Charles Oputa, Charly Boy, Area Fada: A distinct progression to creative immortality

I have been asked to contribute to a book currently being written by a British author on this personality. Much as I would have loved to write my own book, I may be forced to contribute to a work which according to them will distill this creative force and represent him to a public that feels they already know so much about him.

So I woke up this morning at 4am to study the questionnaire. The questions were heavy, well thought out and meticulous.

I immediately felt lazy about engaging it but because it was long past the deadline and Area Fada himself had appealed to me during my last visit that “Edgar na only you remain” and so I engaged.

I tackled the first question with the laziness of fatigue. Still drolling from a heavy emotional baggage I had been battling with since Friday, I struggled.

By the second question, the spirituality of his personality hit me. I floated and flew above my lethargy and started spewing verses that clinically situated the brand in our national consciousness

What were his challenges was one question that I loved. I tore into it with sabre-sharpened teeth. His challenge has always been his confidence in pushing for acceptability.

It was an iconic brand which was standing alone in its eccentric allure and arrogance belying the snubbery of society that in its ultra confidence refused to admit.

His confidence in pushing the brand is the fuel that has pushed it from its nascent infancy in the 80s through the heady PMAN days and the 50-cent fight to its twilight of age leading it to not really recognise its birthing of a world-recognized alte culture embedded in Nigerian youthdom.

The Charly Boy/Area Fada essence has achieved the longevity that better-accepted mainstream brands have not. To test this is to walk on any street in Nigeria with the bald-headed maestro and watch people fall on their knees in abject submission to a king.

I won’t give out so much, so you look forward to the book but let me say this — Area Fada is a visionary construct that perfectly sat in a cave in the 80s and not only saw the future but also deliberately built a vehicle that took him there while we pushed our noses up in ignorant snobbery.

So when next you see a young Nigerian tech geek, a young Nigerian creative, a young Nigerian entrepreneur in his full uniform of dreads, earrings, piercings, tattoos and funny clothing but creating jobs and wealth either in entertainment, technology, sports or business you know who their forefather was.