The CareerTheCareer

I went to Lagos in 1991, shortly after my service. In the east we didn't know much about these professional exams; it was when I got to Lagos that I got to know. When I realised I was having difficulty getting a job, I bought the ICAN form in 1991.

I had that ICAN form until 1996, when I ran into the partner of Ijeoma and Ijeoma. They came to audit one of the small places I worked. You know the way it is with auditors, people are always running away from them. But I happened to be the one who was willing to help, again in the bid to give service. I would help them do some calculation, help them get what they needed.

So one of those days the partner asked me: have you ever considered doing ICAN? I said yes, I have bought this ICAN form for almost six years now. He said, what was the problem? I said the challenge is that I don't know anybody in Lagos, any accounting firm, that will sign the form.

Mr Ijeoma said: no, my firm will do it for you. Just go and process the form. And immediately, again, the ability to take a decision; I moved. I registered for the foundation exam for the first time in 1996, and Ijeoma and Ijeoma signed my form. Do you know that they continued signing my form until 1998, when I qualified?

That really shaped my life. I could probably have carried that form until only God knows when I would run into somebody ready to sign it.

I still remember my first day at work, in Gulf Bank, in September 1999. That was shortly after I qualified as a chartered accountant.

When I qualified, the mentor who signed off my ICAN form all through the time I wrote the exam told me that the problem I was going to have was lack of experience. Of course I didn't have banking experience. I didn't have auditing experience. I had also not worked in an accounting firm. He told me they wouldn't mind giving me a reference if I needed it.

So when I attended the Gulf Bank interview, I passed the first stage, and the final stage was to see the MD. When I saw the MD one on one, he asked me: do you have banking experience? In my mind I was trying to ruffle it and say yes. But this is where all these values I have learned over the years as a child came into play. Something quickly told me: so what if I say yes, I try to wiggle it, and then he asks me a technical question? I won't be able to answer it, and that will even be worse.

So I simply told him no. He said, okay, have you worked in an auditing firm before? I said no. Have you worked in an accounting firm before? I said no. He said: so what do you know? Honestly, I will never forget that. So what do you know?

I said, well sir, I may not have the practical experience, but I have the theoretical knowledge. I read political science, and I am a chartered accountant, so I have a broader perspective to issues. And I said, in any case sir, with all due respect, nobody is ever really taught how to count money in the school. Honestly, I didn't know how that statement came to me.

Two weeks later I got a call from the HR that I had been successful, I should come and pick my employment letter. When I went there, the HR was asking me: so do you know the MD before? I said no. As a matter of fact, I don't know anybody in Gulf Bank. He said the committee had recommended me for a starting level, the banking executive. But when they took it to the MD to sign off, the MD said they should start me off as an assistant manager.

My first day at work I came with a lot of excitement. One was that when I saw my pay slip, my salary then was ninety thousand. I almost collapsed, because I was coming from a background of five thousand naira per month. Of course, then money had value. One of the things that came to my mind was: my mum will be happy, and I will be able to take better care of my siblings. At that point the three of them had also moved on, and they were in the university.

It was a mixed feeling. A lot of excitement, but I was also a little bit nervous about the people I was going to meet, who would be my supervisor, my superiors. And considering the fact that I lacked the practical knowledge. Yes, I read the accounting all at a go and got it, but in terms of practical experience I didn't have it.

My immediate boss was, would I say, a little bit mischievous. When I was introduced to him and he asked what my level was, I said I was an assistant manager. Incidentally, he too was an assistant manager. I think that was where my drama started. When he gave me assignments, of course I didn't have that experience, so the tendency was to keep asking questions. And he would tell me: are you not an assistant manager? You go figure it out.

My first one month was really very tough, because he wasn't cooperative. His answer was always: are you not an assistant manager? I realised that me being an assistant manager, he felt perhaps threatened. But I honestly ignored him and went all in to learn, to ask questions. I made a friend there who was also ready to help and put me through.

There was something they called proof of account. I found it a little bit difficult grasping that, and my immediate superior was not forthcoming. He kept threatening me that they had assigned a branch to me, and if anything happened to that branch I was going to go in for it. So I remember one day I got home, and I cried. I cried so much. I just told God: please help me.

And I also remember that that night I told God one thing: that anybody that I have the privilege of coming across, I will teach the person. I won't hoard knowledge. I guess my prayer paid off, because a couple of days after, something I had struggled over for one month, I was able to grasp it.

When I got it, I was sent to the Abuja branch for an audit investigation. Me, that was a new staff, was able to track a fraud that was committed about three years ago. And guess who was overseeing the branch at that time? My immediate boss.

I came back, I wrote that report. Everybody was shocked, because they kind of assumed that I hadn't found my feet yet, but I was able to get that. Somehow we were able to recover the money, and the money was much, because as at that time we are talking about three hundred thousand.

Honestly, that gave me the confidence to push in, and to as much as possible go all out to learn outside my department, which was internal audit.

The most difficult period of my career was when my bank, Gulf Bank, got liquidated. This was the bank that gave me the opportunity to start off my professional career as a banker, and at a managerial level. So it was very personal to me.

The banks were to recapitalise in 2005, and we couldn't make that recapitalisation, and we were scheduled for liquidation. In December 2005 people were asked to leave the bank. But interestingly, in that December 2005, three people were promoted in the bank, and I was one of the three. By about the third week of December almost everybody was asked to go. The three of us remained.

When the NDIC took over in January, I was among the ones retained. I was retained to oversee the northern region, so that if they had any question I could provide those information.

Gulf Bank being liquidated was a huge blow. But another challenge was that I didn't have savings in any other bank. I was saving in Gulf Bank. And I didn't take any loan. So when Gulf Bank went under, I could see the money I have in the bank, but I couldn't get it. That was also a big lesson learned.

From January 2006, when NDIC took over, I earned salary as a branch manager. I was there up until August 2007, when I left to join Federal Mortgage Bank. And going from the learnings of the Gulf Bank liquidation, I told myself that any next organisation I get into, if they have opportunity for staff loan, I am going to take all the loan possible. That is exactly what I did. I joined Federal Mortgage Bank in August. By September I had done my National Housing Fund mortgage loan, and there were a couple of staff loans available. Honestly, I took all of them.

The issue here, I must clear, is not just taking loan, but you must be able to invest that loan properly. That loan must be able to yield return. That is the only way it can make sense.

One of the hardest professional decisions I had to make was to stand by a decision I believed was right, even when it was unpopular, or when it meant disappointing people I respected.

I had to balance choosing my principle over popularity, over making people I respected happy. I can reasonably say that the people I worked with in FMBN would attest to that, even in meetings. I am grateful to God that He has given me wisdom to sometimes know how to present these things without being disrespectful.

Putting the organisation above personal relationships. Learning that professional responsibility sometimes requires that I separate friendship from official duty. My dad also did a lot of that with me. Sometimes my dad would punish me irrespective of the fact that I am his favourite, and he would tell me the reason why. At home my children too know that if rules are set and you go against that rule, there are consequences, there are sanctions, and Mommy must enforce those sanctions.

One of the things I try to do is first of all to have a discussion. From the discussion I document that, and then I nicely try to put my position across.

But I tell you, it is not an easy thing. As a leader you must take those difficult decisions. You can't run away from it. You can't shy away from that responsibility. I am living with the consequences of certain actions and decisions that I made in the course of my career. For a couple of them it may not go well with the seniors and the powers that be, but that is what it is. And we were able to push through, really, to the glory of God.