Entertainment Lifestyle 

Charly Boy: Nigeria’s bleeding, soaked in red

Charles Oputa, popularly known as Charly Boy has dropped his first single tiled ‘God of Men’ which featured Nigeria’s multi-talented rapper, Falz. In this interview with IFEOMA ONONYE, he speaks about the song unearthing the fake Men of God that people should be careful of, why he supports the restrictions placed on commercial motorcycle riders. He also explains why there may be no hope for former Governor of Imo State, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha of returning to office

You said earlier that you support the restrictions placed on commercial motorcycles and tricycles by the Lagos State government. You have always loved bikers and had donated a number of motorbikes to many jobless young people. As a former iconic biker, why the sudden change of heart?

What people should understand is that our country, our space has been invaded by strange people. People, who are definitely not Nigerians, people who God knows where they are coming from. When your President can say that anybody can just come to Nigeria and they give them visa to enter, with this visa-on-arrival policy, then we are really in trouble. I wonder what kind of thinking is that. We have facts that they people that are coming are people from war-torn areas, Sudan and some other countries that are filled with, jihadist, fundamentalists and criminals. And these people are entering from West, South, East and North.

The other day, Channels television reported how over 400 Boko Haram people were caught in Abia State on their way to Owerri, the Imo State capital. We also know that the security in this country is very porous and that is why a lot of people are feeling so unsafe. They closed the border in the South-West here and opened the one in Sokoto and people are pouring into the country without visas.

The kind of Hausa people that are entering Lagos State are not from Nigeria. A friend of mine that is a core Muslim said he observed how they pray and it is quite different from the rest of them in Nigeria which many people would not notice. Obviously, something is definitely not right and that is why I support the ban.

But on the other hand, I beg Lagos State government to put more transportation out on the roads and the water ways. Whatever plan they have for young people in terms of creating jobs should also be executed, because this pressure is getting too much. It is telling on everybody. It is telling on our mental health.

There are many lunatics out there because of the stress, the frustration is too much out there. Lagos State should map out a scheme to help the youth to be able to see jobs to do to keep their minds busy and put food on their table. What is the need of governance if you cannot secure the people, you cannot at least make them a little comfortable. Nigeria dey for Red and Nigeria don hook.

So, the last time we spoke, you were a big fan of the former Governor of Imo State, Emeka Ihedioha. What is you view on his current travail?

I am not anybody’s fan but anyone that is diligent in their work, whether they are northerners or southerners and are doing well in their areas, I am their fan. You are trying to alleviate people’s suffering, then, yes, I will support you in any way I can. You don’t have to be  Imo State governor like Emeka Ihedioha. What we are looking for is a governor that has some kind of sensitivity towards the people he is governing?

But then again, like I always said, Nigerians are the worse mumus (foolish people) on the face of the earth, because I cannot understand why we allowed ourselves to get to this point. Even if I blame the generation before me and my generation which I apologise for, but somebody who has been handed a bad deal, is supposed to fight to change his life.  We are all guilty with where Nigeria is today. If we have been behaving like student unions in the Ibrahim Babangida era, who would have flooded the streets to speak against government policies that worked against the people? They were vocal about their frustrations against the government; things would not have been this bad. Though it is the same Babangida that went and scattered the student union of those days, he started giving them money and they left the fight for the poor masses and started doing something else.

What do you say about the judgment that removed Ihedioha from office? Are you in favour of it or against it?

How can I support such a thing? How can somebody that came fourth in an election be selected as the winner over the second and third person? Ojoro dey there na!  Everybody knows that there is a serious hanky panky. Most of the leaderships in Igbo land are all sellouts. Is there any of them that is not a saboteur because they are dinning and wining with the enemy? The enemy is within us.

Some Imo State people are still hoping that the judgment can be reversed for Ihedioha to return to office. Do you see that happening?

I don’t know. With the antecedent of this government, that is deaf and blind and dumb because they have their own agenda and they are systematically pursuing that agenda, without caring whether we live or we die, it will be a shock to me if it is reversed. If it happens, we will say thank God because Imo State is in big trouble.

Is there anything that you are doing to help your Imo people?

It is not everything that we say on the pages of newspaper. I cannot fold my hands and watch Imo State dissolve into thin air.

On the Amotekun, do you think it is high time, South-East organised their own security outfit?

We are overdue for our own security outfit. We started it way before, in the days of Bakassi Boys. So we are overdue to have our own. But because of the saboteurs that we have in Igbo land, who are collecting money and aiding the enemy, we are yet to start. We have to do something about the saboteurs, the betrayers in Igbo land. The people that are wining and dining with the enemies, something needs to be done about them; something needs to be done about them.

Your first single after almost three decades you left the music scene dropped a few days ago tell us about the song and why you chose Valentine’s Day to release the track?

It is the love I have for my music, the love for my fans, the love for people on the streets, the love for the frustrated Nigerians that I was thinking about when I chose to drop the song on February 14.

You said the title of the song is ‘God of Men’, what inspired your doing that song with Falz?

The song, ‘God of Men’ that I dropped on Valentine’s Day is a song about fake pastors. I was inspired to do that song because religion is part of our problem. Religion is not in our DNA. Africans have a different way of worshiping which was better in those days until the white man brought religion. Religion came to Africa as a business, not about any god or spirituality.

What we are talking about in the song is that people should be aware that this is a business and has nothing to do with your soul and most Nigerian pastors; in fact I dare say that 95 per cent of them are criminals and are fake people.

I called the names of many fake pastors in the song. I and Falz the Bad Guy told the fake pastors to come for deliverance, so that we can deliver them from their fakeness and the atrocities. It may sound funny but the reason we all are in this mess is that people have sold their souls to the god of men and not even God. There is a part where Falz said in the song, ‘you asked us not to touch the anointed but the anointed are touching our young girls’.

What are you going to deliver them with? Will it be deliverance by fire of beating the evil out?

The anointing and the Holy Ghost fire is the way they con people. So we cannot apply their way on them.

What was the reason you stopped your music back then?

Music for me, back then was never commercial. I was something I did for fun. I don’t even believe that I am a musician. I can’t read music; I cannot play any musical instrument. I didn’t go into music because I wanted to make money. I just wanted the fame because I saw it as fun. I went into what I studied which was communication, doing documentaries, productions, had my own show. The Charley Boy Show.

A lot of people say that you are getting older and may not have the energy to handle the music industry?

Do you need energy to sing? I don’t think so. I can sit to sing, I don’t have to show that I am Michael Jackson. It’s just my avenue to talk to youth. If it takes going to mosque to talk to youth, I will do that. That is the calling I have. I am back with my music because I have realised that it can be another avenue to talk to young people.

Lately, you have toned down your Charly Boy looks; no makeup, no dread locks, clean haircuts only the tattoos remain. What happened?

I am a grandfather now. Though I still look boyish, I will forever remain boyish because I work with a lot of young people, my constituency is the youth, I am still a grandpa. I look youthful because I am influenced by young people. Everything is a phase, like I cannot ride bikes like I used. Life comes in times and phases. The older you get, the calmer you become.

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