I was at the Sex2Sex conference organized by Praise Fowowe over the weekend, and by all standards it was an exceptional event. Such events ought to have more sponsorship, corporate and government! But thankfully we all didn’t have to wait for the government to do what we knew was right. It’s alright to take responsibility and it should always be something to be proud of! New Nigeria Club was a proud part sponsor of the event.
There were a lot of very interesting things I learnt and discovered at the Sex2Sex conference. For starters, I was able to hear Toyosi Akerele speak for the first time, she is an impressive and very driven young lady. She is the founder and manager of RISE network, and I have no doubt the network is one to watch out for. I also had the opportunity of listening to Tara FelaDurotoye. She spoke after I did, and she was on fire. I was impressed with her depth and her convictions, I was also moved by her style and story. One key thing I discovered, which added up in my mind, was the fact that her husband Fela Durotoye also took exactly the same type of Oath of Sexual purity that I took (for more information, click on the category on sex). I had never heard him speak about it before, neither he me, but it added up nicely. Maybe one day I’ll be able to do a list and we can make it fashionable to be faithful and stay pure. I also listened to Praise Fowowe, his passion was simply contagious as the crowd stood a number of times to agree with him. His message was clear, “you can hold your body, don’t use condom!”. “Don’t use rubber gloves to kill someone and say you didn’t do it.”, “Don’t put out the shares of your private company except you want to take it public, cover your breasts, make your privates, privates”. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to tell you about what I said, I’m sure you can get the tapes for that, but I can share some thoughts with you on what Prof Pat Utomi said during the event, I have captioned it, the pursuit of Immortality.
Permit me to be a bit desultory, I don’t think my readers will get maximum value from my talking about his speech that day alone… permit me to move here and there and give you a full value of what I learnt in that weekend.
It was first established that the real quest of man is to live forever. The highest achievement is to be immortal. There are however two levels of Immortality. There is material immmortality and spiritual immortality.
Material Immortality is what the likes of Shakespare, Aristotle, Isaac Newton, Machiaveli, e.t.c. have achieved. They are physically dead, but we know them, still refer to them, and quote them like they were our neighbours. Even though they are dead, as long as the earth remains, and their thoughts are referenced, they have life. They have achieved material immortality. It’s the reason why someone like me blogs, it’s the same reason why ‘Gbenga Sesan does the same, and many other bloggers I met over the weekend – Material Immortality. To die, knowing that your opinion about certain issues are clear, and speak when you are long gone.
Spiritual Immortality according to Prof Pat Utomi, is immortality as a result of life after death. A point where we stand face to face with our maker, and get the pleasure and opportunity of living with him, and remaining forever. Spiritual immortality is the quest of salvation, the life after death. This is the quest of all religions that believe in a sovereign God. This is my quest, and I believe Jesus Christ came so that we can have access to this type of life.
Very interestingly, the day after the saturday, I was priveleged to go speak at an event in the honor of a girl who died in her early twenties. The title of my speech was “Be the Change” – (I’ll leave the comments to the people who were in the event), but there was something that struck me in the meeting, that reaffirmed to me the concept of immortality. The deceased girl’s mother spoke about a few things that happened after her daughter died, and it shocked me that all that could happen to a twenty something year old.
After the young girl’s demise, she had recieved calls from different parts of the world, USA, South Africa and Nigeria, asking her for her permission for them to use her daughters name for either their businesses, their NGOs or education centres. They had had contact with Tena Desiree (the surname is a bit difficult for me), and they wanted that memory to live with them forever. She was 20ish, but few people above the age of 90 can boast of such achievements. Young, but immortal. I guess my speech touched many, but I was touched by the mother’s story.
So, in the pursuit of immortality, what are you doing?
