By Oyinkansayo Wole-Bodunde.
Charly Boy, Nigeria’s music icon, has shared the reason for his complicated relationship with his father, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, a former Supreme Court Justice.
On the “With Chude” podcast, Charly Boy traced his authority struggles back to his childhood, specifically with his father. He mentioned feeling suffocated by the strict household rules.
“My thing with the status quo started from the house. I always used to wonder, why should my father be telling us what to do and giving us all these commands. Time to eat, time to pray, time for this and that and I was sick and tired of it,” he said.
Charly Boy’s resistance to these rules led to frequent punishments. “I was the one who was whipped the most among my siblings and I was the one that was punished the most because I wouldn’t do what I was asked to do. My father forgot that he was the one who played that in my head, he always used to tell us to query and investigate everything, so I used to have this vocal battle with him all the time.”
Their strained relationship persisted for years. “I didn’t understand his methodology and he thought I was this kid from hell that needed to be punished and trashed seriously and I don’t think we liked each other that much until everyone started getting mature and he started getting older. We then started seeing the beauty of our personalities.”
Charly Boy highlighted the deep disconnect. “We didn’t agree on anything and I found out that this didn’t enable me to bond with my father. He didn’t know who I was and I didn’t know who the bloody hell he was.”
In a separate interview with “The Honest Bunch” Podcast in February 2024, Charly Boy shared how his father’s strong religious background influenced his early life. Initially on a path to become a reverend father, Charly Boy eventually realized this wasn’t his calling. Feeling misunderstood, he made the drastic decision to disown his parents.
Charly Boy’s story serves as a reminder of the lasting impact of family dynamics on personal growth and identity.
