In the last two weeks, Nigeria has witnessed a chain of protests aimed at compelling President Muhammadu Buhari to resign from office on account of poor health. In this interview, music star and Nollywood actor, Prince Charles Oputa (Charlie Boy) tells ONWUKA NZESHI that the struggle continues until their demands are met
Why are you still out on the streets after your brush with the police the other day?
It is high time we started holding government accountable; it is high time the leadership started taking into cognisance, the sensitivity of the masses. You can’t have a leadership that is all about them. So far, we have discovered that a few people who have decided to strangulate her economy and impoverish the people with their vile greed run Nigeria.
A certain cabal has captured this country and that is why you can see an honourable man like President Muhammadu Buhari is battling with basic moral issues. He knows he is sick and can no longer do the job for which he was elected; he knows that he should resign but they won’t let him do the right thing. This is why we are trying in our own way to add this pressure.
It is actually us against the cabal. I want to believe that Buhari is honourable and a good person. This is somebody we expected that would clean the swamp but unfortunately, the cabal in Aso Rock has captured him. Remember that about a year ago, his wife raised an alarm in a BBC interview that went viral. These were some of the issues she raised at that time. She said that her husband and his office had been captured by a certain group of people.
Your critics say that what you are doing is wrong and won’t change anything because there is a constitutional procedure for removing a President from office. What is your view on this?
Yes, we have laws; rules and regulations, which if abided by can give us a good country that works. But this same cabal, these same people who parade and prance around the corridors of power with impunity and criminality, are doing the wrong things.
First and foremost, we are dealing with this issue on the moral level. It is unfortunate that we have lost our integrity; we’ve lost our morality and nothing means anything to this group.
Don’t you think you should direct your campaign towards the Federal Executive Council and National Assembly, which have the constitutional duty to remove the President if he is incapacitated?
Dat one na grammar. I told you that we are standing on a moral ground. We are treating it as a moral issue because we know that those people you are talking about are part of our problem and cannot help us. There are other issues that are bothering us.
What are the issues?
Why is there too much poverty in the midst of plenty? They claim to have recovered so much of our stolen funds but who is telling us how much has been recovered and where the money is being kept? Why is nobody talking? Where did they keep the money? At least, the money they said they recovered from one person alone can be used as bonanza for all the hungry youths in Nigeria. How many issues do you want me to raise? The National Assembly wants us to jubilate that they have passed the ‘Not Too Young to Run bill,’ but why didn’t they put a ceiling on the age at which you are not supposed to run for an elective position? There are so many things wrong with the system. In fact, it is a system failure that we are experiencing now.
I know that my generation and those that came before me are responsible for most of the rubbish that is going on but I have done my bit.
I realise that between 1983 and 1995 or thereabout which was during the military era, there was a massive brain drain in Nigeria and a lot of our good hands and good brains left the country and the few that stayed back have just been hiding under their beds. They didn’t understand the military and they didn’t understand where Nigeria was going. They didn’t also understand the treachery and evil associated with our leaders. Everybody shied away from trying to know what was going on in the governance of our country. The result of that silence is what we are seeing now. When good men do nothing; when good men don’t rise up to talk, then, the space will be occupied by criminals and riff-raffs. This is why we have criminals and riff-raffs in government.
How much were you paid to do this job?
Paid? Who fit pay Charlie Boy? Look over there and you will see the people that are being paid to counter what we are saying. Don’t you see the crowd there? We are only seven people here but we are here because we believe in what we are doing. In fact, you are not going to see so many people here because we are not sharing money, rice T-shirts or fez-caps. We can’t attract the kind of crowd you expect but I tell Nigerians including you that if you don’t stand for your right, you will lose it. You may collect money today, you may collect food from them today but you won’t collect for another four years of your life. If waiting for the crumbs from these people is the only thing you are going to be doing with your life, I am sorry for you. It means you don’t have a future in this country. If Nigerian youths don’t wake up to fight and retrieve their stolen future, there will be nothing left for them and their children in the years to come.
Some people say you are too old for this kind of struggle. Do you agree?
Yes, I am old but not too old to run or stand up on your behalf. After all, you can see that my children are the ones talking most of the time. When I come, I say a little and sit down. When I am tired, I go home and rest till the next day.
Have the police apologised for the assault on you and your group the other day?
They are not known to apologise for anything and they lie. It is part of the deceit in our system. Take for instance, the police told Nigerians that they were firing water cannons and tear gas at us because we had a crowd of miscreants with us. So, seven of us here are the miscreants. But you know that videos don’t lie and you saw the video clips of what happened that day. It is all over the Internet. A hundred and fifty policemen were positioned against seven of us. Now, look at the crowd they are following now. Those over there are the hired and paid protesters.
How long are you going to remain here?
We are going to do this forever unless Buhari resumes or resigns. I don’t have any other job. I am not working. I am jobless and this is my only job for now. Thank God, I have nine children and 14 grandchildren. My first son is 47 and an Associate Professor; there is nothing I am looking for again in life. Hunger no go ever kill me. This is what I want to do with my life but before I die, I want to see that our young people are actually taking over. If Buhari were my father, I would have gone to meet him in Aso Rock and bundled him away to my house. What is he still looking for at his age and under the current state of his health?
You seem to have taken this campaign to the international community?
Of course, yes. You will soon begin to see similar protests in the United Kingdom and as far as in the United States. I promise you that we will escalate the protest in the coming weeks. Our demand is simple -resume or resign.
