Dear Heavenly Father, on this date, July 13, 1966, I was granted the privilege of being born to join the citizens of the world. I was born in a little village, unknown to many, at the threshold of Nigeria’s civil war. The day I was born was Wednesday. I thank you for granting me the privilege of being born and guiding me through the many challenges of life until this date, July 13, 2012.
As I commemorate this date of birth, I wish to convey my heart of concern to you, our creator. On yearly basis, I have always yearned to mark my birth anniversary. For the majority of the years since my birth until now, my birth anniversary has always been on other days and not Wednesday that I was born. For this reason, I have been praying and asking you to reveal to me why my birth anniversary is not on my birth day. I am delighted that you showed me the reason why there is a gap between my birth day and birth date anniversary. There is conflict between the days and dates that human beings have assigned. Thank you again for revealing this secret to me.
As someone who has come to know your heart that the birth date and birth day in conflict grieves you, I have wondered alone on the idea of promoting birth date to console you. Yet, on this birth date anniversary today, hundreds of my friends and well wishes are wishing me happy birth day while I am celebrating birth date. I will like to dedicate all the wishes to you Our Heavenly Father and pray that you can inspire people around the world to quickly realize the huge difference between BIRTH DATE and BIRTH DAY.
I pray that humankind can come to the consciousness of harmonizing the date of birth with the day of birth. I pray that as soon as possible, a new expression of the calendar can emerge that will harmonize this variation between birth date and birth day and open the way for all people to mark their birthdate and birthday together. I will devote the next 360 days to promoting greater awareness on this challenge and I am determined to share what you have taught me about the conflict in dates and days and offer the new system of dating that will bring harmony. I pray that you bless this date of my birth, alongside the birth of many other people around the world. Increase our quest to resolve the conflict of birth date and birth day and guide us all into the clear understanding of your heart.
I thank you for this and offer to devote my life to doing your will. Bless all my friends, brothers and sisters, colleagues and all people of the world. I pray that we shall resolve the conflict between birth date and birth day soon and shall bring about a new world where we shall commemorate our birth anniversary in a harmonious date and day
My 2012 birth anniversary has come at a time where there are several challenges around me and even my home country of Nigeria. My dear friend and colleague is being held by the police in Ghana for his effort to promote peace. My nation is being held to ransom by militancy. A huge population is imprisoned by poverty due to corruption in high and low places.
Despite the challenges, I am unable to allow the date and day pass by, without sharing some ideas concerning birth anniversary observations. In most societies around the world, birth, marriage and death are three key phases of life for most people. Everyone without exception is born on a particular date and day. Unfortunately, there are many views concerning birth anniversary. I will like to use my 2012 birth anniversary to add some ideas to the wealth of knowledge. First, I will like to express my understanding about when our life as human beings begins. We begin life before we are born and therefore older than our date and day of birth. We are one year older than the day we were born.
Second, many people commemorate their birth anniversary in the name of birth day instead of birth date. There are seven days in a week but 365 dates in a year. If we are marking our annual birth anniversary, we are actually marking birth date and not birth day. I was born on Wednesday, July 13, 1966. My birth day is Wednesday and it comes every week but my birth date of July 13 comes once in a year. I offer to correct this impression at this time and urge all people to note the difference between birth date and birth day anniversary.
The third point has to do with issues related to the clock and calendars being used on daily basis. If you watch the movement of the clock, it moves round twice in a day but the natural rotation of the earth around its axis which causes day and night revolves around once in each day. The double movement of the clock in each day is a gross misrepresentation of the natural rotation that causes day and night. The calibration of the year into 365 days is a serious issue that should be looked into in the days ahead. A complete revolution which is a year takes 360 days and each month has an equal duration of 30 days. This shows that a year should be 360 days with 12 equal months of 30 days each.
As I mark my birth anniversary in this 12th year of the new millennium, I offer my deepest appreciation to God for the protection and all the many blessings. I am highly indebted to my dear father and mother for their love and efforts. I lack works to thank my brothers and sisters. I have been heavily blessed by my dear wife and we are both indebted to raising the children that God has entrusted in our care. I have a huge community of colleagues, friends on facebook and face to face, staff and many distinguished VIPs around the world. I am shocked by the messages and support that I have received from all around the world. I am particularly honored by the colleagues who joined me in putting a call across to my parents to thank them.
Finally, to all who may be the first child of their parents, do not ignore the fact that your birth anniversary is also your parent’s date. On the date I was born, the couple who gave birth to me became parents. To this end, I have declared that July 13 is not only my birth date but My Parents Date. It was on that date that they graduated into the glorious realm of parenthood and obtained their Parent Degree after the bachelor and couple degree. I hope that others may return the glory of their birth to their parents too. Since God is the parent of all parents, it is my belief that July 13 is My God’s Date as the Greatest Grandest Parent. Join me in thanking all those who have contributed to my being alive until this date and day. May God bless July 13, bless our world and bless our dear nation of Nigeria. To my birth place of Olachor, Okpoma Yala, may that little community be blessed forever! I wish that all people come to the realization that human life begins before the date of birth and that we should commemorate our birth date and work toward harmonizing the day of birth with the date of birth anniversary
