By Sulyman Sodeeq
…we will all be inscribed with marks in the course of living our life, but how you have chosen to live life will determine the mark you will make, the changes you can make.” – SULYMAN Sodeeq Abdulakeem
We finally launched our book yesterday. It was a memorable experience. Many thanks to everyone who made the day a dynamic one. They are the reasons we need to keep striving towards achieving greatness. Kindly read the speech I presented down below:
Good afternoon, our fathers and mothers, distinguished guests, teachers, tutelars and mentors; family, friends and loved ones; the host of today’s programme, Mr Victor Eshameh; colleagues and associates who joined this train to rejoice with us today on this special occasion, your respective presence means a lot to me and I want to assume it is the same to the departed souls whose names will resonate in the course of this Book Launch.
Before I go further in my speech, I will like to briefly take us down the memory lane in order to let you all discern what drives me and the motives behind my purpose in life, which specifically has had an effect on my names and identities I carry at different stages of my life. Sincerely, I don’t regret anything I have been through, I only see it as opportunities to learn, to navigate life trials, to grow and become the best version of myself.
In the course of this humble but informative speech, I will like to reveal some of my true identities to you all. This will be done neither to oppress nor impress, but to express the mixed feelings I harbour today and to influence others who have gone through similar circumstances as mine. This is to affirm to us all that we will all be inscribed with marks in the course of living our life, but how you have chosen to live life will determine the mark you will make, the changes you can make.
The notion above can be simply used to describe my life’s trajectory, because if you travel to the depth of my living, you will find out that my life is a blend of many lives that are so dearly to me and because of how important those lives were to me, showing that I live for them has become a garb I wear with honour and pride. As a small boy, I was so inquisitive on how to change our family histories. This always prompted me to envision myself bearing my paternal grandfather’s name – Sodeeq – as a way of doing for him, what he couldn’t do for himself.
As fate would have it, our eldest brother, Sulyman Sodeeq Tajudeen, was lost to the cold hands of death in a fatal auto accident, on the 27th November, 2007, fourteen years ago. His demise really shook the foundation of our family tree, because it was no doubt that in him, we lost an industrious, potential patriarch, caring, humane and urbane senior. He was the one studying Library and Information Science and my initial career ambition was to be an Economist.
Because of the bond we shared, I adopted Sodeeq as my middle name, as a means of honouring him and our grandfather, since I can’t be renamed Tajudeen. I resolved to do for him what he couldn’t achieve for himself, and that was how I changed my mind to study Library and Information Science. My sojourn in the course of studying Library and Information Science has clearly revealed to me that when you direct your pain towards a worthy cause, it energises you to make a difference in that cause. In the field of Library and Information Science, I am making the name Sodeeq known, with the assurance that more accolades are on their way. The course is now the palace where I am its Royalhood.
Exactly eight months after our eldest brother’s death, on the 27th July 2008, a day which coincidentally falls on the birthday of our mother, we lost one of our siblings, Sulyman Abdulazeez Baba. It was a tragic experience that taught me another life lesson that what happens to you may be designed to make you strong, but how people treat you or condole with you may make you weak. Various insinuations and premonitions were made about our family, but to God be the glory, here we are today.
Everyday when I reflect, it always amazes me how my life is being transformed, how I am making such progress despite the scars I carry. Sometimes I blamed myself that I can’t let go of the past, but I later discovered that progress requires us to honestly look at the dark corners of our own past to find inspiration, be renewed and toil the path of significance. Knowing this spurs me to charge myself to do more, to become more.
There is a certain moment in the course of my life that is so significant – and that is our newspapering days. Along with my recently late elder brother, Sulyman Luqman, I sold newspapers for around ten to eleven years. Those years have both directly and indirectly nourished my thinking abilities, liberated my life, redesigned my purpose and nurtured my emotional intelligence, interpersonal skills and other abilities a subjective mind can learn from menial jobs.
My life is a typical example of Paulo Coelho’s description that “If you want something, the whole world conspires with you to get it,” because my life is filled with different individuals who have come to play different roles at different phases and levels. At every defining moment of my life, I have met different people that help refine and redefine its meaning. Because these people believed in helping humanity, that belief made them fill the frames designed for kind and generous people coming into my life.
Someone once said, “It’s not the years in your life that count; it’s the life in your years.” It seems the quote behind is meant for me because of what people have taught me and the impact they have made in my life. I am blessed with many people who never give up on me. They see in me what I don’t see in myself and they are committed to creating a fertile ground for the seeds of greatness in me to germinate.
