“I grew up in Ibadan in the early 80s, I grew up in an effective communal setting of Moniya. I couldn’t misbehave as I wanted to because it was an ‘all-eyes-on-me’ setting because my dad was a church leader at First Baptist Church, Alade, Moniya. I couldn’t behave anyhow because there were church members everywhere. At the Old Ojoo market/motorpark, we used to sell things to all these Mallams in 9/11 trucks That’s what we used to call those trucks back then. We would run after those trucks to make sales.
Back then, Ojoo express-road end was notorious for accidents. Hardly would there be a week without an accident along Ojoo road. I will bring my bread to Ojoo, here. Atimes to Sasha market, Onidundun, Akinyele, Iware market etc My hawking headquarters was Moniya abattoir/motorpark where I sold my puff-puff, iced & satchet water & eja-dindin-olororo. I had my wooden stand(show glass) and wrote my name on it ‘Tayo’. Economic challenges pushed me to hawk things. Do you think it is fun to be chasing trucks trying to sell things? Or do you think hawking is a hubby? There’s no parent that would love to see their children hawking on the road.
Every parent desires to treat their kids well and satisfy them with all they can ask for but when the economic realities of the home become harsh, then survival becomes the only thing that matters. When you have to survive and contribute your quota to the family purse, you just have to rise to the occasion. That was it. So from age 4-5, I had begun to get exposed to this life. Back then, when I was so young, there was an older woman I used to follow to hawk around with. Her name was Iya Nuure. She was selling ready-made clothes so, I will carry bread on my head and follow her. We will go together
When I grew older, I began to do my hawking by myself and then, I began to show my younger ones the way. Combining hawking and schooling was fun, I didn’t see it as hard work or anything. And because I had begun from a really young age, and I did it every day. It had become a part and parcel of me. Eventually, things began to pick up for us, dad left his store-man job at IITA and got a job in a bank. But the hawking did not stop. The principle of contributing your quota to the family remained.
Sharply after school, I will carry bread and go sell. The first dozen of loaves sold belongs to Mama Tayo and then you sharply collect another dozen, the proceeds from that second dozen, Mama Tayo will give you a “cut” from it. That became my first contact with business and I give that early informal business lessons credit to Mama Tayo. I became a hustler from a very young age.
I began school at Islamic Mission Primary School 1 Moniya. From there, I went to Community High School, Otun Agabakin for my Junior Secondary School. It was a village school. I used to trek to school for about 40 mins. Back then, B.C.O.S used to read their first news in English and Yoruba by 6:30am. As they are preparing to read the news, I am also set. 6:45am, I head out to school. The trekking begins. That was my life for 3 years. Then I moved to Abadina College U.I for my Senior Secondary School. While I was in Abadina, I continued to hawk o. It was towards the start of my WAEC Exams that my father compelled me to stop hawking. When my WAEC result came out in 1993, I didn’t pass my Maths and English. So, I took the GCE that same year. The result came out in January, I made my Mathematics but still I didn’t pass English.
In short, I was a VIP student.
At Ado-Odo, I was on the farm. I was banned from watching TV on the farm. We put on the generator at 7pm. All I did was manage the farm. The farm further prepared me for hard work. The man gave me an advice I will never forget in life. He said to me ‘as you are moving up in life, carry your younger ones along so that they will not become a liability to you’. The man had so much influence on my life at that point of my life. They took care of me like I was their own son. They kept good money with me and I never abused the trust they had in me. When I eventually wrote my WAEC exams, it was a walk-over for me!
From Mr. Odusan, I learned that in life, you have to be self-sufficient. Salary is a disease, no one can really pay you your worth. If you are being paid fat salary, believe me, you only being paid a fifth of what you bring to the table for the organization. It was on his farm that I developed an interest in farming (piggery, poultry, fishery, goat & cattle rearing, bees rearing, snailery etc and on his farm I learned a lot. I learned to repair the generators, he fixed his own cars himself. I learned about farm management and farm-related things.
Interestingly & regrettably, I have not set my eyes on that family since 1995 but we have reestablished contact last year!
Through my highs and lows in life while growing up, I was never deprived of good things. My father gave me his affordable best. As long as he could afford it, he gave me. I got admitted into a College of Education. I also got admission into the Polytechnic of Ibadan. My admission into UI was delayed so I decided to study Accountancy at The Polytechnic, Ibadan in 1995 for my ND, ended in 1998. Then, I went back for my HND in 1999 and I graduated in 2001.
Life in The Polytechnic, Ibadan was more stable. It was a pretty normal life. I lived a balanced life on campus. It was all about my academics and the Baptist Students Fellowship also shaped my life. By then, I wasn’t hawking anymore but a little farming. My uncles got a parcel of land they weren’t using it so I turned it to my to farmland on weekends, semester breaks or whenever the school was shut down, I will be on my farm, working.
After my NYSC I moved to Lagos. Lagos is another chapter altogether but esentially, I had to adapt. The hustling life which I had lived from my childhood days helped me to adapt when I left Ibadan and moved to Lagos. If I could survive without TV at Ado-Odo, if I could survive in Toungo town, Adamawa State without light for the one year of NYSC, Lagos was not going to hold me down. All my growing up experiences in life had crystalized into self-discipline for me and that helped me pushed through the Lagos life.
In 2004, I began running my ICAN program, it was worse. For ICAN, I would resume at WYSE classes at 6-9pm on Fridays, 7am to 9pm on Saturdays and repeat same on Sunday till 9pm. In fact, as exams drew closer, we began to have midweek daily lectures from 5pm to 9pm. Those days at ICAN was so hectic for me and it cost me dearly. It cost me the girl I was dating at the time. I never had time for her at that period of my life and she didn’t understand.
After 2004 baptism of fire where I failed all my papers, I stopped writing ICAN. At that time, I wasn’t all mind and soul prepared so I left it for a while then in 2008, I returned to ICAN and by 2010, I passed my exams and qualified as a Chartered Accountant. All through those 2 years I had no social life, no church n family events o. There was paper called Management Accounting which I had earlier failed it 4 times, that means 2 years. May-November, May-November, I failed the same paper.
One day, I told my wife that even only one person would qualify in Nigeria as a chartered accountant, it would be me. The failure turned out to be a preparation ground for my final exam in Strategic Financial Management which is a paper lots of people fail but for me, I made it once. I was conferred as Fellow of ICAN this year (like SAN in law practice) If you are not working in a practising firm it will take like 5 years but if you work elsewhere, it will take you ten years before you can obtain your Fellowship certification by ICAN. As at today (both living and dead) I don’t think Nigeria has up to 50,000 chartered accountants inclusive of fellows of ICAN who are not up to 15,000. I don’t even think we’re up to 45, 000.
With an irresistible drive to own my own business, I registered my company in 2015 and on May 29 2015, I obtained my licence to practise after 2 years of processing it. Being a Fellow of ICAN is the pinnacle of the Accounting profession and I have become a fellow and I am still in my early 40s.
In 2010, I got my Masters from the University of Ibadan. My Masters was part-time. Lectures were always Fridays and Saturdays. All through the time I was running my Masters degree program, I had no social life too. My eyes were on the prize. Self-discipline, determination and a whole lot of hard work have guided me all through the journey of my life so far and even till tomorrow. That’s my story and it’s still ongoing cos I strongly believe in that German proverb that says “Impossibility exist in dictionary of fools”.
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