Veteran entertainer and political activist Charles Oputa, popularly known as Charlie Boy, has spoken out against the controversial renaming of a Lagos bus stop that once bore his name. The Bariga Local Council Development Area recently replaced “Charlie Boy Bus Stop” with “Olamide Badoo Bus Stop,” honouring the popular rapper and music executive.
Charlie Boy, also known as Area Fada, in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Tuesday, criticised the move as politically motivated and a distraction from Nigeria’s pressing challenges.
“This is more of a distraction. We’re not facing what we should face in the times of today,” he said during an interview from Lagos. “Whether you like it or not, the race for 2027 has already begun.”
The name “Charlie Boy Bus Stop” had been in common use for decades due to Oputa’s deep ties to the Bariga and Gbagada communities, where he lived and carried out charitable works between 1989 and 2006. He provided scholarships, donated motorcycles to okada riders, and supported elderly pensioners contributions that earned him widespread grassroots support and the naming honour by popular consensus.
“There was no contractual agreement as such,” Oputa explained. “They started calling it Charlie Boy Bus Stop because I lived in the bus stop, it became popular.”
Oputa warned against attempts to divide Nigerians along ethnic and political lines.
“Why is it that whenever politics is at play, they try to pitch us against each other?” he asked. “Because we let them do that to us. How can the worst of us lead the best of us?”
The entertainer also reflected on the deteriorating socio-economic conditions in Nigeria, urging young people to prepare for active participation in the 2027 elections.
“If average Nigerians are going through this kind of poverty, this kind of hardship, people will be dying like flies,” he warned. “All dying are dying, my brother. You talk, you die. You no talk, you go still die.”
Still, Charlie Boy remains hopeful, placing his faith in Nigeria’s youth and diaspora to bring change.
“The salvation of this country lies in the hands of exceptional people,” he said. “They are the youths of this country… who are coming to the realisation of the kind of powers they hold.”
Drawing a comparison between Lagos and New York, he defended his earlier comments referring to Lagos as “no man’s land” not to dismiss its indigenous roots, but to reflect its multi-ethnic, inclusive character.
“Like New York, Lagos became what it is because people from all over converged there. It’s a potpourri of different people,” he said.
Despite his fears for the country, Oputa ended with cautious optimism.
“There has to be a twist. You can’t continue to create this kind of evil, at one point, it is bound to stop,” he said. “And I only pray that it happens before my very eyes.”
Erizia Rubyjeana
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