern me? I just focus dey do my thing and, come to think of it, e make me popular o. See na…” at this point, he whipped out an old photo of a concert in Lagos. “That crowd pass one million, bobo. That was the Charly Boy brand at work”.

His album ‘1990’, released in 1988, was a huge hit. The socially-conscious album was a direct reference to Nigeria’s corrupt military government, which was expected to hand over power to civilians that year.

His 9 children and 16 grand-children come to terms with their father and his huge brand.

“The brand started way back in 1983 and since then it has been tenacious, consistent and audacious in challenging what is wrong in our society.

“At the beginning, my children were getting a little bit confused because the father they know in the house is different from the father people talk about outside.

“My children are my friends and we always talk and I was able to explain to them.

“But with time, they were able to come to terms with the brand ‘Charly Boy’ and their father, Mr. Charles Oputa.”

Many have called him different names – gay, bi-sexual, cultist, Satanist – but, even though it hurt at a time, he has come to let them be. “Their problems pass my own”.

Charly Boy has not always been on the street; he has done well for himself in the process.

His popular television show ‘The Charly Boy Show’, gave birth to ‘The Charly Boy Kiddies Show’ which he co-hosted and ‘Zoom Time’ which was quite popular on Africa Independent Television, where he got popular politicians and society figures to talk about national issues.

He is the founder of New Waves Productions and publisher of ‘The Charly Boy Magazine’ which he launched in 2010.

The Area Fada has come full circle. For him, “I don do everything, I don see everything. E remain you and you generation. If una no wan stand up, una go siddon for long time. E no dey for God forbid, una mumu don do.”

The singer has led a number of social crusades against rape, social injustice, social protection, poor pay, against the menace of herdsmen, against the Supreme Court for ousting Emeka Ihedioha as governor, amongst others.

Shortly before his 69th birthday, the ‘President of Frustrated Nigerians’ and former president of the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria (PMAN) decided that, after 40 years of leading protests, he would not be a party to them anymore, as the nation’s leaders do not pay heed to the reaction of Nigerians.

One thing no one can take away from the Area Fada is his ability to create content. He is never ‘dry’. He has evolved over the years to fit the demands of the times.

Recently, he teamed up with Falz for the socially-conscious single ‘God of Men’.

He may be celebrated, hated, loved, ridiculed, detested, worshipped by many but he is grateful for everything and more he was once made to feel bad for. It has made him who he is.

On the eve of his birthday, he took to Instagram to proclaim his blessings: “My Family. My Children. My health. My Spiritual alertness. My pedigree & heritage. My late parents. My spiritual guardian. The beauty of my soul. Charly Boy. The Spirit of Contentment. A simple life. A good name.

“My People, Everyone who is alive can find something to be grateful for if they look for it. May God bless you too more than he blessed me.🙏 #charlyboyat70.”

Happy birthday, Charly Boy. May your days be long and blessed.

*After our chat, Charly Boy was instrumental to my visiting his home town, Oguta ‘Obodogirigiri’, Imo State, to do a documentary on the Oguta Lake, the ‘Blue lake’.

Monday Ashibogwu

Monday Michaels Ashibogwu is Editor-In-Chief of QUICK NEWS AFRICA, one of Nigeria's leading online news service.

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