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By Henry Akubuiro
A nonconformist, he had a rebellious streak growing up as a teenager, and a tinge of that still remains with him. “I hate to be told what to do even as a young man in my 20s,” says Charly Boy, aka Area Father, in a chat. He is a household name in the Nigerian entertainment industry and social activism or, as he would prefer, “social engineering”. He is also a renowned musician, music producer, TV presenter, an author and a biker persona. In four weeks’, he will clock 76, but his looks belie his age. You can easily mistake him for a 50-something-year-old. That is a miracle, needless to say.
As he sits at a table with sleeveless shirt, surrounded by media personalities in an interview session at Ikeja GRA, his arms reveal his intrinsic tattoos and his clean shaven head gleams like a warrior monk in a Shaolin temple. Area Fada is the author of the new book, 999: The Memoir of Charly Boy, a sequel to his earlier book, My Private Part, released nine years ago. The new book is set for lunch in July this year, and the buzz is in the air. The book is a more accomplished offering as it leaves no room for cover-ups or hypocrisy. It reveals both the Charly Boy you know and the one you don’t know much about.
Perhaps the weight of the persona is the reason former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, wrote the foreword, as well as the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Rev. Mattew Kuka, and the activist, Dele Famuroti
The blurb hints us on the book: “Written with street poetry, honesty, the book traces a boy who shared toys with chauffeurs’ children, a teenager who read forbidden books and didn’t go mad, a TV shock-jock who weaponised laughter, and an activist who still collects ‘’dues’ for the voiceless. Through prostate battles, boardroom wars, father-son silences and national protests, 999 asks what truly finishes us—failure, or the fear of finishing? Raw, riveting and revolutionary, this is the memoir Nigeria never saw coming—and the mirror every generation needs to hold up to itself.”
Area Fada believes the contents of the book resonate with everybody, because his personal experiences echo in the lives of every Obi and Ada out there. If you are wondering why he titled his book 999, the author doesn’t want to keep you guessing: “When I titled my book 999, some people asked whether it was a code or I meant 666. What I really meant to say from the go is that 999 mean the beginning of a new era. So, if you know me in the past, when I fight I must hold weapon and I must wound you. But, now I have calmed down and old things have passed away.”
Anybody growing up in the 1990s must have watched or heard about the popular, weekly TV programme, The Charly Boy Show. It was a potpourri of politics, comedy, and music. It featured celebrity guests, too. Lady Diane, his wife, was among the dramatis personae. From Patrick Doyle, Stella Damascus to the Obes, celebrities of today were nurtured and given wings to fly.
Area Fada brought novelties to the Nigeria silver screen. Take for instance, his Zoom Time section of the popular Chary Boy Show. Charly invited his politician guests to dramatise riding a motorbike with onomatopoeia of a motorbike in motion recreated by them. “I wanted to do something different to shock the timid and myopic Nigerians. The platforms were breeding grounds for many comedians and musicians. Most of the famous artists you see today started on the Charly Boy Show, including Africa China and Taiwo and Wunmi Obey,” he recalled. “And I’m proud to say this anywhere, anytime.”
At first, Nigerians didn’t understand his Zoom Time concept, because it was like a scene out of a futuristic script. He says, “In fact, one of the problems my father had was he felt nobody was going to understand the concept. He said, ‘’Why don’t you just be who you are? I want you to be who you are. They will think that you don’t even have a brain. Those were his exact words.”
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He was to prove his dad wrong. He met big politicians many could only hear about from a distance. Says Area Fada, “The fact is that I could talk to any of the presidents or anybody I wanted to talk to. I did not only speak to them, we went under the guise of we were doing PR for them. But the fee was nothing less than 16 million naira to appear and talk on Charlie Boy Show. And at that time, when TV was not big like now. That was the kind of money I was making per interview. I’m not today’s person,” he brags. Who wouldn’t, being a trailblazer? He echoes, “That’s why this book is important.”
Charly Boy has seen it all – the good and the bad. From antisocial activities in Nigeria and abroad, he never lost sight of his aspirations and how to make a mark in life. “All these (negative) experiences were what I went through as a young man. If you were 24, you wouldn’t be thinking like a 70 -year-old man,” he says. “It’s not possible. You think like a 24-year-old and behave like a 24-year- old. So, those were all the wildlife in my youthful days, and they are all captured in the book. I also talked about how activism started, even though I don’t like to be called an activist, because people like Omoyele Sowore have messed up activism. So, I like to be called a social engineer, not an activist.”
The book also reflects some aspects of his journey as PMAN president. It was a time in history PMAN united Nigerian artists and made being a musician noble. If you weren’t in PMAN, perhaps a finger was missing on the keyboard. “The whole essence of this book is that for anybody who reads it can relate to it, because a little bit of every one of us is in this book,” he says. “The experiences I went through are not alien to anybody.”
But the legend he has become today wouldn’t have been possible without the role played by Tima Onwudiwe, another legend of the entertainment industry. He stampeded him out of Oguta to try his luck in Nigeria’s entertainment capital. “Tina Onwudiwe said if I didn’t leave the village, I was going to die. In fact, she paid for my flight to Lagos and also paid two years’ house rent for me at Gbagada, Lagos. Call her Angel Tina Onwudiwe for seeing the greatness in him early enough, and you wouldn’t be wrong.
Lamenting on the poor reading culture, Area Fada says, “It’s unfortunate that the reading culture has gone so low, and that’s why I was trying to make it (the new book) an easy read, so that readers don’t get bored, though the stories are exciting, anyway.” The book also has an e-copy readers can purchase.
However, the contents of his earlier book, My Private Part, is different from. says the author, because “it is wider; it’s more; it is blunter, and there are a lot of stories in 999 than My Private Part. Also, My Private Part didn’t talk much about my struggles. But 999 does. It’s in-depth,” he declares.
He nursed the idea for the book four years ago, and it was being handled by a friend. But he had to take it over himself from scratch. “Sometimes, bad things turn out to be good things if you give it time,” he echoes. For the youths, the author says, “When they read my story, they will find that there is a little bit of everybody in that book. And they will know that they should desist from some certain habits; otherwise, it will kill them. Also, you should know when to run and when to walk.”
Though he fell out of favour with dad, in particular, at a point in time, he made up with the legendary Supreme Court judge, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, in his last years, and ensured his parents had a touch of his benevolence. “My dad couldn’t believe the amount of money I was giving to clients as a quote for documentaries when he visited me in Abuja. He was surprised.”
Evidently, Area Fada has turned his talent into a gold mine. Today, he is one of the vanguards of a better Nigeria. What can be better than that?
