Lasun Alagbe
You can accuse Charly Boy of ‘area-fathering’, but you cannot say he is an unsuccessful father. Here is a man that often looks and acts exuberantly, if not rascally, outside but is a very cool, friendly father at home. That is why, as he turns 70 – unbelievably 70 – one major achievement he is eager to flaunt is a happy family that is arguably scandal-free. For him, for instance, no publicised matrimonial war, no divorce.
And the boy-man is quite prolific. He has nine children and 16 grandchildren. While he has cause to profusely thank his wife, Diane, for being so cooperative in bed and in the labour room, he believes her contribution to his success is larger than procreation. According to him, she is part of the genesis of the Charly Boy brand, just as they have always worked together to sustain it.
The singer, broadcaster, critic and a former President of the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria says, “My wife and I designed a brand that would remain youthful, a brand that is meant to shock conventional Nigerians out of their ways of thinking.
“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 are talking 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,’’ he said.
As he also notes in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, the break for the son of late renowned Jurist, Justice Chukwudifu
came somewhere around 1982 when as the then Chief Justice of Imo, his late father, who was strongly opposed to his 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,’’ he said.
Charly Boy, also often called “Areafada” and acclaimed to be one of Nigeria’s most controversial entertainers, explained how his ‘Charly Boy personality’ had been able to remain consistent and relevant for decades amidst huge misconception by fans and industry watchers.
His most popular album seems to remain ‘1990’, released in 1988, a reference to Nigeria’s corrupt military government, which was expected to hand over power to civilians in that year.
In the late eighties, he created a new ‘punk persona’, consisting of leather jackets and boots, power-bikes, mohawks and a new direction in music, combining African pop and Afrobeat.
He is well known for his change of image, rings and piercings, as well as preference for make-up, relaxed and braided hairstyles and “women’s clothes”, which was controversial among conservative Nigerians.
Charly Boy’s most popular television series was ‘The Charly Boy Show’, a weekly sketch/variety show with political undertones featuring music, comedy and celebrity appearances.
