₦airaland Forum

heendrix:
Delusional thinking

Southwest , northwest and north east is all we need

To win

We already have in our kitty

Truthisunique2:
But why are you crying now

It's like heaven don shatter for una end

Kwanwaso have selected pastor because heaven go really fall in 2023

The pastor he selected nah guy man

AfonjaEmir:
Freedom?.....

whereas your brothers are smashing windscreens and stealing Phones/bags and valuables from taxpayers from

Okokomaiko to AJah??

Even the American High Comission issuesd a travel advisory against travelling to Most SW states..But NO SE state was mentioned.

Aint you ashamed??

In your Lagos can you conveniently walk the streets of your Hood anyhow??..Be truthful.

Your "Portable" campaign died" totally. Atleast Davido is not a Drug induced musician that drops of the stage constantly.

Ipobians can never be free anywhere they are terrorist

Senator Tinubu, Accountant from a major tribe in the South, Former Governor of the 5th Largest Economy in Africa . Senator kashim Shettima, Agricultural Economist, Banker from the Minority tribe in the North. Former Governor of the most resilient state in Nigeria that refused to bow to terror against all odds, building monumental educational infrastructures......


Democracy is all about freedom

AfonjaEmir:
I See only Brown roofs and people that appreciate a tout as their hero.

I heard that Davido is causing Problems because he is loved by Many.

Now i ask why will people celebrate this thing?..

Better than supporting a terrorist organization

You can’t even work free in your land on Monday

Yet you come to where you have freedom and be misbehaving

StrongAlphMale:
Edo State has nothing to do with ipob man! Try get sense and stop being insane!

Our vote over here belongs to peter Obi. The drug dealer can get his from his fellow prison inmates!!

Ipobians are known for taking people land by force

StrongAlphMale:
Your opinion though and it's your fundamental human right bro.

However, as for me and my household including millions of Nigerians we have decided that it is Peter Obi we want and will massively vote for him come 2023!

Ipobians

Now you can refer to us as Nigeria not zoo anymore?

Ipobians are known terrorist organization

Prince111111:
what are you even saying??

That Peter obi is sponsor of ipob

StrongAlphMale:
Tinubu: You will labor to death.

Peter Obi: There is dignity in labor, if you show us hate, we will shower you with love.

Use your head my brother, Tinubu is always known as a tout, a vagabond and a notorious agbero the above statement of his justifies everything!

Get your PVC and vote massively for peter Obi come 2023!

We are going real tribbbbbbbbbbbbbal this time

Nah Tinubu we go vote

Maxymilliano:
He's working for his paycheck, but Davido' presence in same State will always eclipse Portable anytime any day

It’s about the main voters

The voters are the locals

Zazooh is local, real and raw who are the real voters

While Davido appeals to the online, Twitter and social media voters. Who are not the real voters

Richardonald:
Who knows how much Dem give am

At least the guyman don cash out

Zaazuh crooner, Portable Omoolalomi storms Osogbo, state capital of Osun to Solicit votes for Governor Adegboyega Oyetola re-election bid.

Asiwaju bola Ahmed Tinubu and his running mate at the airport today enroute osun for the governorship mega rally

Balkan:
nice photoshop

Ipobians believes nothing if not obi lies

cybersoldiers:
You lost again.

We expected him to fall into that trap and he did.

Then stop making noise

Let’s meet at the poll

omenka:
Sweet.

While Pandora ipOBI bandits are like...

This is one of the funniest pics I’ve ever seen

DontGiveUpYet:
If he like make he shake Prophet Muhammad, Obi all the way.

Obi will only leads Ipobians

VoteObi2023:
Your lies are dead on arrival.

That Sarrki is now a Peter OBI campaigner. Try another lies

God forbids

Nigeria Vice President 2023

Tinubu is the President

If you want to wail add the remaining month in president Buhari government to another 8years of Bola Ahmed Tinubu

President joe Biden and kashim Shetima in a warm handshake

Fahdiga:
Story for the gods

The wailing continues

Sorry I can’t help you

This is TINUBU'S NYSC Certificate as submitted to INEC, his University Certificate is also attached for your perusal and wailings

Elrufai is my number 1

Shetima 2

That’s all

1979 presidential report sheet

donjazet:
Propaganda!!!!
Sarrki, stay one place, no dey confuse the thunder.

