Popular club owner, Akeem Sodeinde is back. In this interview with Daily Independent, he revealed how God helped him survive his kidney surgery and how people went about town saying he was infected with HIV. Some even said he did money rituals, he said. Above all, he says he is grateful to God for giving him a second chance. Enjoy the interview
You went through hell while you were ill, are you still scared of death?
There is nobody on earth who is not scared of death. Even death itself is scared of death. When you have done my kind of business for 17 years and still live without going out with security men and God has kept you for a reason then you should realise that if your hands are clean no weapon fashion against you shall prosper. They call me fearless; the word fearless is about the spirit in you and God himself. Nobody is untouchable.
How does getting a new lease of life feel?
I have a reason for living and I have to fulfill it. Great men and people that I have read about start from somewhere so I am working on a legacy that would see my children saying that their daddy is self made without any criminal record and that is my target for this year and something is coming up soon too.
What has life been like after the surgery?
First of all; I will say thank God for giving me life, mercy and granting me another chance. No amount of money or sacrifice could have kept me alive but for the mercies of God. It is not easy, but there is a saying that whatever gives you three square meals a day you should thank God for it. Business has not been easy because years back we were few in the industry, but now we are more. It is more interesting now because the challenges are always there. When you don’t have challenges in life you don’t have a valuable future. In everything in life you should always expect the unexpected and I have prepared for such.
Before information about your condition became public knowledge a lot of unpalatable things were attributed to your illness, how did you feel then?
Word in the street was very bad when I was sick. Word in the street was that I had HIV and I did money ritual, but there is a saying that a clear conscience fears no accusation. Part of what kept me going was the fact that I had God in me and no weapon fashioned against me shall prosper. Every great man has a story behind him, but the basic thing is that you don’t have to listen to what the world say because you have to make yourself happy.
There is nothing you do in this world that is one sided; there will always be the good and the bad side, but as long as the good is above the bad side then we thank God for his mercies. When I first came back, it wasn’t an easy start, but it made me go closer to God. I have had God in me since 2004, I was born a Muslim, but I found God in 2004.
I have never done anything fetish, criminal or fraudulent, but the normal thing which is known with me is that I have a gambling habit which I do because of boredom. I am a night person and before the sickness I used to go out to drink, play around because my business is all about women, men and interaction, but now I can’t do all those things.
The fact that I stayed at home for like a year and six months without doing anything I had to start to work myself up because an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. I don’t gamble to kill myself and you need to know that life itself is gambling. Everything thing you do in life is gambling, but as long as you do it with moderation then, there is no problem.
There is an adage that a young gambler dies an old beggar and whenever I remember that saying I realise my mistakes. Too many things are always in my head and I like surprises because the best way to give the world a good surprise is when they think it is all finished you give them the strongest part of you.
