‘999’: Memoir, new beginning for Charles Oputa

While many predicted that Charles Chukwuemeka Oputa, a Nigerian musician and celebrity, would die long ago, he has lived longer than some of them, yet very active and still following his passion.

Oputa, who is popularly known as ‘Charly Boy’ or ‘Area Fada’, is the son of Chukwudifu Akunne Oputa, a renowned Nigerian chief judge, celebrated for his integrity.

Charly Boy’ is a testimony of persistence and being different, neglecting his wealthy and affluent family background to join the masses on the street, helping to amplify their voices and wining for them too.

All these including; his growing up, family struggles, career, and life experiences are what the ‘Area Fada’ has taken time, amid his very busy schedules to pen down in a memoir worth reading.

Titled ‘999: The Memoir of Charly Boy’, the book, which is not his first, is an open mirror of the Area Fada’s life, career, family, struggles and even things never heard about him before.

“I know you are wondering why I gave the title 999. It signifies a new level, or change. There is nothing more to it than that new level for my life,” Charly Boy explained during a media parley heralding the book launch at Ikeja GRA, Lagos, recently.

“Everyone will see themselves in my book”, he said about the book, published by Bookcraft and whose forward is written by Olusegun Obasanjo, former Nigerian president, who also loves Charly Boy a great deal for taking care of his parents at most peoples’ disbelief.

Truly, in ‘999’, the Area Fada, who is now a grandfather, cracks open the vault of a life lived louder than the society that tried to mute him.

Written with street-poetry honesty, ‘999’ 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.

The book is a must-read for many reasons:

It tells the story Nigeria never saw coming and from a surprise author, who many never thought could make out time to write.

Yet again, the book is truth without permission as the Area Fada pours his heart and soul in the book, from rebellion to activism, from the ghettos to the corridors of power.

‘999’ is also not just a celebrity memoir. It is a raw and unvarnished account of what it means to be different in a country that punishes difference. It is about the cost of authenticity and the power of refusing to bend, which the Area Fada exemplifies.

Also, ‘999’ is a narration of realities that challenge everything you think you know about the Nigerian society, celebrity, and the cost of being yourself, as exemplified by the Area Fada.

The author recommends the book for anyone who wants to live boldly, speak loudly and be real. The book would be launched on July 31, 2026.