There is a common notion that when you share your goals, it becomes weak, you lose the enthusiasm to pursue it. I don’t agree with that notion. You only lose the power to pursue your goals when you share it with the wrong persons. But if you share it with the right persons, your goals gain more power which actualising it will no longer be an option to you, but a choice. This is what happened to me the days I confided in Mr Gideon Olutunde Ogunkunle, Mr Henry Ukazu and Mr Sanni Yakub Ozigi that I want to be a writer. Aside from offering supportive responses, they also proved to me that my aspirations are achievable.
Anytime I think about how I have been treated by good people, I always overlook the denials and betrayals I experienced from the wrong people. You can’t choose for people how to treat you, but you can choose how you respond to how you were being treated by people. Alhamdulillah that I learned this lesson from my dear late friend, brother, hero and mentor, Sulyman Luqman. Narrating what we shared is something only an autobiography – One Death, Too Many – which will be released later in the future can adequately address.
Thinking about him always caused me to shed tears, mentioning his name also makes my voice inflect. He was a person whom I really feel comfortable with. Was it his humour, understanding, common sense or that passion to make impact in the life of anybody that comes his way? I have seen brothers, but believe me, the kind of bond we shared knows no bound. It is not because of the genetic inheritance we shared, but because of the common values, aspirations, purpose and mutual respect that connected us.
Anytime I think about his struggles, I take solace from what he did to make his life a blessing to others, to be an example and not a warning or caution, regardless of what he himself went through. He lived to raise other people’s hope, he lived like a star shining upon other people’s paths. The memories we shared were the true reflection of Haleemah Gegele’s words that “Some memories can never ever fade away no matter how hard we try, we can only keep being strong and learn from it.”
The message he sent to me on the 16th of September, 2019 after the publication of our first book – Responsible Living… – was full of gratitude for making his name known. I was surprised! Even before he gave up on the ghost on that fateful day he died, I want to assume that my call was the last he received and we discussed lengthily on how to go with the designs of this book we are launching today. He gave me a detailed description of how he wants the cover to be and I told him I will call back later in the day to check on him.
To my surprise, I came across the quote by Amanpree Singh “I had reached a stage where I could take nothing. I knew myself, all truths uncovered, every myth busted. It was time to accept myself as I was,” which he posted. I know he was a warrior, fighter and avatar, he knew the right time to desert the war fronts. He deserves to wear the garb of Obadiah Mailafia words that “Only an avatar could have predicted his own death with such millennial calm.”
It was just like yesterday, but no day has ever passed without his thoughts coming to my mind. Tatalo Alamu says, “How time flies, we may say. But flying time also carries storms and biting dunes.” The storms in my days without him are how he dearly cares for me and the biting dunes are how we have struggled to sustain his legacy. I have good news for his soul: We have established a library named after him, Sulyman Luqman Memorial Library. It is still infant, though and its nucleus are formed from the books on Psychology, Sales, Marketing, Philosophy, Motivation and Inspiration he assembled during his lifetime.
This book “The Path to Greatness” is my epitaph for his unique and exemplary soul. May it usher in our greatness as we envisioned and may Allah (SWT) grant you all my dear brothers eternal rest. Ameen.
The book is written in the most simplest form by placing life’s stages into three major steps – Mind, Action and Life. I used the English alphabets – ABC… – with stories of prominent Nigerians to concretise my thoughts. Each alphabet, along with an individual story represents life’s principles at different stages and phases and how those people have navigated their paths to reach the heights of their chosen endeavours.
Only alphabet “X” was not catered for because of the minimal availability of words it starts with. However, the alphabet “P” is used for Potentiality Builders, the pseudonym of mine, to talk about Pain, Passion and Purpose. Don’t let the story of SULYMAN Sodeeq Abdulakeem stirs your sympathy, I shared it to spark inspiration in people, to charge people to rise to filling the voids in their respective life and to tell people that the meanings life wants us to attach to it will surface through our interpretations of life’s trials and challenges.
I am just toiling my path to enrich myself and deepens my intellectual capacity, moral uprightness and academic distinction. This literary piece we are launching today is a means of activating the essence of my living, giving it substance and increasing my birth price, by polishing the extraordinary circumstances I went through to forge and birth the extraordinariness in me. I look forward to more roads to travel, more bridges to cross and more blazes to trail, insha Allah, every day shall always mark a new beginning, a delightful march to Allah’s unlimited grace, Barakah, fulfillment and greatness. Ameen.
SULYMAN, Sodeeq Abdulakeem is a Librarian, Author. He can be reached via +2348132226994. His new book titled: “The Path to Greatness,” foreword by Henry Ukazu, President and Founder of GLOEMI Inc., The Bronx, New York City, USA, is now available at http://bit.ly/Amzn-P2G-Soft-Copy
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