Charles “Charly Boy” Oputa, the veteran entertainer, activist, and self-styled “Area Fada” of Nigerian pop culture, formally presented his new memoir, 999: The Memoir of Charly Boy, to the public on July 31 in Lagos. The event, held at the Alliance Française de Lagos/Mike Adenuga Centre in Ikoyi, drew a heavyweight guest list that included former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Anambra State governor and NDC presidential candidate Peter Obi, former Commonwealth Secretary-General Chief Emeka Anyaoku, business mogul Leo Stan Ekeh, and veteran broadcaster Bisi Olatilo. Published by Bookcraft Africa, the book is now available in major bookstores nationwide.

Framed with the tagline “A Story. A Legacy. A Rebellion in Ink,” 999 arrives nine years after Charly Boy’s first memoir, My Private Part, and by his own account goes considerably further in stripping away the performance behind his public persona. Speaking to The Guardian ahead of the launch, he described the book as unflinching territory, covering everything from prostate illness and erectile dysfunction to his younger years abroad, where he brushed against drug use and petty crime, alongside the activism, family history, and reinventions that followed. He has said he prefers the term “social engineer” to “activist,” and that the book’s central aim is relatability: that whoever picks it up will find a piece of their own story inside his.

The memoir also doubles as a tribute to Charly Boy’s late father, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, one of Nigeria’s most respected jurists, whose commitment to justice and the rule of law runs through the book’s framing. Obasanjo, who wrote the foreword, used his remarks at the launch to reflect on his own initial wariness of the “Area Fada” persona, telling the room it was witnessing Charly Boy’s devotion to his father and family that changed his view of the man behind the act. Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah also contributed to the book’s front matter.

Ahead of the Lagos unveiling, the memoir’s promotional campaign notably reached New York’s Times Square, where its cover and thematic teasers were displayed on digital billboards, part of a deliberate push to position the book, and its accompanying men’s health advocacy campaign, as more than a conventional celebrity memoir. Reviewing the book at the launch, cultural commentator Dr. Austin Tam-George called it a direct and revealing account of who Charles Oputa really is, beneath the character he built to survive being underestimated.

Visuals from the launch below (Credit: Charly Boy’s Facebook Page)