.. The renaming of the Charly Boy Busstop by the Bariga Local Govt is all shades of petty.
With all due respect to Olamide, that Busstop, I reconfirmed while working with Fada on his biography was named as such cos the very good people of bariga used to gather there to meet with him and tell him their story and problems and he in turn will carry the wahala on his head
He got several arrests, several beatings and even got the DSS infiltrate his home allegedly as a result.
The charly boy bus stop was not just an ordinary Busstop, it was symptomatic to the people of Bariga and Gbagada and to all Nigerians who ran there to sit under that tree to lay their grievances to a man who listened and acted
The ‘okada’ people where the first few who started gathering there, then the petty traders who this same local govt people used to harrass to no end and then military pensioners, all came
He would move from that Busstop to the heavy trafficked Gbagada express way to block it and collect money from cars to give to the people under that tree that was now named Charly Boy bus stop.
Today petty politics and a lack of a sense of history have pushed these people to destroy a symbol of a struggle that benefited their people.
We can only just laugh at the arrant folly of these ones as true heroism is etched in history and our hearts and not in the symbolism of a physical bus stop
Charles Oputa – Area Fada remains an icon and his name and efforts will far outlive this dainty Bariga Local Govt Chairman who will fade into the dimness of obscurity after his one minute on the sun
Come and beat me
Duke of Shomolu