You come to nairaland and you're a jagabandit. You go to twitter and form an OBIdient! Which one are you?

God forbid

Firstly am not on Twitter

I will never support a liar like obi

You can read the continuation on Ugo egbujo wall

This is magnificent

THIS TINUBU INTERVIEW IS A MASTERSTROKE‼️

Q: Were you tempted to stay back in the US after your studies?

A: To be honest with you, yes. I was lucky when I got to Chicago State University. I entered the university with honours from the Richard Daley College, because I got credit in majority of the Accounting courses.

After the first term, I was one of the candidates on the Dean’s list and my professor, Joe Jesse, commended me for my hard work, class participation and brilliance. He said that I would be lucky if I could keep my activities and brilliant results up till the end of the term. He didn’t say more or in what form the luck would manifest.

At the end of the term, and still on the Dean’s list, Professor Jesse came around to inform me that he would employ me to manage the Accounting laboratory for the institution. He gave the letter of employment to the dean of the faculty. The following week, I was called upon to take up employment as a tutor in the institution because I was very good at Mathematics and Accounting. I met Tunde Badejo in the school; he was a year ahead of me. But I told him (we took a bet) that we would graduate the same year and he didn’t believe. Later, when I was given a scholarship to become a tutor, I took the letter to Tunde Badejo and said: ‘See, the school is paying my tuition.’ He was amazed. That was how I became a tutor, with my tuition being paid. Tunde Badejo majored in Mathematics, and having been challenged, his performance got better the following semester and he also became a Maths tutor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. I was challenged and severely under pressure to keep up the grade as each semester rolled by, because if my grades should drop I would lose the scholarship. It was quite challenging and in the end, I graduated top of my class and I was recruited as an Accounting major. There were big accounting firms then. Touche was number nine. I was recruited. And I still got other job offers. Then there were eight big accounting firms in the United States, including Arthur Andersen , Arthur Young, Ernst and Whinney, Peat Marwick and Mitchell, Deloitte and others. Out of the big eight, five of them offered me jobs and that was school recruitment–right on the campus.

I was on the Dean’s list; I was in line for the award for the overall best counting student as well as that of the university scholar’s award. With that, the big firms would continue to woo you. Despite the five job offers, I was equally offered employment by IBM and others. Professor Jesse called me and advised that I should not be arrogant. He asked that I remove my name from the career placement centre because, according to him, the more they saw my grades, the more I would be sought after. He said that might hinder other accounting graduates from being recruited and that the faculty wanted as many accounting graduates as possible to be recruited by the big companies. So I went and removed it. Usually, there was a benchmark for recruitments by the big professional accounting firms and they didn’t go beneath that. I got an offer of $20,000, with travelling allowances and all that. It was big money for me at the time.

But when Arthur Young saw the money I was offered, they offered an additional $3,000. My adviser told me to consider an offer that would make me function effectively in my country, particularly given that the country is blessed with crude oil. I wondered what I would be coming back to do. The career placement officer called me again and asked me what I wanted to do. I said they just spoke to me from my department.

Unlike what happens here, universities in America prepare the students for the future; how to dress, how to face job interviews. The third day after that, Deloitte, Haskins and Sells, now Deloitte and Touche Consulting Group, gave me another offer. They said they were not just going to hire me, but develop me. They asked me to take the salary I was being offered or forget about the job. I went back to Professor Jesse and said: ‘Look at what these people are offering, I would rather go to Arthur Andersen because they were offering to pay more’. But he said that I should not. He said he had always advised me that my career and professional development were more important. He said Delloite had clients like General Motors, Procter and Gamble, National Oil and worked with Aramco Exxon, etc. He said I should consider that my country has crude oil and I might want to return someday. He said I should consider a firm with clients in anufacturing and oil sectors than Arthur Andersen, which only dealt with financial institutions and banks.

I took to his advice. I resumed work at Deloitte training school in June 1979. By April 1979, when I was graduating, I had gotten my future charted. And that was the greatest thing I achieved in America.

