Charlyboy’s Linda We Must Possess - By Adoyi Ali

I write in relation to all the questions that have been directed to my table regarding the supposed multiple character of the Areafada. I write to respond to the growing concern over the Linda’s character that will supposedly sit on the judges’ table of the Nigerian Idol.

I write to talk about the ingenuity of Charles Oputa, the brand creator who has given us the essence of his existence, using different imageries in order to bring to bare the reality we seek.

I write to also assert that unless you have the foresight of reading ahead of the book placed before you, thinking ahead of your head, and of course with the capacity to live ahead of your time, you will continue to wonder at every philosophy developed by the brand. His ways are not conventional. Charlyboy has his face covered with an imaginary mask, and until you have the mask unveiled professionally, you will continue to overwork your brain. 

My dear, take it easy before you run amok with all that talk of schizophrenia (mental disorder) because you obviously need indept knowledge to get through to the other side of the Areafada’s life that you have little or no knowledge about. 

However, from an inside understanding of what the Charlyboy brand represents, I want to state that Linda, as she is called, is not a different character nor a separate entity from the Charlyboy brand.

Linda is only an attitude, that emotion; that goodness personified. Linda is that individual who is closely associated with the emotion of a woman. Linda is domesticated. Linda is an interesting individual with all the ability to handle all domestic issues. Linda is a philosophy of the Charlyboy brand that tends to break away from the feminist theory that certain jobs are meant for the women and some others are reserved for the men. Linda is a philosophy that does not differentiate the duty of a wife from the duty of the man of the house.

The philosophy is in agreement with the universal theory of “what a man can do a woman can do even better”; “invariably, what a woman can do, a man can do much better”.  Have you seen Charlyboy in the kitchen before? He is so domesticated that you will begin to mistake him for Lady Diane. The appearance is only a creation of that feminine picture in the mental faculty. The appearance does not really define in exactitude the message the brand tends to send through Linda. The lipstick, the pancake, and the eyelashes are not really the emphasis of the message; they are mere symbols. It goes far beyond all that paraphernalia. If you like, you can also refer to Linda as a message, a message that is against the feminist theory that depicts the sociological invisibility of women. To get his position straight, you must recall that one universal line of criticism of the feminists is that women are not present in the social analyses and social world of sociology.

The language and analysis of classical sociologists is that of men, male activities, and experiences, and that of the parts of society dominated by males. Even till today, Nigerians assume that the social world is primarily the public world of male activities, the labour force, city life, and politics, and that women only dominate in domestic arena. Nevertheless, because of what he is set out to do; because of his departure from the norm as a lefty, he has created a platform and a philosophy to promote one of the indispensable areas in the woman's world that the men folks must emulate. It is as simple as this; that the men too can cook, take care of the children, and nurse their babies; that the women on the other hand can as well be resourceful and hardworking. She can equally go all out to struggle for the family if she has the capacity to that as long as there is an understanding. This is why Charlyboy can sometimes remain in Nigeria, taking care of the kids, while Lady D runs around for the family. 

Charlyboy is so close to his mum and his dad, contrary to most male children. Linda-that philosophy has imparted him to do so; the place of the man and the woman in the family according to the Linda philosophy is watertight, and cannot be totally separated, as any man who tries to separate same will have his family crashed. Instead of saying Linda is going to sit on the judge’s seat during the next Idol show, I would rather say peace, humility, kindness, love, caring, understanding and most importantly hope will occupy the seat even as the show is about to kick off. These are the basic qualities in an ideal woman, and these, all the judges must possess in order to find a way to encourage the youngsters who will set out with all their hope just to grab the opportunity that will be created for them through the Nigerian Idol musical contest. Linda is the philosophy that says that the woman’s presence dominates and overshadows all other persona. That obviously could be why he tries to bring Linda fought to the glare of the public for a better appreciation of the womanhood.

We have all seen the philosophy of the brand from a gory and demonic perspective. We have winked our eyes in rejection and crossed our minds in acceptance, yet we have never appraised the situation from an artistic perspective. Imagine that you are an artiste, and just on stage to act out your role. Would you say that you only mounted the podium just to scare people with horror acts without a message?

I am not in doubt that many will continue to wallow in ignorance, and will refuse, even if they understand, to accept this reality. However, it cannot be disputed that messages of this nature are not meant for the feeble and corrupt minds, because the only thing you will pick out of the entire message and its attendant lessons is ‘evil’. Too bad, but  it’s still very good for the few who understand because “all creative people need something to rebel against, it’s what gives their lives excitement, and it’s creative people who make their fans and followers’ lives exciting”  Think about this!