YVONNE OPUTA, media producer and marketer, interior decoration artist, director of TAAKRA Afro Resources, and daughter of ace musician, social critic and activist, Charles Oputa (a.k.a. Charlie Boy), is one young lady who is burning with the desire to make an impact in her lifetime. In this interview with Chuks OLUIGBO, she talks about her relationship with her father, her work, and her other interests. Excerpts:
Yvonne (r) with MC-Chukwuemeka Kizo What exactly do you do?
I am a producer, basically a media producer. I also market media products. We have a couple of them right now in the market, and we are still developing a lot of other concepts. I am also an interior decoration artist. I do interior and decoration.
Where are you based?
Let me say I’m based all over Nigeria. I’m a Nigerian, so I travel a lot within Nigeria and outside Nigeria, but I have homes in Abuja, Lagos, and it’s looking more like I’m building a home again in Owerri right now. I actually have a home in Oguta, but since I’m doing a lot of things in our area, it’s looking like I’m going to have a home soon in Owerri town.
Let’s talk about your works. You said interior decoration artist and all that. Could you just give us instances of works you have done?
Alright. Basically, I have a flair for colours, natural colours. I have a flair for building up things from the abstract, from nothing. You know, already I have pictures in my head in terms of turning my environment into not just a most conducive and appealing but something that is very different. I’m an Afro-centric, if you call me that. So, what I do is seen from that end. I have done jobs, I’ve turned homes, I’ve turned environments. I can mention a couple, but you know, listing them, I don’t know. Just being careful, I don’t want to list them because of my clients and all that. It would be a thing of pride to list them, but let me just say I have done it for the high, I’ve done it for the mighty, I’ve even done some for the state, but basically, what we do is furnishing, furniture, home interior, office furnishing, and also landscaping. So, that’s basically what that aspect of my life is about.
How did you come about that? Did you study art in school or something?
Actually I did business administration. I didn’t study art but growing up, I think I’m fortunate to be born into a family of great artists, in the midst of a lot of people that are talented. I wouldn’t say I studied it but I just found myself doing it. Somehow I found myself exploiting that area. The only thing I can’t do is to sing, but I guess all my other talents and other efforts I had to gear them into all this because this is still work of art. It takes a creative mind to do all of that. So, I didn’t study it; I grew up with it, and I’m developing it. Even right now, I’m still developing. And maybe, hopefully, someday I can take a course or two in art so I can improve myself.
You pre-empted my next question because I was going to ask you whether you are also into music. Well, how does it feel being the daughter of Charlie Boy?
He’s just like a regular dad. There’s no big deal. Why do you ask?
Because out there people look at him as weird and all that. And I could remember that sometime ago some journalist asked him how he felt being the son of Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, and he told the journalist to go ask the Justice how he felt being the father of Charlie Boy. So, are we looking at a similar scenario here?You just said it all. Remember you said, out there. That already answers the question. I don’t see him from out there. I’m not an outsider; I’m not one of those who see him on the road, who look at the tattered jeans, the piercings, the bike thing, and all that. I see him as an in-person, a loving father, very loving and thoughtful, not even the regular thing. I see my other friends, their parents and folks and I know the routine and the drill. This is so like informal but at the same we all grow to respect him, love him and, of course, sometimes you are scared of him if you cross the boundary because there is always a boundary, a line. So, from the inside, not from out there, he is regular, he is the best. I couldn’t have asked for more.
Many people think it is very difficult to step into the shoes of such a father. How do you feel? Do you see his achievements and you look at yourself and you think you can’t get there?
If you have that mindset, you won’t even try at all; you won’t even make any effort. So, we don’t look at it like that. In my family, we are all brought up to believe in ourselves and doing what makes us happy, what you can do for yourself. So, from that mindset, I have always wanted to do my own thing. If it happens to be in the line of what he is doing, fine. But if you say you want to copy him or you want to take after him, of course there can never be another Charlie Boy in this lifetime or in the next. He is just one in a million, in the whole universe. So, we are just who we are, what I am, and I can’t measure up; just that we also have what we are good at. Ok, the image might cover it up, that’s should be expected; but definitely, we don’t sit at that, we also take our own dimensions and go into our own areas of endeavours and strive to be the best in those areas too.
So, how has he as a person impacted on your life?
Are we talking about Charlie Boy or about me Yvonne? Well, it’s ok. What I have to say is that he has given us the right foundation, brought us up in an atmosphere of love, of intelligence, of being very creative, and so on. I guess all of that have embedded in us what we are right now, like, say, 60 or 70 percent, before our own in-born talents that we came into the world with. So, he has impacted positively, definitely. And you know, it’s a mix of everything. Ok, but like I said, in-house, inwardly as family, family to him is first. Everything he does is always centred around that. So, it’s all been positive, definitely.
You have an outfit?
Yes, I do. We actually have a parent company that has a lot of subsidiaries. Under these subsidiaries, I have one of my own that covers the interior decoration aspect, and another that covers the production aspect and all of that. We believe in family so strongly. People might say, start your own thing and do your own thing. It’s all there, just that we have taken our own positions. Definitely we have an outfit, it’s a big name, but due to privacy and all of that, I don’t want to use your pages to give myself publicity, but the outfit is big and it’s right there.
How do you look at the future of the outfit? Ok, let’s say your own subsidiary, prospectively now, how do you look at it?
For everything we start in life, definitely there is always improvement. You don’t want to start and leave it the way it is. Right now, the world is growing, we are growing so fast and technology is improving by the second. We definitely want to develop it and take it to another level. Who knows, maybe someday get to the point of doing businesses outside the shores of the country. Right now it’s only within Nigeria, we are operating in my state, other states. Who knows, we can also export some of these things outside the shores, you know, develop it and get more specialists in this area, those who are known for such to come and input into it so we can be number one in the business. So, that is the height we are hoping to take it to, and all plans are moving in that direction to take care of that. But actually to answer your question, the outfit that takes care of this under the parent company is TAAKRA Afro Resources, but the brand name is just TAAKRA, Teaching African Arts and Krafts. As I told you, it’s an Afro-centric thing, and we have sublets in Abuja right now, and we are hoping to expand to other state capitals very soon, by God’s grace.
Now would you have a message for young people out there who may want to go into the same thing but are discouraged for one reason or the other?
I would just want to tell them that they shouldn’t lose focus. You know, it’s not easy for the things that are in-built in you, your dreams, to materialise. Sometimes there are challenges, and life is all about challenges. Even myself, I have a lot of that. I had challenges and I’m still having some right now. It’s not a bed of roses. Whatever that dream is, whatever that focus, whatever it is that they want to create or establish, they should hold on to it; they should see the finished product of that dream because if they look at it from the very beginning they can’t even begin to fathom how they will get to the end. So they begin to picture in their mind how the end of it will be and whatever they do, whatever step they take, whatever help they ask for, whatever concept or idea they come up with, when they have the picture of that finished product in their mind, definitely they will get there someday. So, that’s what they should be looking at.
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