Tunde Badejo was still looking for a job. As a honours student, I was there at the high table with the Dean, President of the college and so on, while the rest of the graduands were on the lower platform. So, when they called my friend, Tunde Badejo’s name, he refused to get up because they mispronounced his name and called him ‘Tunde Badeho’. He refused to get up. I was laughing at him from the high table and was saying: ‘You see, I told you we would graduate at the same time.’ I later stood from where I was seated and whispered to the event handler that his name is Badejo and not Badeho. It was not until they called the name correctly that he stood up.

Q: Why did you opt to study Accounting?

A: Sincerely, it was accidental. It was the university placement. I was good in Mathematics and business courses. In fact, if I were to choose a career for myself, I would have chosen marketing. I know Tunde was placed in the Mathematics department also by the university. I came in with A grades and I had nothing less than A+ in Accounting and Statistics.

Q: How did you get into Mobil?

At Deloitte and Touche, I chose to travel more than 80 per cent of my working years there. And that is because if a staff chose to travel, he would make more money because he would get travel allowances. That got me into National Oil, which became the Joint Venture Partner of Aramco Oil in Saudi Arabia, which is like the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. We had gone there to set up their accounting and auditing system. It was while on that service that I got my financial break. When I returned to the United States, my employers gave me a huge bonus, which instantly turned me into a millionaire.

Q: How much was that?

A: The bonus was $850,000, before taxes. My salaries were also being paid into the bank and I was not touching them. At the time, my salary deposits in the bank had risen to about $1.8 million.

Q: You didn’t freak out?

A: No. This is because I had a strong grasp of financial matters. I was happy. I bought a house from the money and invested the rest in the US. I was living well. I was living in one of the most affluent neighbourhoods in the south of Chicago.

Q: Chicago had the notoriety of being a mafia city. How did you survive there?

A: Chicago was a very dangerous place then, if you didn’t know where to go and how to move. I wouldn’t want to mention some people I knew, whose careers were ruined and got lost in the process. I could still remember some of my colleagues, who did very well. One of them is Kunle Adedayo, whose wife, Pamela, operates the Tastee Fried Chicken. We were there together. Pamela had been a good cook since then. She used to cook for us.

My school, Richard Daley College, was located in an area noted for racism. Though there were other colleges I could go, I was determined to go there and succeed. The school was academically rigorous and maintained high discipline. Of course, the story has been told severally of the area where Martin Luther King was chased out and shot at. Blacks dreaded the area. Chicago was a windy, cold place. I was able to capitalise on it for academic success and achievement. Though the minimum requirement was 12 credits, I registered for extra course work. I was not getting a dime from Nigeria any longer because my tuition fee was already paid for, and whatever money I realised was meant to cushion the effect of my house rent. Winter time was the busiest time for me and Tunde Badejo, who I was sharing an apartment with.

Since I lost the earlier job at the construction site, I didn’t like security or doorman jobs anymore. I was a very neat guy and was always well-dressed at the place where I was working as a dishwasher in a Holiday Inn. I also got a job for Bolaji Agaba there. In the hotel, I was able to keep warm. And I was later given a room service job because I was very diligent in my previous work. That was acknowledged by those who would come to check on us where we washed the dishes.

Room service is very good; you get nice tips! I did all of that and didn’t take a penny from anybody in Nigeria to go to school in Chicago. Not a dime! I was a self-educated person and I achieved the best in that respect.

Q: Who were the white and African-Americans you interacted with at school and after?

A: Danny Kay Davies, now a Congressman; Jesse Jackson, Costello Joe, one of the most successful financial consultants; Richard Daley III, a stockbroker who became the mayor of Chicago and whose father the school was named after; Louis Farrakhan, Muhammad Ali, etc. There were too many of them.

Q: How did you get into Mobil?

A: At the National Oil, where we set up the accounting system and at Aramco, I was head of an assignment to liquidate the Chicago Savings and Loans Bank. The assignment was meant to take me to different places, so as to gain exposure to financial services. It is usually a hostile environment when a company is under receivership and is going into liquidation. But I managed the assignment very well. A member of Deloitte’s management, who was a principal partner on the assignment, was very happy.

