Charly Boy: Mumu Or Mugu?

By SOC Okenwa…

I met Charles Chukwuemeka Oputa alias Charly Boy decades ago in Benin City when he was still a boy. Now, he is a full grown man! He is a polygamous father and grandfather who boasts of a dozen children or thereabout. Among his grand children you have these handsome identical twins. According to the ‘weird one’ from Oguta his virginity was violated early enough in life leading to his encounter with STD! He had his first child outside wedlock when he was still a teenager.

Musicians in particular and entertainers in general live dangerously around the world, daily ‘threatened’ by fame, drug, alcohol and philandering instincts that could run wild at any given time. So Charly Boy cannot be an exception in this regard. Majek Fashek is almost ruined by alcohol and drugs; the late Afro-beat legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, was taken six feet below by sex and drugs. The late ‘Abami Eda’ made history by marrying dozens of wives!

Charly Boy was (and still may be) a loverboy like the equally age-beaten Felix Lebarty. Or the repented flamboyant pentecostal Pastor Chris Okotie. Nigeria boasts of ubiquitous poverty and loverboys in equal measure. Jigolos and ‘Yan-Daudus’ (homosexuals) abound as well in a great nation of great potentials.

As I sauntered into a local supermarket along New Lagos Road in the ancient Edo State capital city there he was seated sipping his soft drink in an atmosphere of calm and quietude. Nigeria was a good country then with little or no inflation; life was in abundance then and few people, unlike today, complained of hunger or poverty. Besides, there were no Boko Haram or Fulani terrorists terrorizing our compatriots up north or in the middle belt region of our country.

The Nigerian popular controversial musician and lately pro-democracy activist remains, in the eyes of many Nigerians, an enigma who speaks truth to power through his unique brand of music and published write-ups. Handsome, urbaine, sophisticated and intrepid Charles Oputa has carved a niche for himself in the crowded ‘Naija’ entertainment industry.

When I saw him over twenty years ago (then a student) he was full of life. And the future then was looking skywards. Made in America artistically Charly Boy returned home as a ‘bad boy’ who came to make history armed with both natural talent and the American experience. America brings out the best or worst in any individual!

Though he cannot be described as a megastar (given the fact that he has never been able to hit it big in his chosen career) he has nevertheless made a national impact through his artistic work and his activism. The ‘Charly Boy Show’ on national television brought out the professional best in Charly Boy.

Fearless, bold and intellectually sound the son of the late venerated jurist, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa of the Oputa Panel fame, was once reported to have publicly knocked the microphone off the executive hands of the Imo State out-going ‘iberibe’ Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, during the late Oputa’s burial ceremony in Oguta, Imo State. He had accused the haughty Governor of trying to politicize his late father’s funeral — something he resisted with force forcing the Governor to capitulate!

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When he returned from the US Charly Boy was seen by some young folks as a role model even though he was known by his musical acts as a morally repugnant character. He was seen in some quarters as a spoilt child, a morally corrupt chap who had immersed himself fully in the American dream featuring the good, the bad and the ugly.

He married a woman of his flamboyant type, Diana, eccentric, electric and eclectic, to whom he wedded sometime last year after more than forty years of marriage. Charles Oputa could well be described as a terrible character whose late father, a morally-upright man of the law, was unable to control. He was sent to Uncle Sam to study law but he veered off and read Communications instead. Today at 67 he has seen it all; what he did as a naughty boy way back decades he could no longer do now.

When he led a demonstration in Abuja during the prolonged absence of President Muhammadu Buhari following the latter’s medical vacation in London, the FCT police force had thrown cannisters of tear-gas in the direction of the protesters and Charly Boy reportedly collapsed upon inhaling the toxic substance. He was consequently hospitalised.

Last year or the year preceding same Charly Boy had floated a mass movement named aptly: ‘Our Mumu Don Do’ (Enough of our foolishness) apparently exasperated by the Nigerian politico-economic and social condition and the deplorable living condition of Nigerians. I remember signing up online as a bona-fide member in the Diaspora. Through mass mobilisation, education and protests and critical press releases the ‘Area Fada’ (as he is popularly called) used that platform as a form of opposition to the corrupt, inept political status quo. He made himself heard loudly.

We had thought (perhaps wrongly) that all was tailored towards the betterment of the nation-state and the better management of her colossal natural resources being stolen with mind-boggling impunity by politicians and their cronies. Today we know better!

Alas, the recent scandal involving Charly Boy has gone a long way to demystifying the Oguta-born maverick entertainer and all he stands for. Though honour is a scarce commodity in Nigeria we have men and women of honour amongst us — including the late dad of the ‘Area Fada’ himself.

Recently online video images emerged of Charly Boy confessing to collecting ‘nine-figure’ sum from Festus Keyamo, the Buhari re-election campaign organisation spokesman. The recently-released activist, Deji Adeyanju, the Convener of Concerned Nigerians, had, upon his freedom from Kano prison, alleged that Oputa Junior had collected money from Keyamo before the controversial presidential poll of last February. Adeyanju had severed his relationship with Oputa based on that claim.

Charly Boy, while admitting that he collected millions of Naira from Keyamo for the anti-Atiku song he did, had claimed that everybody, incuding Deji, had wanted some part of it! And he was good at sharing filthy lucre! The face-off between the self-acclaimed human rights crusaders had generated a lot of concern in the public, particularly among their fans.

Denying the claim via Twitter lawyer Keyamo had debunked the whole narrative saying arrogantly that whoever believed such crap should “have their heads examined”! We believed it so perhaps he should send in a doctor to have our heads examined! He made it clear that: “If the quarreling parties want to hurt their egos by bandying phantom figures, they should leave me out of it”. But many discerning Nigerians remain unconvinced by Keyamo’s disclaimer; it sounded hollow in its entirety.

Keyamo’s argument that ” In the world of entertainment, it’s the culture of most (not all) entertainers to raise their stock in the public by bandying phantom figures for their engagements & some others display phantom acquisitions on social media to attract attention and raise their worth for clients.” cannot fly because no one could buy it. Charly Boy would not have confessed collecting a hefty sum from Keyamo for lunatic reasons unless lately he has been diagnosed with lunacy. The last time we checked however the ‘Area Fada’ was hale and hearty!

Now that Charly Boy has been ‘exposed’ as a friend of the oppressors or their willing musical tool the questions remain unanswered: who is fooling whom here? Who is now the ‘mumu’ (or better still) the ‘mugu’? Charly Boy? Festus Keyamo? Or Deji Adeyanju? Or the rest of us? If the former happens to be the ‘mumu’ then his idiocy must cease forthwith. If we are the ‘mugus’ — used and dumped — then our collective ‘mumu don do’!

Above all and more importantly for that matter, however, if it is proven beyond any reasonable doubt that Festus Keyamo had ‘bribed’ Charly Boy in order to compromise his radical position against the establishment, yet conveniently denying it with verbosity, then Keyamo must be seen generally as the biggest ‘mumu’ or ‘mugu’ in town.

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