Akeem Sodeinde Speaks About His Illness…Reveals He Is Back And Better

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.