At the end of that assignment, I was recalled to the National Oil, which had a joint venture with other oil companies. The United States government had a 300-page new leasing legislation at the time. This is one moment of my life I can never forget. The leasing regulation was a subject of tax implication and analysis, and as an auditing firm, we had to interpret the new leasing legislation for compliance. And that was necessary before the client could sign the balance sheet.

It was a tough debate. The managers would sit; we had to make presentations and contributions. My colleagues and I did two aspects of the lease and I happened to be right. When the partners and all of them came and they did the computation, it gave the company an additional opportunity to wiggle and improve its bottom line. So one of National Oil’s assistant controllers left there to work at Mobil. On getting there, he began to persuade me to come over to Mobil.

The period coincided with my vacation in Nigeria and during that time, the late Bade Ojora and other people I knew were in Mobil. They saw me in Lagos and we discussed generally. At the time, I met someone who was in the finance department at my uncle’s place and the man thought I was a wizard when we were talking.

I later went to Ibadan to see an uncle of mine. But before then, my return ticket had been stolen in Lagos. I had a credit card. I was lamenting the loss, when Uncle Bade said he would help in getting me a passport. Then he asked if I would work for Mobil, but I said I was not ready to stay in Nigeria because I was very successful and earning a good salary. He asked me to leave my telephone number so he could get in touch with me afterwards.

The professional career placement centres, which we called head hunters, had placed my curriculum vitae in other companies. They would continue to pursue you, asking whether you wanted to change your job. I was invited by General Telephone and Electronics, GTE, Corporation and they offered a salary that was 32 per cent higher than what I was earning at Deloitte. I went there and was made an assistant manager, but MacGross didn’t leave me alone, asking why I elected to work for a telephone and electronics company. He said: ‘You will be discriminated against there; I know that firm.’ But I didn’t listen to him. I was chasing the title of manager. My career was blossoming. It was great to have a complimentary card carrying the title, manager. When the time came for a review, they promoted someone whom I trained to the position of manager, while I was left the way I was. I resigned that very day. That was when I decided that one day, I would return to my country.

Q: What year was that?

A: That was in 1985/1986. I was determined to return to Nigeria someday. I contemplated returning to Deloitte and at the same time coming back to Nigeria. I was discriminated against. I quit GTE. I decided to go back to Deloitte. While I was still contemplating, Deloitte was relocating from New York and I looked forward to how I would be given extra allowances and bonuses.

At that time also, Mobil was recruiting for its Corporate Audit Department in the United Kingdom office. I went there and I got the offer. The rest is history.

Q: Was Bade Ojora in Mobil at that time?

A: He was still in Mobil. I don’t want to go through what I did when I was in the Corporate Office in London. I was a corporate auditor, but I was a whiz-kid, an assertive one, highly professional. I was always in suspenders and all that. I came on assignment to audit Mobil Nigeria.

Q: Were you recruited abroad and sent here?

A: No. I was recruited in the UK. That was Mobil Foreign; it is completely different from Nigerian operation. They have the audit right, the corporate audit regulation to audit Nigeria. I came and they said they needed an auditor in Nigeria. I went through the process.

Solomon Oladunni was the manager in charge of administration. He, Bade Ojora and Adesanya persuaded me to take the job. The title I was looking for was audit manager. They said I did not have any experience in Nigeria. I faced another level of discrimination. I was given an offer they knew I would reject, but I was determined to stay. The financial controller, a white man, called me to his office to say :”the people there didn’t want you; your own countrymen!’ He added: ‘Whatever they give you, take it, I’m here.’ I was shocked.

At the time, there was a kind of connection between the director of finance and one guy. They were both from Shagamu. And as it played out, I was only made an auditor because they said I didn’t have a Nigerian experience.

Q: But you rose to become the treasurer…

A: I rose to become the general auditor there.
The audit manager, an Australian, was about leaving for his country and he told me that I was badly needed, particularly because I am a Nigerian. He said: “With this resume, you are so rich, you have experience. I know what Alphonso Olusanya, the financial controller, was trying to do.” He added that the other person they wanted to bring in has only local experience (I don’t want to mention his name because he is my friend).

