Charly Boy: As a teenager, I romanced the idea of becoming a priest

Charly Boy says he romanced the thought of becoming a priest, largely due to the influence of his late father.

The musician and activist made the comment on Tuesday at the 2018 Justice Oputa Annual Conference (JOAC) in Abuja.

He said: “I was an altar boy trying to live up to our father’s expectations, and I was fed with so much religiosity that I romanced the idea of becoming a priest as a teenager.

“Almost every morning, we attended morning mass which was compulsory, and confession meetings and Bible studies were regular.

“My dear father ‘terrorised’ us with the burden of bearing the name, Oputa, and almost every day was a sermon and lecture in our household on why we must protect the Oputa name.

“It was pounded into our skulls that a good name is worth more than all the billions in the bank; values that have become extinct in today’s Nigeria.”

Charly Boy eulogised his father, a late supreme court judge popularly known as Socrates of the Nigerian judiciary.

He recounted the rigorous discipline he received under his father’s watch.

“As a teenager, I saw my father as overbearing, bullish, brash, cantankerous and outdated,” he said.

“His overdose of discipline, strong moral value and spirituality was suffocating, and I wondered why I was the most punished amongst my siblings.

“Discipline was enforced in our house as if we were in the army and any time we did something wrong my father never spared the rod.”

The musician lamented that some of the societal ills which the late Oputa addressed were still plaguing the society.

He said: “For 14yrs before he passed on, my father lived in my house, and most evenings we talked about the apparent injustices and inequalities that abound in Nigeria.

“He kept pointing out the direction, the practice and way of life that leads to true happiness. One of his popular teachings was that wealth does not guarantee happiness and that wealth is impermanent.

“That in every country people suffer, whether rich or poor, but only those who seek to understand the true meaning of life can find true happiness.”