Q: And the money was not bad, but only the title…

A: The money was not bad. I took the offer to work in Mobil because I was tired of the discrimination I suffered overseas and had made up my mind that I would not work for any other company but an American company. I was encouraged to join their team and I met Oladunni, Pius Akinyelure, all of them. The whiteman told me to just come over and prove myself and that I would “get there”. He had been the supervisor of the guy blocking me overseas. And when the whiteman came to Nigeria, they did not give him the title, too. He said: ‘Here, I am financial adviser; I don’t care what title they give me, I am getting my salary and I have my responsibilities to New York. Don’t worry.”

Q: Apart from this initial discrimination that you confronted, what other challenges did you face?

A: The system was poor. I met a very disorganized work environment here. I really did a lot to prove myself. I faced a lot of challenges, but my training and my background from the United States helped my career. I wrote so many audit queries and reports.

Q: We learnt that you wrote one that caused an earthquake!

A: There were so many of them. I wrote one on Bob Eriksson, who was the Chairman/Managing Director. He was weak in his corporate control of the finances of Mobil and I boldly wrote the report based on that. And here was the Chairman/Managing Director, who was affected by the report. Everybody raised an eyebrow. But I emphasised that I was an independent auditor. I said: ‘This is my report, this is my resignation letter.’ I sent a copy of the report to the head office in New York. I wanted to strengthen my independence and professionalism.

The third day, a signal came from New York. The managing director was to be recalled and the corporate audit manager was on his way to check the report. When he came, I had my audit file. All the findings in the report and my recommendations were accepted. They recalled the MD/Chairman and he was demoted. The company rejected my letter of resignation and promoted me general auditor.

Q: How long did it take you to become general auditor?

A: It was less than two years. I don’t want to brag about these things, but I ended up bossing the man who interviewed me. The man they brought in to block me was sent to Houston. Luckily, I was doing very well. We were at the Bookshop House on Broad Street then. My career was blossoming.

I wrote another audit report, Financial Management and the Treasury Activities. I think Ibrahim Babangida was in power then. Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP, was on then and things were very difficult. I wrote and explained what we should do to strenghten the financial base and treasury activities of the company. It was a 28-page report. Akinyelure is still alive to attest to what I am saying.

that I could implement the report. They said they could not but accept the recommendations.

I (Bank of Credit, Commerce and Industry) then – the bank that went under – and I was the only treasurer that didn’t lose money. I was a whiz-kid and I am proud of that.
s that devaluation was coming and it was going to affect the budget for the building. We took the bill of quantities and gave the best financial projection that was possible, pre-purchased all the items that were needed to build. Nearly 40 per cent of that building was financed when the exchange rate was one Naira to one Dollar. We purchased additional materials, including steel and cement. Whatever I tell you was in the bill of quantities. It started at N4 to $1, if you looked at foreign exchange then. It would not have been possible. Then, at the next fortnightly bidding, the exchange rate shot up to N16 to $1 and that could have adversely affected the project. In fact, if we did not pre-purchase the building materials, it would not have been possible. The NNPC building got stagnated. We finished the building on time without as much as two per cent variation, and that was how we got so much credit for financial engineering.

Q:

We should all eschew politics of bitterness by all means

Ipobians

Boko haram

And oduduwa agitators are all threats to the global world

LeoDeKing:
Nothing like contract documents for the cleaners actually doing the cleaning job. The job is outsourced to professionals who now in turn go to street to pick the cleaners. At that level, it is just verbal agreement.

That’s the contract she was referring to that she handles for her mama

Beremx:
don’t mind them. Ndi ara

Ipobians are ungrateful people

Ipobians are ingrates

They have opened the eyes of their host communities to who they are

Nobody gives them that free hand again coz of their ungrateful attitude and hatred

LeoDeKing:
Contract involving buying of 3 brooms and 4 mopping sticks for cleaning canteen have nothing to do with letter headed. The application for the fund is done internally using internal memo.

Letter Headed is used only when it leaves the organisation to a different organisation.

You don forget say Ipobians are terrorist

They are liars

That’s the trait you see in Peter obi